There has been a raft of North American law firm and vendor senior appointments over the past couple of weeks, including a new global AI head at K&L Gates, a new CIO at Morgan Lewis, and a new role for legal operations head Mary O’Carroll.
At K&L Gates, the firm has appointed Jake Bernstein to the newly created role of global AI and innovation partner. In this role, we’re told that Bernstein will lead the firm’s AI strategy, governance, and innovation operations, including AI platform selection, workflow development, and data and knowledge management. The role formalises global responsibility for the firm’s AI strategy and innovation roadmap under a single practicing partner leader.
Bernstein will also serve as co-chair of the firm’s AI Solutions Group, alongside Shiau Yen Chin-Dennis, who leads firmwide leadership coordination and AI-driven revenue growth, and Guillermo Christensen, who is responsible for global policy, cybersecurity, and geopolitical considerations.
“Jake’s appointment reflects a deliberate choice about how this firm leads in AI: with a practicing partner, accountable for outcomes, working in close partnership with our technology and security functions,” said Stacy Ackermann, global managing partner of K&L Gates. She added: “Agentic AI is moving from concept to deployment in months, not years. The market demands a partner driving this work who is in the practice every day, who understands what clients need, and who can move at the pace this moment requires.”
K&L Gates earned ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification in March and has deployed Legora, across all practices and offices. The firm’s broader stack includes Vincent, Westlaw Advance, Relativity Analytics, CoCounsel, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Elsewhere Morgan Lewis has appointed Michael Rinehart as chief information officer – he joined from Dechert, where he also served as CIO. Prior to Dechert, he served as chief information officer at Fox Rothschild.
In his role at Morgan Lewis, Rinehart will lead the firm’s global information technology function, working in close coordination with chief AI & knowledge management officer Colleen Nihill and her team.
Tony Licata, chief operating officer of Morgan Lewis, said that Rinehart brings a strong track record of leading enterprise technology functions in complex professional services organizations, with particular depth in infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Elsewhere, leading North American anti-trust law firm Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider has appointed Rachael Philbin as chief innovation officer. She joins from Proskauer Rose, where she served as innovation & transformation officer. Based in Axinn’s New York office, Philbin will lead the firm’s AI and legal technology initiatives as well as knowledge management efforts.
“As Axinn continues to grow, we are making deliberate investments in the capabilities that enable our lawyers to deliver service and results at the highest level in our clients’ complex matters,” said Jeny Maier, managing partner of Axinn. “Rachael brings deep experience and a sophisticated perspective on how to embed these new capabilities in ways that are both intentional and aligned with clients’ evolving expectations.”
Philbin began her career as a litigator at Jones Day before transitioning into legal technology at McDermott Will & Emery (now McDermott Will & Schulte). She went on to build and lead innovation functions at Perkins Coie and, most recently, Proskauer.
Developed by Eversheds Sutherland, Konexo provides the full range of alternative legal and consulting services to support in-house legal and compliance teams.
Konexo’s LMS offering helps in-house teams manage routine and high-volume legal work, including contract reviews and regulatory or business change projects, and other workload pressures through a combination of purpose-built emerging technology, process improvement and delivery centers. This approach helps legal teams shift away from traditional, labor-intensive models toward scalable, repeatable operations.
Tsushima will work directly with in-house legal leaders to design and continuously improve managed services program.
“As a former general counsel, I understand the daily challenges that corporate legal departments face. Having spent more than a decade building AI-enabled solutions and managed services programs for enterprise clients, I know what it takes to transform that work at scale,” said Tsushima.
Tsushima was most recently principal of managed solutions and AI programs at Epiq.
Evans said: “I joined Harvey to build security that matches the trust legal professionals demand—and to help define what secure AI should look like for this industry going forward.”
O’Carroll said: “Throughout my career, in-house legal departments have been at the center of my work, and the opportunity to serve them in a more focused, hands-on way is what drew me to LECG. What sets the firm apart is the caliber of the team and the intentionality of our approach – delivering a bespoke, high-touch experience and being selective so every engagement gets our full commitment. My work across investors, technology founders, law firms, and in-house teams has given me a broad perspective on where the industry is heading, and I’m excited to bring those insights to clients navigating rapid transformation.”
“Grant’s recent work advising AmLaw 100 and 200 firms gives him a firsthand understanding of what firms are navigating right now,” said Adam Ryan, chief product officer at Litera. “His perspective will be invaluable as we build the next generation of firm intelligence with AI that drives both efficiency and growth on a single platform, embedded in the tools lawyers already use.”
