LinkedIn has appropriately been going a bit mad today with the news that Reed Smith’s innovation hub manager and social media nethead Alex Smith is to join iManage RAVN to drive the vision and roadmap for the product from the client and market perspectives. He will be based in the company’s London office.
Smith, who spoke at #GlenLegal19 and now wishes he had patented the expression IA before AI, has helped Reed Smith to shape its approach to user-centric innovation across the London Innovation Hub programme.
He is a vocal champion on social media of the #bringbackboring campaign kickstarted by legal industry consultants Janders Dean, which has been critical of the media hype around the use of new technology, in particular AI.
“RAVN is on the cusp of explosive growth and we are delighted to have Alex join us at this vital juncture,” commented Nick Thomson, general manager, iManage RAVN. “Alex brings with him the right mix of technical knowledge, energy, collaboration skills and indeed the ‘right’ experience, all of which will play an instrumental role in enabling us to deliver against our vision. He is a great fit for our organisation.”
Prior to Reed Smith, Smith worked for 17 years at LexisNexis UK, where he led numerous projects to develop search, big data and artificial intelligence capabilities for the company. One of the very many comments on his new move on LinkedIn comes from Sarah Healey, account director at Thomson Reuters, who said: “Back into the depths of product design…good luck on this next chapter Alex.” A few people seem to be referring to Smith as Supremo, which sounds like the sort of nickname we tried to give ourselves at school but which never caught on.
“Data, if managed and delivered in the right way, has the capability to genuinely and materially change the way lawyers work,” said Smith, who we very much hope is celebrating in a bar at Lexpo. “RAVN is at a very exciting phase of its development and given the rapid advancement in artificial intelligence technology and a legal market that is hungry for insights from data, the platform’s potential is huge. I’m looking forward to delivering against RAVN’s vision. This move is an exciting opportunity for me and will take me back into the depths of commercial product design, artificial intelligence and breaking down the traditional barriers in the legal ecosystem – all areas that I’m extremely passionate about.”
