As AI capabilities rapidly advance, law firms face a critical question: what standards should AI meet before it can be trusted with substantive legal work? Traditional benchmarks and product demonstrations often fail to reflect the complexity, nuance, and risk considerations of real-world legal practice.

In this session, attendees will explore how to build their own “AI Bar Exam” to evaluate legal AI solutions consistently and objectively – and leverage it as a firm differentiator. They will learn how to assess legal reasoning, reliability, autonomy, precedent awareness, and workflow performance, while operating within acceptable risk thresholds and supporting professional and ethical obligations. Participants will leave with a practical framework for measuring AI capabilities, identifying potential gaps, and making more informed adoption decisions as the market continues to evolve.

Every firm investing in AI runs into the same constraint, which is people. The work is changing faster than job descriptions, training programs and career paths can keep up with.

Tom Trujillo and Aubrey Bishai came to this work from opposite directions. Tom is Chief Innovation and AI Officer at McGuireWoods, having previously held senior legal and operations positions at Ford, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Aubrey is Chief Innovation Officer at Vinson & Elkins, where she has spent more than 15 years and built her career through marketing, business development and firm technology.

In this session they share what they have learned building and leading teams through the change.

As the technology sprints ahead, which skills matter most today and which will matter in 2027?
What do you look for beyond the resume, when curiosity and adaptability are harder to screen for than credentials?
When do you recruit for a role, and when do you develop someone already in the building?
How do you keep the good ones in a market where everyone is hiring?

Bring your own hiring and retention challenges. This is built as a working conversation, with time set aside for questions from the room.

An IP enforcement case study in quality, quantity, and measurable business value

Law firms are rapidly adopting AI productivity tools, but is faster document drafting and research enough to demonstrate meaningful ROI to clients? The next frontier is building AI-powered, practice-specific workflows tailored to individual client needs, combining proprietary data, legal expertise, multimodal AI, and intelligent agents to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Using intellectual property enforcement as a case study, this session explores how AI can transform a traditionally labor-intensive process into a continuously operating, intelligence-driven workflow. The approach combines specialized data sources, computer vision to identify potential product and packaging infringements, and agentic AI to navigate complex information sources, evaluate business rules, gather evidence, prioritize cases, and prepare enforcement notices for attorney review and approval. The result is a new operating model where lawyers spend less time on repetitive investigative work and more time exercising legal judgment, advising clients, and managing consequential enforcement decisions.

Scott, Arup, and Catherine will explore how firms can measure success through the quality of findings, volume of matters processed, speed of enforcement, and economic value delivered to clients.

The Central Message: The future of legal AI is not simply making lawyers more productive. It is creating differentiated, data-powered legal services that solve client problems, demonstrate ROI, and build enduring client relationships.

Corporate clients have stopped asking whether their firms use AI and started asking them to prove how. AI is showing up in outside counsel guidelines, security questionnaires now ask about model providers, subprocessors, retention and training data, and the partner who signs the response is rarely the partner who understands it. Meanwhile the first law firms have begun certifying to ISO/IEC 42001, and while the SOC 2 criteria themselves haven't changed, what auditors test in an AI-enabled environment has.

This session looks at AI governance from the outside in: what a sophisticated client will accept as evidence versus what gets sent back, which attestation actually answers the question being asked, how an auditor distinguishes a control that operates from a policy that merely exists, and what certification realistically costs a firm in time, money and partner attention.

After four years of law firm AI adoption, clients are losing their patience. From closed-door GC roundtables to quotes in the Financial Times, buyers of high-end legal services are now saying openly that the service they get from their outside counsel hasn’t changed. Not cheaper, not better, not different.

Applying perspectives from the client’s side of the table, this session answers three questions the industry has been avoiding:

Where did four years of AI investment go, and who is paying for it now that AI is priced by the question?
Why have the largest clients stopped waiting for firms to prove ROI?
What happens when a client runs the same build-or-buy analysis on its law firm that the firm has spent four years running on AI vendors?

Leave with the argument you’ll need for the next client AI questionnaire, the firmwide AI committee meeting, and the partner who asks what all of this has done for clients.

Many law firms have invested in AI technology, yet adoption remains inconsistent and the full value of these investments often goes unrealized. The challenge is no longer simply providing access to AI tools—it's creating an environment where lawyers are confident, capable, and motivated to integrate them into their daily practice. True success comes from moving beyond adoption and toward enablement, where AI becomes a trusted part of legal workflows rather than an optional experiment.

This session will examine the leadership strategies required to drive meaningful change within law firms. Attendees will explore why lawyers resist new technology, how to address concerns surrounding AI's impact on their roles, and how education, communication, and practical training can transform skepticism into confidence. Learn how to develop a change management strategy that empowers lawyers to maximize AI's potential, improve productivity, and deliver greater value to clients while strengthening the firm's long-term competitive advantage.

Successful AI adoption is not driven by technology alone, it is built by the right people, working together with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and objectives. As AI becomes embedded across every function of the modern law firm, firms need a strategic organizational model that combines governance, innovation, technical expertise, and end-user enablement.

This session will explore how leading firms are building multidisciplinary AI teams that transform AI from a collection of tools into a coordinated, firm-wide capability.

Attendees will learn how to structure an effective AI organization around three complementary pillars: AI Counseling, AI Testing, and AI Production. The discussion will examine how each team contributes unique expertise while operating under a unified strategy.

Panelists will share best practices for defining team responsibilities, establishing communication frameworks, avoiding duplication of effort, and ensuring every AI initiative is aligned with firm objectives. Whether your firm is launching its first AI committee or expanding an existing AI function, this session will provide a practical blueprint for building an AI organization that drives innovation, governance, and measurable business outcomes.

As AI becomes an integral part of legal service delivery, law firms must demonstrate not only operational efficiencies but also measurable business value. This session will explore how firms can evaluate the economic impact of AI investments by identifying meaningful performance metrics, quantifying productivity gains, and connecting AI initiatives to profitability, client service, and long-term strategic goals.

Beyond internal performance, firms must also understand how AI influences client expectations and purchasing decisions. Panelists will discuss how clients perceive AI-enabled legal services, when and how to communicate the role of AI in legal matters, and whether AI should influence alternative fee arrangements and pricing models. Attendees will gain practical strategies for balancing transparency, innovation, and value while strengthening client relationships and positioning their firms for the next generation of legal service delivery.

As AI becomes embedded in the daily operations of law firms, the most successful implementations will not be defined by the sophistication of the technology alone, but by how effectively it complements the people using it. While AI can automate repetitive tasks and enhance decision-making, the human element remains essential for applying legal judgment, building client relationships, and ensuring trust. Creating an effective partnership between lawyers and AI requires a deliberate focus on user experience, workflow integration, and thoughtful product design.

This session will examine how law firms can evaluate and implement AI tools that are built around the needs of their professionals rather than forcing users to adapt to the technology. Panelists will discuss the principles of human-centered AI, the importance of intuitive product design, and how understanding end-user behavior leads to higher adoption, greater productivity, and stronger business outcomes. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for selecting and deploying AI solutions that create a seamless and effective relationship between humans and machines.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way law firms approach litigation, reshaping how litigators prepare cases, analyze evidence, develop legal strategies, and deliver value to clients. Just two years ago, AI adoption in litigation was relatively limited, with many practitioners cautiously exploring its potential. Today, firms are increasingly leveraging a diverse range of AI-powered tools to support more structured, data-driven approaches to litigation, streamline workflows, and enhance strategic decision-making. This session will explore how AI adoption has evolved, how litigators are integrating multiple tools into their practices, and how these technologies are changing the way litigation teams work.

Looking ahead, where will AI take litigation over the next 12 months? This discussion will examine emerging capabilities, anticipated developments, and opportunities for law firms to move beyond isolated AI applications toward more integrated, strategic litigation workflows. Attendees will gain insight into how firms can prepare for the next phase of AI adoption, identify opportunities to improve litigation outcomes, and balance technological innovation with professional judgment, accuracy, and client expectations.

As generative AI becomes embedded in legal practice, the role of Knowledge Management is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. Knowledge managers are no longer simply responsible for organizing precedents and maintaining repositories, they are becoming strategic enablers of AI adoption, ensuring that the firm's knowledge is structured, accessible, and optimized to produce accurate, reliable, and valuable AI-generated results.

This session will explore how Knowledge Management teams can evolve their practices to support AI-powered legal work while maintaining governance, quality, and consistency across the organization.

Attendees will examine how knowledge managers can develop standardized processes, curate AI-ready content, and educate attorneys on effective prompting and responsible AI use.

The discussion will also focus on creating scalable frameworks that simplify legal workflows, improve attorney productivity, and increase confidence in AI-generated outputs. Learn how leading firms are redefining the Knowledge Management function from information steward to AI strategist, positioning KM professionals as essential drivers of innovation, adoption, and long-term competitive advantage.

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how law firms deliver value to clients. By reducing the time lawyers spend gathering, organizing, and analyzing information, AI creates greater capacity for the work clients value most: strategic judgment, practical advice, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. But the opportunity extends well beyond making existing legal work faster. AI is enabling firms to rethink how legal services are delivered, and what services they can offer in the first place.

This session will explore how law firms can translate AI-driven efficiency into meaningful client value and new opportunities for growth. From large-scale document review and portfolio-wide contract analysis to helping clients interpret and act on their own data, AI is making new forms of legal service increasingly viable.

The discussion will examine how firms can move beyond simply using AI to reduce hours and instead leverage its capabilities to strengthen client relationships, expand service offerings, and redefine what clients can expect from their legal partners.

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging trend, it is reshaping the business of law. As firms accelerate technology adoption, leadership teams are challenged to make informed decisions about where to invest, how to maximize value, and how to align innovation with broader business objectives.

This session will examine the strategic choices firms are making to improve operational performance, enhance client relationships, and create sustainable competitive advantages in an increasingly technology-driven legal market.

Bringing together industry leaders, this discussion will explore the priorities shaping the future of law firms, from immediate initiatives that will deliver results over the coming months to long-term strategies that will define success over the next several years.

Panelists will share perspectives on building and retaining talent, managing organizational change without overwhelming employees, evaluating the broader impact of AI adoption, including sustainability considerations, and developing leadership strategies that enable firms to remain agile as technology continues to evolve. Attendees will leave with a practical roadmap for making strategic AI decisions that support growth, resilience, and long-term business success.

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