The FT Innovative Lawyers Summit last week promised to examine legal leadership when the rule book is being torn up and boy, did it deliver on that. It reminded us of why the practice of law exists, and the importance of standing up for what is right. As technologists it can be easy to focus purely on the day job, but every now and then, we need to remember why we’re doing it.
While the Summit was Chatham House, the agenda and speakers are public, and you can perhaps tell something of what was said from that. Neal Katyal from Milbank gave an opening keynote talk – Katyal successfully argued against sweeping global US tariffs, leading to a landmark decision from the Supreme Court that curbed presidential economic powers.
Katyal sat on a panel with, among others, Sara Albrecht, chairman and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center (see interview below), which filed the tariff case. The panel discussed ‘The Rule of Law Under Pressure: A Global Reckoning.’ How can we each do our bit to prevent the breakdown of the rule of law, the panel was asked? Perhaps if you are offered work that will erode the rule of law, don’t do it.
The Summit combined both rule of law and AI content. In conversations more familiar to this publication, a breakfast panel discussed how to grow AI tech adoption: celebrate the wins and spread innovation peer-to-peer, was one piece of advice. This concept of innovation coming from within, not from the top, is growing louder.
An interesting theme running through conversations throughout the day was law firm vulnerability in the face of growing in-house status and tech adoption. “If everyone has the same tools, that really throws up openness, trust and vulnerability that doesn’t often come up in that solicitor/client relationship,” said one private practice lawyer.
There also needs to be “brutal honesty about what will work and not work,” a further law firm panellist said. “We’re all here to do a job but we need to experiment and learn from each other.”
It was interesting to hear the tone from chief legal officers. “Our swim lane is now the pool,” one said. “So much new technology is suited to legal, and adoption can start from legal and spread out. In our company legal is far more advanced than anyone else, and we’re all really excited about it.”
At the end of the day, Reena Sengupta, founder of RSGI, which powers the FT Innovative Lawyers, unveiled a new FT listing called FT Law 50. You can see those listed here: https://www.ft.com/content/2531e887-ecec-43a3-a03e-dc15c87694bb?syn-25a6b1a6=1
We spoke with two of the individuals featured: Joy Heath Rush, CEO of The International Legal Technology Association, and Sara Albrecht, mentioned above, and you can watch those videos below.
