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Legislation.com and Legaltech Information are proud to announce this 12 months’s winners for the Legalweek Leaders in Tech Legislation Awards, celebrating the achievements of regulation corporations, authorized departments, suppliers and ALSPs main the authorized occupation into the longer term by means of know-how and innovation.
On Monday evening, ALM kicked off Legalweek 2024 by internet hosting an awards ceremony to rejoice the fourth annual Legalweek Leaders in Tech Legislation Awards. These awards acknowledged essentially the most progressive achievements of the previous 12 months from in-house authorized departments, regulation corporations, and the tech supplier and repair associate neighborhood in 41 completely different classes.
This 12 months’s submissions have been essentially the most spectacular we’ve seen but. All our nominees, finalists and winners must be pleased with their accomplishments and counseled for the arduous work they’ve dedicated to pushing the authorized business into the longer term.
We additionally thank our exterior judging panel, in addition to the arduous work of numerous individuals behind the scenes who helped to make this 12 months’s awards potential.
We’re proud to current the 2024 winners of the Legalweek Leaders in Tech Legislation Awards under. Within the coming weeks, you’ll have the chance to learn extra about every of our winners in a sequence of Q&As.
We stay up for internet hosting these awards once more subsequent 12 months alongside ALM at Legalweek 2025, being held from in March in New York. Extra details about nominations for these awards will probably be forthcoming later this 12 months, and you may keep up-to-date with notifications through this hyperlink. When you’ve got any questions or options for a class we should always embrace, drop us a line at [email protected].
Excellent Achievement in Authorized Know-how
Winner: Lori Cohen & Gerard Buitrago, Greenberg Traurig

The Excellent Achievement in Authorized Know-how award was new this 12 months, and was not open for public submission. This award was created to acknowledge a really distinctive and trailblazing use of know-how within the observe of regulation. Lori Cohen is a profession trial litigator with a powerful observe document of 58 protection verdicts. In March 2022, with no warning, Lori misplaced her voice, and it has but to return. Whereas she continues to strive every thing potential to get it again, she additionally teamed up along with her longtime pal and trial technologist Gerard Buitrago (her “secret weapon”) to discover a answer that might finally get her again within the courtroom. Collectively, they discovered find out how to use synthetic intelligence to recreate Lori’s precise voice, permitting her to proceed pursuing the profession that she loves. I’ll go away it to Lori to say extra in her personal phrases.
Authorized Business Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
Winner: Tess Blair, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Like many younger litigation associates digging by means of bins of discovery within the early 2000s, Tess Blair thought, ‘there needs to be a greater manner.’ Not like many, although, she determined to do one thing about it. In 2004, she based Morgan Lewis’s eData observe that we simply heard about just a little bit in the past, and she or he led it for 19 years, till stepping down very lately. Whereas she was constructing and rising the eData Apply, Blair continued to run her personal observe as nation discovery counsel to a few of the world’s largest organizations.
Winner: Marla Crawford, Cimplifi
Marla Crawford could presently be in-house, however early in her profession she was one of many business’s first e-discovery legal professionals, having labored on the Enron litigation at Jones Day on behalf of Lehman Brothers. After 22 years as a discovery legal professional and early authorized know-how adopter at Jones Day, she went on to construct and handle the e-discovery program at Goldman Sachs, earlier than taking her present position as Basic Counsel of Cimplifi. Many in e-discovery confer with Marla by first identify solely, like Oprah or Madonna, and she or he’s formally gained awards for being “the lifetime of the occasion.”
Winner: Wendell Jisa, Reveal
Wendell Jisa began on the floor stage of the authorized business, delivering bins to regulation corporations throughout Chicago. From there, he launched into a private mission to disrupt an antiquated authorized market with know-how. Practically 15 years after founding his first firm, Reveal, in his hometown, he has grown it into a significant world enterprise.
Winner: Barry Solomon, Litera
Barry Solomon first realized the potential of know-how to enhance the effectivity of each the observe and enterprise of regulation whereas training regulation at Sidley Austin within the late 80s and early 90s, and was the primary lawyer to request and be issued a pc there. Earlier than assuming his present position at Litera, Solomon was the co-founder and chief of two completely different authorized tech firms—InterAction and Basis.
Winner: Carla Swansburg, ClearyX
Carla Swansburg has been a trailblazer in authorized know-how for over three many years. In 2021, she took on the position of CEO of a brand new, wholly owned subsidiary of Cleary Gottlieb, tasked with constructing and scaling a completely distant, tech-forward group centered on reimagining how authorized providers could be delivered by legal professionals situated throughout the globe to shoppers additionally situated throughout the globe.
In-Home Classes – Finalists
Greatest Use of Synthetic Intelligence: Ford Motor Firm
Ford Motor Firm has efficiently produced important productiveness good points whereas constructing the authorized ops perform on the fly from the bottom up, whereas persevering with to foster machine-learning functions, pioneering using gen AI in-house, establishing authorized expenditure dashboards, and growing superior predictive analytics platforms. The ensuing metrics point out important time and value financial savings and supply invaluable info to tell future success.
E-Discovery and Litigation Know-how: Uber Applied sciences, Inc.
With a lean, four-person in-house e-discovery group, Uber applied sciences has developed customized knowledge processing instruments in addition to proprietary options for the gathering, manufacturing, and safety of delicate knowledge from quite a few sources.
Innovator of the Yr (Particular person): Darth Ok. Vaughn, Ford Motor Firm, Workplace of the Basic Counsel
With a background as a profitable trial legal professional and a enterprise know-how guide, Darth Vaughn brings a novel perspective and expertise to his present in-house position in authorized ops and litigation. Previously 12 months, he has obtained continuous approval from management to broaden his group and be an early mover on implementing generative AI to determine finest authorized practices and create a strategic imaginative and prescient for the corporate.
Finalsists:
Jay Choi and the Patent Authorized Crew, Uber Applied sciences, Inc.
Mohammad Totonchian, Altus Group
Most Progressive Authorized Division of the Yr: Uber Applied sciences, Inc.
From negotiating strategic partnerships with key business gamers to counseling product, engineering and regulatory groups, Uber Applied sciences has needed to navigate novel pathways and, in some instances, develop new ones previously 12 months. The outcome was the profitable launch of autonomous automobiles to the general public, which concerned making use of subtle ML and AI to make real-time selections and establishing business requirements for client security with radically new know-how.
Finalist:
Most Progressive Authorized Operations Crew of the Yr: Ford Motor Firm
When Ford Motor Firm’s present Basic Counsel took the reins in 2021, he introduced an much more bold imaginative and prescient to an already progressive authorized ops observe. Previously 12 months, Ford has been pioneering using generative AI in-house. One 12 months into generative AI, the division has carried out 25 GenAI use instances, leading to early productiveness good points of over 30% throughout varied observe areas.
Finalist:
Legislation Agency Classes – Finalists
Greatest Use of Synthetic Intelligence: DLA Piper
In March 2023, DLA Piper considerably expanded its Synthetic Intelligence and Information Analytics observe, and now has 14 knowledge scientists and greater than 100 legal professionals, coverage specialists, and technologists globally who advise on AI adoption, testing shoppers’ AI for bias and compliance, create AI authorized and compliance tech for shoppers, and extra.
Finalists:
Cleary Gottlieb
Goodwin
Reed Smith
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Greatest Use of Rising Know-how (Non-AI): Munger, Tolles and Olson — Reanna Martinez
At Munger, Tolles and Olson, Reanna Martinez undertook a groundbreaking undertaking centered on leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Energy Platform, and Azure Information Lake to create a knowledge hub that effectively feeds info to downstream programs and permits customers to leverage shopper, matter, and other people knowledge successfully and develop tailor-made options and instruments to carry out higher authorized work.
Finalists:
Latham & Watkins – Decentralization Matrix
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
SixFifty, Powered by Wilson Sonsini
E-Discovery Know-how and Innovation: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
The eData observe at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius helped its legal professionals with time-consuming e-discovery duties by growing an eData Tech Stack made up of three instruments geared toward fixing discrete issues: a Search Time period Validator; a Microsoft Groups Chat Sorter; and a Coaching and Expertise-Evaluation Platform that gives custom-made e-discovery coaching for agency staff.
Finalists:
Arnold & Porter
King & Spalding – Rose J. Hunter Jones
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Reed Smith
Enabling Begin-Up Success: NEXT powered by Shulman Rogers
NEXT launched an initiative to assist entrepreneurs with a brand new, holistic strategy to facilitating entry to seed to Sequence A capital through a wide range of occasions and instruments, together with investor readiness options, pitch prep workshops, investor connections, investor showcase occasions and extra.
Finalists:
Goodwin
Latham & Watkins – Pre-Incorporation Questionnaire
ESG Enablement Via Know-how: Ropes & Grey
Ropes & Grey has been specializing in the realm of ESG for 3 years and lately developed a novel on-line interactive software that allows asset managers to successfully and effectively navigate the advanced internet of state and federal ESG legal guidelines particular to their business, enhancing compliance outcomes and decreasing attendant prices.
Finalist:
Improvements in Range and Inclusion: Baker McKenzie
For 3 years working, Baker McKenzie has hosted an eight-week Summer season Internship Program for undergraduate college students taken with enterprise growth, advertising and marketing or authorized careers and who search to create a extra inclusive authorized occupation. This 12 months’s internship program added a nonprofit factor by means of a partnership with The Middle on Gender Justice & Alternative at Georgetown Legislation.
Finalists:
Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC (“CSG Legislation”) – George Spadoro
Eversheds Sutherland
Improvements in Hybrid/Distant Work: Akin
Akin’s inner Staffing Hub program developed a role-based dashboard that gives visibility into the agency’s data-driven staffing course of geared toward guaranteeing equitable work allocation and optimum alignment of human capital to satisfy shopper wants.
Improvements in Data Administration: Fisher Phillips
The KM group at Fisher Phillips was instrumental within the early rollout of generative AI in authorized, helping Casetext develop and take a look at their Co-Counsel AI authorized assistant, after which changing into the primary agency on the planet to deploy it worldwide. Afterward they continued to evangelize for authorized gen AI and the way regulation corporations can use it responsibly for KM and thrive.
Finalists:
Fragomen
Morgan Lewis – ML Shopper Intel
Morgan Lewis – VizBridge
Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison
Improvements in Professional Bono: Reed Smith LLP
Reed Smith undertook an bold initiative to supply ladies refugees who’re at excessive threat of additional damage with end-to-end safety throughout profitable resettlement. At the side of the Canadian authorities, the Lamp Lifeboat Ladder program is offering a secure pathway to relocation in Canada for not less than 90 refugee households.
Finalists:
Baker McKenzie – Justice in Motion
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
SixFifty, Powered by Wilson Sonsini
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Innovators of the Yr – Legislation Agency (Particular person): Danielle Benecke – Baker McKenzie
Danielle Benecke based the Machine Studying observe at Baker McKenzie years earlier than generative AI turned widespread. Underneath her management, the agency turned the primary mover in capitalizing on AI and machine studying to revolutionize workflows and higher serve the agency’s shoppers. One among our judging panel merely stated, “She’s a celebrity!”
Finalists:
Jeremy Burdge – Hogan Lovells
Carmen Brun – Eversheds Sutherland
Rachelle Dubow – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
William Gaus – Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Ghaith Mahmood – Latham & Watkins
Regulatory, Governance and Compliance Know-how: Hogan Lovells
Hogan Lovells created a holistic info governance answer to deal with the challenges offered by exponential knowledge progress that securely shops important knowledge in categorized and accessible type, places automated triggers in place to purge knowledge, and permits for knowledge tagging.
Finalists:
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Eversheds Sutherland
Fragomen – Nomadic
Reed Smith – Gender-Affirming Care Tracker
Polsinelli On-line Options for Dwelling Care (POSH) – Angelo Spinola
Spencer Fane – Allen Darrah, CIO
Tech-Enabled Transactional Apply of the Yr: Orrick
Orrick reengineered the M&A transaction by launching a brand new course of and platform that options 14 interconnected tech instruments, new authorized roles, workflows and course of adjustments to assist M&A groups execute extra effectively, prioritize strategic points and arrange a profitable post-acquisition integration.
Finalists:
Kirkland & Ellis
Thompson Hine LLP
Supplier Classes – Finalists
Greatest Use of Synthetic Intelligence – E-Discovery & Litigation: Casetext
Casetext led the cost in making use of LLMs to substantive authorized work within the type of an AI assistant known as CoCounsel that replicated attorneys’ finest workflows in a dependable, scalable, safe and hallucination-free manner, due to early entry to OpenAI’s most superior fashions. One among our exterior judges famous that the breadth & scale of what Casetext achieved with a good deadline is spectacular
Finalists:
Altumatim
Clearbrief
Everlaw
Lex Machina
LexisNexis
Paxton AI
Relativity
Reveal
Greatest Use of Synthetic Intelligence – Contract, Doc & Mission Administration: NetDocuments
NetDocuments approached the event of AI capabilities not as a single answer or product, however a know-how that must be used to counterpoint your complete doc lifecycle and each single authorized workflow. The outcome was a collaboration with Microsoft and Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create an answer that may extract intelligence from a corporation’s whole corpus of paperwork.
Finalists:
Greatest Rising Know-how (Non-AI): CloudNine
CloudNine created a platform for managing trendy knowledge like textual content messages, chat, geolocation, social media, monetary transactions and each logged exercise on a tool, internet utility or pc, ingesting all kinds of knowledge and displaying it as one would see it on a cell system.
Finalists:
BARBRI, Inc.
Fulcrum GT – RAPIDx
UniCourt
Western Alliance Financial institution Digital Disbursements
Championing Range in Tech (Particular person): Catherine Krow, BigHand
After founding a ground-breaking cost-analytics firm, Catherine Krow now oversees DEI success at her present employer, implementing the info & value analytics platform they designed to assist regulation corporations remodel authorized billing knowledge into DEI success and discover extra equitable work allocation.
Finalist:
Johnathan Hill, Relativity
Information Privateness & Cybersecurity: HaystackID
HaystackID created an AI-enabled platform to establish greater than 140 numerous, internationally delicate knowledge sorts with a view to assist their globally dispersed shoppers classify and deal with their delicate knowledge extra successfully throughout lots of of engagements. Referred to as Shield Analytics AI for Relativity, the answer presents a delicate knowledge density rating to right away deal with essentially the most delicate paperwork inside a dataset.
E-Discovery Know-how: Relativity
To handle advanced challenges posed by the exponential progress of brief message knowledge, Relativity took a two-pronged strategy that concerned creating a very new, platform-agnostic brief message file format, together with an accompanying brief message answer to convey brief message knowledge into an e-discovery platform.
Finalists:
FTI Know-how
HaystackID
Web page Vault
UnitedLex
Enabling Entry to Justice: Relativity
In 2020, Relativity launched a program devoted to supporting organizations doing authorized work on behalf of worldwide marginalized communities by providing their product without spending a dime and pairing them with regulation corporations or different companions that present knowledge internet hosting, undertaking administration, assist, and coaching. The initiative is known as Justice for Change, and it continues to broaden to assist extra individuals across the globe.
Finalists:
Casetext
Clearbrief and Elder Legislation & Incapacity Rights Middle
descrybe.ai
Reveal
Enabling Hybrid/Distant Work: Maptician
Maptician developed an automatic and proprietary web protocol-based integration that delivers visibility into attorneys’ in-office presence to different staff, together with location knowledge on particular seat areas on a given day, permitting agency staff to maximise interplay on the times they’re within the workplace, and corporations to raised perceive workplace wants
Finalist:
Innovating Data Administration: eDiscovery Assistant
eDiscovery Assistant integrated generative AI to satisfy a long-time request of its customers: creating summaries of all 32,000+ selections in its case regulation database to give customers higher, sooner perception into instances with a view to assist meet brief briefing deadlines on key discovery points.
Finalists:
Innovation in Hiring, Staffing & Recruitment: Baretz+Brunelle – Expertise Intelligence & Analytics
Baretz + Brunelle created an alternate strategy to the lateral hiring course of that offers regulation corporations entry to studies based mostly on open-source and human intelligence on a candidate’s true market status, in addition to an outlined metric that higher permits corporations to make apples-to-apples comparisons of lateral candidates.
Finalists:
Lateral Hub / Summer season Affiliate Hub
TRU Staffing Companions, Inc.
Improvements in Contract Know-how: Luminance
Luminance labored with a California-based IT service administration firm to implement its AI-powered contract drafting and negotiation software for over 50 legal professionals unfold world wide, rising productiveness and effectivity throughout the corporate.
Finalists:
Evisort
LexisNexis
LinkSquares
Summize
Innovators of the Yr (Particular person): Jake Heller & Pablo Arredondo, Casetext
Bringing each authorized and technical expertise to the corporate they based greater than a decade in the past, Jake Heller and Pablo Arredondo got down to implement neural nets and LLMs in a manner that might have an precise impression on authorized work, biding their time earlier than leaping on the “AI hype prepare.” They’ve been known as a ten-year in a single day success story, and Heller has summarized the key to their success with a quote from Jay-Z: “The genius factor we did was, we didn’t hand over.”
Finalists:
Tim Parilla, LinkSquares
Vishal Rajpara, Casepoint
Basha Rubin & Mirra Levitt, Priori
Authorized Operations: Priori
This 12 months, Priori acknowledged that the authorized operations perform is extra necessary than ever to the authorized division. That’s why they opened up their world community of legal professionals, regulation corporations and ALSPs to authorized operations professionals for the primary time. By utilizing and increasing the infrastructure of their market, Priori efficiently piloted the flexibility to supply authorized operations initiatives on their platform earlier than making it a reside characteristic for all customers
Finalists:
Epiq
Fulcrum GT – RAPIDx
LexisNexis® CounselLink®
Thomson Reuters
Litigation Know-how Finalists: UnitedLex
UnitedLex integrated pattern-attribution know-how in a brand new digital litigation software that leverages knowledge and insights throughout a person’s litigation portfolio, permitting them to seize, consolidate, and reuse truth units and work product throughout litigation portfolios, figuring out patterns and insights from earlier selections to develop data-driven authorized methods.
Finalists:
Benchly
LexisNexis Lexis+® Pinpoint
Lighthouse
Trellis
M&A and Transaction Innovation: Lexis+ Settlement Evaluation
In September 2023, LexisNexis launched an analytics software that transforms the M&A timeline by leveraging proprietary AI know-how to scale back the handbook duties inherent in analyzing, composing, and negotiating authorized agreements, focusing first on inventory buy, asset buy and merger agreements.
Finalist:
New Legislation Firm of the Yr: New Period ADR
New Period ADR got down to repair a dispute decision system that was unnecessarily time-consuming and costly by constructing a platform that may minimize common dispute decision instances from lots of of days for small claims, or a number of years for multimillion-dollar litigation, to fewer than 100 days.
Finalists:
Lateral Hub / Summer season Affiliate Hub
Paxton AI
Priori
Apply Administration Innovation: UniCourt
In March 2023, UniCourt launched an API-first suite to automate the seize and supply of state and federal court docket knowledge for enterprise growth, litigation technique, expertise administration, docket administration, and different data-centric capabilities to interact new shoppers, develop present engagements, and ship higher litigation outcomes.
Finalists:
Fulcrum GT
Lawmatics Battle Checking
Society Tech: INform
ZenCase
Regulatory, Governance and Compliance Know-how: Winnow
Winnow developed a platform for monetary providers professionals to trace fast-moving state and federal compliance. Previously 12 months, they enhanced their protection to incorporate federal and banking protection, in addition to offering re-designed surveys and notifications.
Finalist:
Wolters Kluwer Authorized & Regulatory U.S. – VitalLaw®
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