How law firms can grow, address artificial intelligence and tackle other challenges in 2025

Ari Kaplan not too long ago spoke with Lynn Tubalinal, the director of litigation assist at Dykema, and Julia Voss, the director of litigation assist and e-discovery at UB Greensfelder.

Each are among the many business leaders who contributed to the not too long ago printed report Advancing Litigation Help to Gas Progress in a Altering Authorized Market, supported by Opus 2.

They mentioned the impact of the growing quantity and number of knowledge, how a staff is aware of that it’s time to improve its know-how, profitable methods for driving adoption, and efficient generative synthetic intelligence use circumstances.

Ari Kaplan: Inform us about your background and your present function.

Lynn Tubalinal: I began my profession as a paralegal and leveraged my technical background right into a litigation assist function. I started to guide groups at Sidley Austin, the place I spent eight years, and three and a half years in the past, I moved to Dykema.

Julia Voss: I’m an antitrust litigator turned e-discovery skilled. Twenty years in the past, I had one of many extra vital circumstances within the agency, whereas the Federal Guidelines of Civil Process have been altering. I used to be tasked with figuring it out after which began instructing my friends about these developments. So in 2014, when the agency determined {that a} lawyer ought to lead litigation assist, they requested me to maneuver into that function. I’ve been the director of litigation assist and e-discovery for 11 years.

Ari Kaplan: Did something within the Advancing Litigation Help to Gas Progress in a Altering Authorized Market report shock you?

Lynn Tubalinal: What is de facto shocking to me, and it’s not essentially associated to the content material total, is that we’re all going by the identical points and figuring this out as we go. In these roles, you are inclined to really feel such as you’re on an island and don’t hear about what everybody else is experiencing till you start speaking to them. On this fast-paced business, we don’t at all times get to talk to at least one one other and join. By way of these experiences, I may relate to the views of my friends and establish methods that would work for us internally and as an business.

Ari Kaplan: One theme within the report was the growing quantity and number of knowledge. What impact do you anticipate this pattern to have?

Julia Voss: The rising knowledge volumes are driving extra litigators to comprehend they want a technical resolution to handle their dockets. Once they had small circumstances with a couple of hundred paperwork, they might handle, however that’s not attainable. The number of knowledge is probably the most complicated difficulty at present as a result of many alternative knowledge sources can be found. Daily it appears as if there’s a brand new app or an replace to the telephone or Microsoft. Litigation assist professionals are consistently chasing updates and growing new strategies for gathering knowledge. There was a time after we felt like we knew e-discovery as a result of we may successfully gather emails. Then Groups got here alongside, adopted by Slack after which WhatsApp, and now, it appears like a unending cycle of chasing the most recent app.

Ari Kaplan: What recommendation would you provide to others who’re managing these modifications?

Lynn Tubalinal: Don’t get overwhelmed. We’re all going by this on the identical time. Determine what works finest in your staff. Meet together with your friends, and talk about particular points, like processing distinctive knowledge varieties and be taught which options you’ll be able to provide to the case staff. It’s sometimes not a single resolution. You could want totally different functions for some cases, resembling these with trendy attachments. We concentrate on understanding the case staff’s challenges to assist develop a holistic technique, relatively than solely present technical assist. They’re our inside shoppers, and we have to assist them talk extra successfully with the agency’s exterior shoppers. It will possibly actually be straightforward to get overwhelmed as a result of there are a lot of totally different knowledge varieties, and you’ll not be the skilled on all the things, however depend on those that are the specialists and get info from them.

Ari Kaplan: Outdated know-how, particularly case administration, was one other theme within the Advancing Litigation Help to Gas Progress in a Altering Authorized Market report. How are you aware when it’s time to discover a brand new resolution, and what are your suggestions for others as they choose new functions?

Julia Voss: You begin to notice it is likely to be time to have a look at a brand new resolution when folks aren’t utilizing the one you have got or there’s higher know-how that may present extra assist. Concentrate on listening to the folks round you to know their evolving wants higher. The toughest a part of exploring a brand new resolution is discovering folks with time to check the choices and assist decide one of the best ways to maneuver ahead, particularly with all of the know-how accessible attributable to developments in generative AI. With many issues altering directly, you want a bunch of people that perceive what your know-how is doing and what a brand new product may enhance.

Ari Kaplan: Does outdated know-how contribute to an absence of adoption?

Lynn Tubalinal: Litigation assist groups should at all times steadiness using outdated know-how with the price of shifting to a more moderen, sooner and higher resolution. Getting groups to purchase into that improve generally is a problem. As technologists, we’re obsessed with enhancing our instruments, however price, adoption and different variables issue into the last word resolution to alter.

Ari Kaplan: What methods have been profitable in encouraging adoption in your agency?

Julia Voss: Presenting the attorneys with the advantages as an alternative of highlighting options alone is important. The best technique is to start with a small staff that pilots the appliance and presents the outcomes to affect adoption. As soon as customers see outcomes, they’re extra prone to benefit from the brand new software.

Ari Kaplan: Generative AI has been and can proceed to be a sizzling matter. How are you utilizing AI in your agency, and what have you ever realized out of your experiences to date?

Lynn Tubalinal: There are various kinds of AI, not simply generative AI, and now we have been using extra conventional AI in our workflows for years. We simply bought a generative AI part for our e-discovery doc evaluation platform and are excited to deploy it. I’m making an attempt to establish my champions, who can use it of their issues and supply trustworthy suggestions. Most attorneys need to see outcomes, relatively than the nuts and bolts of how the know-how works. Primarily based on the impressions of generative AI that I’ve heard, everyone’s ready to see what others are doing. No person desires to be behind the curve, and we need to undertake it, however we’re cautiously treading into the world.

Julia Voss: We have now additionally been utilizing totally different sorts of AI for a very long time, however generative AI is the plain new shiny toy. We had been testing generative AI in our doc evaluation platform for a couple of months and are beginning to broaden entry to develop adoption. For assets and coaching, we have to persuade the professionals on our staff to allocate the time to replace their abilities utilizing generative AI merchandise, in order that the nice folks now we have can proceed to assist the authorized groups transfer ahead.

Ari Kaplan: What’s your staff doing in 2025 to take care of its aggressive edge?

Lynn Tubalinal: Making certain that the expertise that now we have can make the most of our full suite of instruments and be our champions. Training and advertising and marketing are paramount. I spent a lot of 2024 advertising and marketing my staff as a result of not everybody totally understands what we do. My staff is simply making an attempt to get the work executed however might not essentially know find out how to market the staff whereas they’re supporting others. I’ve been engaged on that internally by encouraging extra direct assist, resembling a telephone name over an electronic mail or Groups chat. We’re shifting again to fundamentals to higher showcase our expertise and capabilities.

Julia Voss: What didn’t shock me about this report is that we’re all making an attempt to do a number of the identical issues. We’re internally rebranding our group as the information intelligence staff. We’re showcasing the abilities of our technologists and e-discovery counsel to lift their profile and spotlight the place they’ll present assist, so the trial groups can concentrate on the deserves of their circumstances.

Hearken to the whole interview at Reinventing Professionals.

Ari Kaplan commonly interviews leaders within the authorized business and within the broader skilled providers neighborhood to share perspective, spotlight transformative change and introduce new know-how at his weblog and on iTunes.

This column displays the opinions of the creator and never essentially the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Affiliation.