As a recognized authority in global compliance and the evolving landscape of legal technology, Desiree Sainthrope has a unique perspective on the forces shaping the industry. With a background in drafting and analyzing complex international agreements, she understands the critical intersection of legal practice, business operations, and technological innovation. We sat down with her to unpack the trends and triumphs celebrated by the upcoming Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards. Our conversation explored the distinct innovative pressures on law firms, corporate legal teams, and technology vendors, the profound impact of individual visionaries in driving institutional change, and the collaborative spirit required to transform the delivery of legal services. We also delved into the specific ways artificial intelligence is being leveraged across the ecosystem and what truly constitutes a lasting legacy in a field defined by constant disruption.
The Legalweek awards honor innovation across three distinct groups: law firms, legal departments, and technology providers. Why is this distinction crucial for understanding the legal tech landscape, and what unique challenges does each group face when trying to innovate? Please share an example for each.
That distinction is absolutely fundamental because it reflects the different ecosystems and pressures each group operates within. They aren’t just innovating for innovation’s sake; they’re solving profoundly different problems. Law firms, for instance, live and die by client service and efficiency. Their challenge is to invest in technology that directly enhances their legal work without disrupting the billable hour model that sustains them. You see this with a firm like Harrity & Harrity, a finalist for both “Best Custom Legal Technology” and “Best Use of AI.” They are likely building tools to streamline something specific, like patent prosecution, where the direct return on investment is clearer client value and a competitive edge.
In-house legal departments face an entirely different battle. They aren’t selling a service; they’re a cost center trying to prove their value and manage immense risk for the broader business. Their challenge is to innovate for operational excellence. Look at the finalists in the in-house categories, like Meta or Uber. They’re developing custom tools and leveraging AI not for a single case, but to manage a massive global portfolio of regulatory, compliance, and litigation matters. For them, successful innovation means reducing outside counsel spend and making the department run like a well-oiled machine.
Then you have the technology providers, like Relativity or Jus Mundi. Their challenge is scalability and market adoption. They can’t just build a solution for one firm’s niche problem; they have to create a product that is robust, secure, and valuable for hundreds or thousands of different customers. Their success is measured in market share and becoming an industry standard. The sheer number of finalists in provider categories like “Best Use of AI” shows you just how fierce that competition is.
The Monica Bay Women of Legal Tech Award recognizes women who have achieved notable success. Beyond celebrating individuals, what message does this award send about mentorship and leadership in the industry? Could you provide an example of how past honorees have actively fostered the next generation?
This award is particularly meaningful because it’s named for a pioneer, Monica Bay, who was known for “fostering an entire generation of legal tech professionals.” So, the award itself is a powerful statement that leadership in this industry isn’t just about individual success—it’s about building a legacy of empowerment. It sends the message that true influence comes from lifting others up, creating pathways, and ensuring the door is open for those who come after you. It’s a celebration of community-building in a field that can often feel fragmented.
When you see a list of winners from diverse corners of the industry—from law firms like Rachel Shield Williams at Sidley Austin to providers like Annie Lespérance at Jus Mundi and in-house leaders like Letitia Haynes-Frasier at Cox Media Group—it underscores that this spirit of mentorship is a universal hallmark of leadership. While the provided text doesn’t detail their specific mentorship activities, the spirit of the award implies that these winners are recognized not just for their personal accomplishments but for their role in nurturing talent. They are the ones who are likely championing junior colleagues, speaking at events to share their knowledge, and actively working to make the industry more inclusive. The award celebrates the act of creating a stronger, more connected professional ecosystem, which is exactly the legacy Monica Bay herself left behind.
Finalists for “Best Use of Artificial Intelligence” include law firms like Harrity & Harrity and providers such as Relativity. What are the key differences in how these groups are leveraging AI, and what specific metrics demonstrate a successful, high-impact implementation in a legal setting?
The key difference really comes down to application versus creation. Law firms like Harrity & Harrity or Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr are on the front lines, applying AI to solve very specific, tangible legal challenges. They are integrating AI into their daily workflows to attack a pain point, whether that’s accelerating document review in a massive e-discovery project, performing more accurate contract analysis, or finding new efficiencies in litigation strategy. For them, a successful implementation is measured by internal metrics: a quantifiable reduction in hours spent on a task, a dramatic decrease in human error, or the ability to offer a client a fixed-fee service that would have been impossible before. Success feels like winning a case faster or retaining a client because your process is simply better.
On the other hand, providers like Relativity, Epiq, or Luminance are the ones creating the AI engines that the law firms use. Their challenge is to build a platform that is powerful yet flexible enough to be deployed across hundreds of different legal matters and client environments. A successful implementation for them is measured by external market metrics: high user adoption rates, strong customer renewal rates, and becoming the go-to tool for a specific task, like e-discovery. When a firm’s litigation support team says, “We need to use Relativity for this,” that’s the ultimate sign of a provider’s high-impact success. They’ve built something that has become indispensable to the practice of law itself.
Awards celebrate both individuals, like the “Innovator of the Year” finalists, and entire firms or departments. How does an individual’s vision typically spark firm-wide change, and what organizational support is essential for transforming a single great idea into an adopted, successful technology?
It almost always starts with a single person—a champion who is feeling a particular pain point more acutely than anyone else. You can see this in the “Innovator of the Year” category, with individuals like Eric Rice from Latham & Watkins or Daniel Berman from Wood Smith Henning & Berman. These are likely the people who refuse to accept that “this is just the way it’s always been done.” Their vision is born from the friction of their daily work, whether in dealmaking, knowledge management, or litigation. They see a better way and have the tenacity to start evangelizing that idea.
But a great idea from one person is just a starting point. To transform that spark into a successful, firm-wide technology, a robust support structure is absolutely essential. First, you need executive buy-in. Someone in leadership has to see the vision and be willing to allocate a real budget and resources to it. Second, you need a dedicated team to manage the project, because the innovator can’t do it all while also practicing law. Finally, and this is often the hardest part, you need a strong change management strategy, which is why there’s an entire award category for “Change Management Leader.” People like Lorie Almon at Seyfarth Shaw or David Cunningham at Reed Smith are critical for overcoming the natural human resistance to new workflows. They ensure people are properly trained, understand the “why” behind the change, and feel supported through the transition. A firm that appears in both individual and firm-wide innovation categories, like Latham & Watkins, is a perfect example of this synergy at work.
Categories like “Most Innovative Law Firm/Client Tech Collaboration” highlight a unique type of partnership. What common operational challenges typically inspire these collaborations, and what does a successful outcome look like from both the law firm’s and the in-house client’s perspective?
These collaborations are almost always born out of a shared frustration with a high-volume, repetitive, and often costly legal process. The inspiration is often an in-house team, like the kind recognized at Capgemini or Corteva Agriscience, drowning in a particular type of work—be it immigration filings, contract reviews, or compliance checks. They feel the operational pain of inefficiency, lack of transparency, and unpredictable legal spend. They turn to their outside law firm, which is doing excellent legal work, but the process of delivering that work is clunky and opaque.
The process then becomes a true partnership. The client brings their deep understanding of the business need and the operational bottleneck, and the law firm, like Erickson Immigration Group or Honigman, brings its deep legal process expertise. Together, they map out the existing workflow, identify the friction points, and co-design a technology solution to streamline it. It’s an iterative loop of building, testing, and getting feedback.
A successful outcome looks different but is complementary for each side. For the in-house client, success is tangible: predictability in costs, real-time visibility into the status of their matters through a dashboard, and a significant reduction in the time their team spends managing outside counsel. For the law firm, success is a much deeper, stickier client relationship. They are no longer just a vendor; they’ve become an integrated strategic partner, embedded in the client’s operations. This not only secures the existing work but often leads to new opportunities because they’ve proven their value far beyond traditional legal advice.
Winners such as David Greetham and Florinda Baldridge are recognized for “Lifetime Achievement.” In a field defined by rapid technological disruption, what constitutes a long-lasting impact? Describe the key qualities or milestones that separate a true legacy from a short-term success in legal tech.
In a field moving this fast, a “Lifetime Achievement” award is not for someone who just built a successful app or had a single great idea. A true legacy is about something more foundational. It’s about fundamentally changing the conversation, the standards, or the infrastructure of the legal industry itself. The winners, like David Greetham, Mary Mack, or Florinda Baldridge, are the people who have paved the way for the innovation we see today. They built the roads that others now drive on.
There are a few key qualities that separate this from a short-term success. The first is establishing standards. Think of someone like Mary Mack with EDRM; her work helped create a common language and framework for e-discovery that the entire industry now uses. It’s about creating order out of chaos. The second quality is a relentless focus on education and mentorship. A lasting impact comes from sharing knowledge and fostering the next generation of leaders, ensuring the industry continues to evolve.
Finally, it’s about sustained influence across multiple technology cycles. These are individuals who didn’t just ride one wave of change; they have remained relevant and respected leaders through decades of disruption. Their contribution isn’t a single product but a body of work that has improved how legal services are delivered on a structural level. Their impact is measured not in profit margins, but in how they have shaped the profession for the better.
What is your forecast for legal technology innovation?
My forecast is that innovation will increasingly be defined by integration and collaboration, rather than by standalone point solutions. For years, the focus was on building the best tool for a single task—the best e-discovery platform, the best contract analysis tool. Now, the real value lies in making those systems talk to each other and embedding them directly into the business of law. We’re moving from isolated tools to holistic platforms that connect everything from client intake and matter management to litigation analytics and final billing.
You can see the seeds of this in the award finalists. The intense focus on AI in contract management, with finalists like Litera and Tonkean, shows that the goal is no longer just to review a document, but to extract its data and make it actionable across the enterprise. The rise of categories like “Most Innovative Law Firm/Client Tech Collaboration” confirms that the future is not about law firms and clients operating in silos, but about co-creating solutions to shared business problems. Ultimately, I believe the lines between law firms, their clients, and technology providers will continue to blur, leading to a more data-driven, efficient, and deeply interconnected legal ecosystem. Innovation will be less about a single piece of software and more about redesigning the entire service delivery model.
