At the end of October, Legal IT Insider celebrated our milestone 30th anniversary, bringing together around 120 legal tech and knowledge leaders for an afternoon of knowledge sharing and networking, aided by a couple of Catchbox throw around microphones that caused very apt hilarity and chaos.
On each of the tables were print outs of Charles Christian’s original Orange Rag newsletter from October 1995, which you can read here: https://legaltechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/insiderarchieve/1995/lti001.pdf
The print outs were, of course, in orange, because the newsletter was circulated on orange paper so that it couldn’t be photocopied and shared.
The afternoon featured a series of TalkingTech LIVE sessions, designed as interactive knowledge exchanges rather than traditional panels, tackling some of the most pressing issues facing the legal sector today.
Security and Risk in a GenAI World
This session kicked off with Andrew Powell, CIO of Macfarlanes, interviewing his digital twin live on stage to demonstrate the growing risks presented by deepfake technology. Powell deliberately went for the most basic package and spent little time training his twin, who he gave instructions to such as ‘be very enthusiastic about any reference to Caroline Hill and the Orange Rag,’ much to our delight.
Powell was able to demonstrate his digital twin recommending that £2m be transferred to Caroline Hill, and saying that no authentication was required because he was clearly the CIO and was in a rush.
While there was some fun to be had around the twin’s questionable accent, this was a very sobering demonstration of what firms are facing as this technology continues to improve, with Paul Martin from Ricoh observing after the event that it was “a scary reminder of the journey we are all on with AI and how we must be cautious.” Lauren Edwards from RPC questioned: “Should we start considering how to MFA people on video calls?”
Our other panellists were Maguelonne de Brugiere from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Lee Killner from Howes Percival, and Anthony Rokis from Thomson Reuters. We discussed how firms need to be much more systematic in the way that they are addressing risk. At HSFK, de Brugiere is leading an exercise to embed the firm’s AI risk register into its enterprise risk register; mapping risk at an organisational level broken down by the likes of people risk, financial risk, technology risk and security risk and appointing people as owners of that risk. De Brugiere noted: “What’s been really effective in carrying out the process is understanding not just what the risks are, but how we’re managing it and how we need to manage it going forward.”
Controls operate at multiple different levels, so you might have a control around hallucination and failure to verify output, which sits across different teams. From a show of hands in the audience, very few firms are undertaking quite such a thorough exercise.
Killner described Howes Percival’s as being early on in its adoption of AI and he and the team have been looking at standard governance frameworks such as ISO42001, which sets a global benchmark for implementing and using AI systems. Interestingly, Thomson Reuters CoCounsel achieved ISO42001 certification this year – a significant achievement – but the panel discussed whether this accreditation is right for law firms given how prescriptive it is. The NIST cybersecurity framework may be more appropriate right now, providing as it does a taxonomy of cybersecurity outcomes that can help organisation manage risk and fill a regulatory gap. Certainly, insurers have come alive to AI risk and are asking firms how they are managing the risk, and aligning with a framework may be one way to demonstrate compliance.
Rokis described some of Thomson Reuters’ own internal efforts this year, including creating an AI proxy that feeds to public models but controls the data that is uploaded, meaning no sensitive company data is shared, and the company can track and monitor what employees are using. If employees want to use ChatGPT, they can do so from Thomson Reuters’ network via the proxy, with Rokis observing: “You can allow innovation to occur while still making sure that lawyers aren’t sending sensitive data out.”
The audience discussed where they are on the innovation-risk adoption curve and what challenges they are facing. This was a brilliant conversation and we’re grateful to each of our panellists for sharing their insights.
Data Management: All that is AI is not Gold
In this panel, expertly chaired by Travers Smith’s chief technology officer Oliver Bethell, panellists explored the realities of AI tools, the importance of curated knowledge, and the true value of data in legal practice.
The panel, made up of Judy Mackenzie Stuart from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Kerri Dearing from NetDocuments, and Jeremy Morris from Clyde & Co, looked at where AI has actually changed outcomes for clients; how clean data really needs to be for AI to add value; how you measure ROI; how you decide what tools stay – and what goes; what the difference is between efficiency and quality in AI assisted research; and whether law firms are selling AI tools or services.
Starting off with a question for the audience over who has retired a GenAI system and why, few raised their hand, but one audience member explained they now have a system (Legora) that has much broader capability and has superseded their existing technology.
In terms of AI changing outcomes for clients, it was interesting to hear Mackenzie Stuart say that adoption of AI tools is high at BCLP and technology is in many cases improving the quality of work, not just the speed. Mackenzie Stuart emphasised the growing importance of curated knowledge.
In terms of ROI, the panel covered the challenges around pricing, with Dearing observing: “The ROI discussion has moved on. AI is now a cost of doing business. The real issue is pricing adjustment.”
On a people level, AI adoption may be regarded as on the way to becoming table stakes but finding people and teams to support it is currently hard, Morris said.
Is DMS the Future?
This Chatham House session delved into the future of legal content management, featuring breakout sessions and interactive audience participation, led by our fabulous chair Tony McKenna, former president of ILTA, and panellists Kerry Angel from Harbottle & Lewis; Orlando Conetta from Pinsent Masons; Abby Ewen from Browne Jacobson; and Rav Ubhi from Hogan Lovells.
The panel set the scene for break out discussions around three core topics: where’s your head at? (a play on a question that comes up in Love Island, of course); is your DMS adding value or getting in the way of your lawyers; and if you could click your fingers, what would your DMS utopia look like?
There was a clear recognition that DMS is at a crossroads, with firms seeking systems that genuinely support the integrated future of legal work and platforms and at a price they can afford. Currently, many firms regard DMS as an overpriced utility, and there is a clear sense that cost is out of kilter with value.
Commenting on the session after the event, Sharmila Rangasamy, senior knowledge manager at Harneys, said: “The historic benefits of DMS such as version control, centralised storage, and auditability, remain highly valued and relevant for law firms.” But she added: “The legal sector is shifting towards embedding itself within broader platforms like Microsoft, moving beyond the DMS as a simple repository to a more proactive, service-oriented approach.”
There was much food for thought for attendees and vendors to take away from this session, and we’ll be doing a deeper dive with both over the course of the coming months.
Partnership with RSGI
The day was capped off by our announcement that Legal IT Insider has entered a major new partnership with RSGI, the renowned global legal intelligence and advisory agency that is perhaps best-known for its 20-year content and research partnership with the FT Innovative Lawyers programme. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for the legal sector, and over drinks we heard from RSGI’s founder Reena SenGupta about her memories of the very first Orange Rag newsletter, and interviewing Charles Christian while she worked at Chambers and Partners all those years ago.
For more on our collaboration see: https://legaltechnology.com/2025/11/03/legal-it-insider-and-rsgi-announce-strategic-partnership/
Thank you
This isn’t the Oscars, and we’ll keep it brief but we want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in our celebration, including the additional people who joined us for drinks in the evening.
Angel said: “I’m very proud to have been a part of Legal Insider’s 30th Anniversary conference. Not only was it great to come together in celebration, but it was a good opportunity to network with my peers, share some war stories and, more importantly, realise that we are not alone.
“Conferences like these give us the chance to reconnect, share experiences and work through real world ideas to continue to drive the legal tech world forward.”
At Legal IT Insider we put our audience at the heart of everything we do. We take our editorial obligations seriously and also welcome opportunities to have some fun. Our 30th celebration achieved both.
Sponsors and Support
The event was made possible by the generous support of headline sponsors NetDocuments and Thomson Reuters; platinum sponsors Quorum Cyber, iManage, LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions, and Box; gold sponsors Ricoh, Actionstep, Elite, Clio, Definely, and Aderant; lunch sponsor Denodo; coffee break sponsor Draftable; and photobooth sponsor BigHand.
Next year we will be running smaller scale TalkingTech Live sessions, so if you’re interested in finding out more you can fill in this form and we will contact you once we have more details.
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