Today's episode is the first in a three part series on the law firm business model, and how COVID-19 the recession and rising competition will cause it to rapidly change. Our guest today is someone who is uniquely qualified to talk about this subject. Meredith Williams range is the Chief Knowledge and client value officer at the preeminent law firm Sherman and Sterling. Her portfolio of functions at the firm is impressive. Her role spans technology, knowledge management, pricing, in generally ensuring that each representation the firm takes on is a win win for the client, and for the firm. In this episode, we talk about how Meredith got her start on the business side of law firms.

Today’s episode is with Eva Shang, CEO of Legalist, a tech-enabled litigation finance firm with 150 million dollars of assets under management. Legalist uses tech and sophisticated analytics to source and underwrite legal investments, mainly for small and medium size claims. In this episode, Eva talks about her entrepreneurial background as a Harvard dropout, first-time founder, and now a leader in a fascinating niche in the legal industry. We discuss the nuts and bolts of how litigation funding works, its sticky ethical questions, and its implications. Additionally, and in one of my favorite tangents so far on the podcasts, Eva I discuss how today’s lawyers in many ways resemble the grain millers of hundreds of years ago. To quote Eva: “In our current society, power has moved from those who process material goods, to those who process the contracts that govern them.” If you like our discussion, rate us on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening.

Today’s episode is with Ajay Agrawal, the co-founder of UnitedLex, one of the earliest global alternative legal services providers. He’s now the CEO of SirionLabs, a high tech contract management tool aimed at large companies. This episode is long. It’s long because when I tried to find less valuable content to cut, I completely failed. This is because Ajay is a fascinating, articulate business leader with unique perspectives on the legal industry. He got his start practicing law at Simpson Thacher in New York and later was a part of Jones Day’s expansion into India in the 90s and early 2000s. There, in India, he got a ringside view of a major global trend: outsourcing; in this case, outsourcing medium to high-sophistication legal work to indian attorneys. In this episode, Ajay does a great job of explaining complex business pain points and solutions. Additionally, his re-telling of specific moments in his entrepreneurial journey showcases critical moments where his ability to listen to clients, ask the right questions, and hustle, gave rise to high impact opportunities for Ajay and his company. If you like what you hear, rate us on Apple podcasts! Enjoy the episode.

In this episode, we chat with Bob Taylor, the Vice President and Senior Corporate Counsel of Legal Ideation & Transformation at Liberty Mutual Insurance. As a trailblazer in the field of corporate legal operations, Bob thinks in terms of systems, organizational efficiency, and core success metrics, which could be the saving grace of the legal industry entering as we enter a recession and uncertainty associated with the global pandemic.

Today we chat with Nikki Shaver, the managing director of Innovation and Knowledge at global law firm Paul Hastings and the founder of the global Legal Innovation Design group. Nikki shares about her journey from Europe to Australia to Canada and finally to the US, ultimately moving into the world of legal innovation and knowledge management and leading a KM team at Paul Hastings. Anand and Nikki discuss the principles of legal design, and why it's important to really understand the contours of a problem before jumping into a solution. Especially in a high stress, high tension environment, I think Nikki’s words on empathy, understanding and curiosity in a professional setting will resonate with you

Today we talk with Michael Rhodes, the Global Chair of Cooley’s internet and data privacy practice group. At Cooley, he has famously represented companies from Google, Facebook, and Zoom recently to mp3.com and eBay decades ago. In those suits, he grappled with some of the most cutting edge data privacy issues, from biometrics, to automated email scanning, to privacy in augmented reality. As an early startup attorney representing Silicon Valley’s most recognizable companies in their most high profile litigation, Michael has seen internet-based businesses develop from a niche group of startups to a powerhouse global industry.

Today we share our conversation with Judge Charles Clevert, a retired federal district court and bankruptcy court judge. Appointed at just 30 years of age, Judge Clevert was Wisconsin’s first African American federal judge. He now serves as a neutral with JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider.

In this episode recorded over 60 days into the pandemic shelter-in-place, we speak with Zach Abramowitz, who approaches the legal industry from his perspective as a journalist, lawyer, investor, entrepreneur, and all-around connector in the field. Zach and Anand talk about the concerns, ideas, and predictions we are hearing from all sides of legal including whether law firms can still justify spending millions on expensive skyscraper real estate while increasing numbers of attorneys will work from home, how technology adoption looks in periods of uncertainty and fear, and overlaps between data science in military and defense tech and legaltech.

Today we share a conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky, a preeminent constitutional law scholar, Supreme Court litigator, and Dean of Berkeley Law. In this episode, we talk to Erwin about several topics, including Berkeley Law’s response to the pandemic, his vision for innovative legal education, advice to new students and graduating 3Ls, and how he picks which cases he takes on pro bono, many of which he argues at the Supreme Court or Circuit Court level. Finally, he talks about new constitutional law issues arising out of the pandemic, and what key decisions we should watch for in this Supreme Court term.

Today’s conversation is with Robert (Bob) Owen, a tech-savvy veteran litigator and partner at top law firm Eversheds Sutherland. In this episode, Bob talks about the ambitious mandate his firm’s global co-chair of litigation provided him, namely to achieve “Legaltech supremacy” at Eversheds in two years. Bob shares details on how he’s meeting this goal, what pain points he’s solving at the firm, and how he views this as a golden age in legal tech.