The Legal Ops Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Dee Venello is a senior operations professional at Commvault. She has implemented contracting systems and other legal technology in multiple organizations, carefully managing diverse stakeholders with a variety of interests and workflows. She also has experience in general business operations, providing her with insight into the issues and concerns faced by teams that the legal department supports.

A big thanks to LinkSquares for sponsoring this episode and for recommending Dee as a guest of the show. We discussed with Dee why LinkSquares was selected by two of her employers as the primary contracting solution for the organization.

We also discussed a range of related issues, including:

* The importance of CLM in general

* Why change management is vital in any technology implementation

* The value of cross-functional understanding and partnerships

* How CLM liberates data, and what to do with it

* Driving continuous improvement and "planning to plan"

LINKS

LinkSquares website: https://linksquares.com

Dee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-venello-74090a40/

Alex and Elliot chat about:

* how to craft an organizational AI policy

* a recent tribunal decision requiring Air Canada to honor a refund policy invented by its online chatbot

* recent articles on AI's impact on law firm billing and a potential shift towards value-based pricing

* another recent article on the need to balance AI's precision with human insight in the practice of law

A big thanks to LinkSquares for sponsoring this episode! Check out their website at: https://linksquares.com/

LINKS

Air Canada decision: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/air-canada-must-honor-refund-policy-invented-by-airlines-chatbot/

AI impact on billing - article 1: https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/ai-could-transform-law-firm-billing-beyond-recognition

AI impact on billing - article 2: https://www.legaldive.com/news/ai-use-cases-legal-ops-deloitte-blickstein-group-report/702436/

Balancing AI and human strengths in legal practice: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2024/02/12/the-future-of-tech-enabled-law-practice-balancing-ais-precision-with-human-insight/

Alex and Elliot discuss:

* Introduction to the Legal Ops Institute, essential learnings for legal changemakers brought to you by the podcast

* Thumbs up emoji used to accept a contract

* Generative AI could reduce law firm revenue by 23.5%

* 62% of legal professionals are not using AI

* 2023 Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (ALITA) Awards

LINKS

Legal Ops Institute: https://www.legalops.fm/institute

Thumbs up emoji: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/thumbs-up-emoji-can-represent-contract-acceptance-sask-court-finds-1.1941866

Generative AI reducing law firm revenue: https://www.geeklawblog.com/2023/08/generative-ai-could-reduce-law-firm-revenue-by-23-5.html

Legal professionals not using AI: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230727977407/en/%C2%A062-of-Legal-Professionals-Are-Not-Using-AI-%E2%80%94-And-Feel-The-Industry-Is-Not-Ready-For-The-Technology

2023 ALITA Awards: https://alita.legal/alita-awards-2023

Mike, Alex and Elliot discuss how to fund your legal operations journey along with your legal department more generally. Mike explains how to track incremental business demand, demonstrate absorption and work with the business to ensure that transformation activities are properly funded and supported. They also discuss the structure of the Legal Operations function at Gap Inc., how Mike became a board member of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium and why he went surfing after a 15 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney.

We all know the legal industry is changing; but who are the people leading the change and how are they doing it? Elliot and Alex set the scene and provide their thoughts on the state of the legal ops market.

Links Mentioned:
CLOC State of the Industry Survey 2019: https://bit.ly/2OTKsOA

CLOC State of the Industry Survey 2017: https://bit.ly/2uNV9vj

Alex and Elliot are joined by Tom Stephenson, host of the Dear Legal Ops podcast, to discuss:

* the evolution of legal operations

* career progression for legal ops professionals

* the intersection of tech, ops and people

* the strength of the legal ops community

LINKS

Tom Stephenson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tstephenson1

Dear Legal Ops podcast: https://www.dearlegalops.com/

Jenn McCarron is the Director of Legal Operations and Technology at Netflix, a board member of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and host of the CLOC Talk Podcast. If legal operations has rockstars, Jenn is undoubtedly one of them.

We covered lots of ground with Jenn, including:

* What legal innovation looks like at Netflix

* The vital importance of storytelling and communication

* Career paths for legal operations professionals

* Jenn's own career path from IT program management to legal operations director

* Whether or not legal design is really "a thing"

* Jenn's interest in music and its relevance to her legal operations job

LINKS

Jenn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennmccarron

In this Talking Tech episode Alex and Elliot speak with Jerry Ting, co-founder and CEO of Evisort. Evisort combines artificial intelligence, automation and deep integration to empower customers to transform their business with industry leading contract analytics and contract lifecycle management.

In addition to deep diving into Evisort's product, we discuss with Jerry the key to implementing CLM in a commercial context and how to get buy in for any complex change which affects stakeholders across the organisation.

LINKS

Evisort website: https://www.evisort.com/

Jerry Ting on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerryting

Alex and Elliot are joined by Kevin Clem, Chief Growth Officer at HBR Consulting, to discuss:

* Predictions about AI, data and the dominance of Microsoft's productivity suite

* HBR's "The Mingle" party at the recent CLOC Global Institute (with audio recorded live at the event)

A big thanks to HBR Consulting for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and for hosting The Mingle party. You can find more information about them here: https://www.hbrconsulting.com/

LINKS

Kevin Clem on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinclem

Want to know what it's like to attend the world's biggest legal operations conference? Or did you go and you're now keen to relive it? This is the episode for you!

The unofficial theme of this year's event was: artificial intelligence and its role in the legal industry. AI was discussed in almost every session and essentially every conversation over breakfast, lunch and networking drinks. And the consistent message is that AI is already having a real impact on the legal industry through a number of practical use cases and technologies.

In our interviews we covered AI from many angles, including how legal ops professionals are adopting it, how vendors are incorporating it into their products and how it will continue to affect the shape of the legal tech market.

A big thanks to Evisort for sponsoring this episode and for enabling us to bring this amazing content to you. In the episode you'll hear a number of interviews with their staff, customers and partners, all of whom gave valuable insights on topics at the heart of legal operations and technology (including artificial intelligence). Find out more about Evisort here: https://www.evisort.com/