In this 42nd episode of Charting Change in Legal, Caroline Hill, Editor and Publisher of Legal IT Insider, and I discussed the mid-year recap, selecting the proper AI tool, merger mania, and creating a competitive advantage in legal.

I spoke with Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon), President of the Society for Computers and Law and author of many notable books, including his most recent publication, How to Think About AI - A Guide for the Perplexed. We discussed strategies for balancing the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence, how technology can help legal professionals better serve their clients, and ways that leaders in the legal field should approach AI to drive their organizations forward.

I spoke with Subroto Mukerji, the CEO of Integreon, an alternative legal and global managed services provider. We discussed how generative AI is affecting the demand for legal services, the value of “AI fluency” in the legal field, and how the legal operations discipline is evolving as generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in legal workflows.

I spoke with Sonya Palmer, the Senior Vice President of Operations at Rankings.io, a marketing company for lawyers. We discussed how digital transformation is reshaping legal marketing in 2025, the types of marketing law firms should prioritize to stay competitive, and the key elements of a strong legal brand.

I spoke with Bjarne Tellmann, the founder of FjordStream Advisors, a boutique consultancy that provides advisory services and executive coaching to the legal industry. We discussed the most valuable areas of digital transformation for a law firm, how to build teams that will drive a legal organization into the future, and how legal professionals can articulate their value in an era of agentic AI and automation.

I spoke with Andy Seavers, the Co-Founder and CEO of Case Status, a client engagement platform focused on connecting consumer law firms with their clients. We discussed the importance of a new approach to client engagement for modern law firms, the ethical challenges associated with deploying legal technology, and how AI and data analytics are reshaping the practice of law.

I spoke with Will Seaton, the Chief Customer Officer at DraftWise, Dan Wallace, the Vice President of Sales for the North American Markets at Neota, and Laura Wenzel, the Global Marketing & Insights Director at iManage. The three companies are part of a consortium supporting a new report featuring the perspectives of 31 legal operations leaders, titled "Redefining Legal Operations to Adapt to Uncertainty and Change." We discussed the most compelling results, how legal operations teams are evolving, and the technology trends driving change in an uncertain era.

I spoke with Brandon D’Agostino, Vice President of Product at Cloudficient, a provider of information governance and e-discovery software. We discussed the rise of hyperlinked documents in e-discovery, the legal challenges of preserving and collecting hyperlinked files, and adapting ESI protocols to address hyperlinked files.