Decoding the Role of AI in Litigation

Bansri McCarthy combines more than a decade of legal experience with a passion for innovative solutions to counsel clients and colleagues facing discovery challenges amidst our rapidly changing and increasingly complex technological landscape. She provides end-to-end discovery management, advising on all phases of discovery from legal holds and data retention to negotiating discovery requests and responses to document production and privilege logs.

Bansri routinely advises clients on information governance policies and procedures to address retention, disposition, data security, and privacy. She works closely with stakeholders to ensure development of the proper controls to implement information governance best practices, with an eye toward practicality, efficiency, and risk management. As a frequent speaker on case law and a published author on discovery topics, Bansri has become a trusted advisor in the realm of electronic discovery, data management, and legal technology.

Lance Koonce is a partner and head of the litigation practice at Klaris, and specializes in intellectual property and media particularly in the context of new technologies, including Web3 and AI.

As a litigator, Lance has tried multiple complex federal cases including jury trials, and has worked on a range of high-profile matters involving intellectual property and media issues over the past two decades, including recently The Tolkien Estate v. Polychron (copyright), Resolute Forest Products v. Greenpeace Int’l (First Amendment), iFinex Inc. et al. v. State of New York (press access), Mujae Group v. Spotify (trade secret) and UMG v. OpenDeal (trademark).

As a counselor and transactional lawyer, he provides advice to clients from individual authors and artists to startups to multinational corporations in industries including film, television, book and magazine publishing, music, news, advocacy, consumer products, art, and software. Much of his counseling work over the past five years has been on matters involving blockchain and digital assets, including NFTs.

Lance was formerly a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where he headed the firm’s blockchain practice. Before that, he had stints on Capitol Hill and in book publishing. He has served as co-chair of the subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Privacy of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance’s Legal Industry Working Group and as co-chair of the Law & Technology section of the New York County Lawyers Association, and is a member of the Media Law Resource Center, the American Bar Association and the Copyright Society. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth and Federal Circuits, as well as a number of federal district courts.

A prolific writer and speaker, Lance’s publications include an article in Slate detailing his experience with a viral social media post, Viral Like Me, and his presentations include a session entitled “NFTs’ Next Phase: Reshaping IP and the Content Economy” that he moderated for the 2023 Consensus conference. He is the co-author of the “Motion Practice” chapter in Copyright Litigation Strategies, published by the American Bar Association, and of the “Commercial Defamation” chapter in Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts, published by Thomson Reuters.

Shannon Capone Kirk, Chambers Band 1-ranked and Legal 500 Tier 1-ranked in E-Discovery, focuses exclusively on electronic discovery law at both domestic and cross-border levels serving as Ropes & Gray’s Managing Principal & Global Head of the firm’s Advanced E-Discovery and A.I. Strategy practice. According to Business Today, where she was recently awarded the Top 10 Leading Lawyers Shaping E-Discovery and Information Governance Nationwide, Shannon is “among the sharpest attorneys” and “is able to ‘see around corners’ and get ahead of risk and strategic challenges before most others are even aware of them.” As quoted by Chambers, Shannon is “impressive and outspoken when it comes to controlling E-Discovery spend and pursuing advanced workflows for her clients.” Shannon serves global corporations as outside E-Discovery Counsel in large-scale litigation and investigations, with deep experience strategizing on Litigation Readiness Programs, protocols to collect and review data in foreign countries, and on the most efficient, practical, and cost-effective document preservation, collection, and review plan for any given matter. Shannon has mastered the application of machine learning in document review and is ideally positioned to help clients navigate this and the many other aspects of E-Discovery critical to litigation and investigations.

Shannon is a contributing author on several E-Discovery books, including the EDI Judges’ Guide to E-Discovery, specifically the Technology Assisted Review chapter for use by the Federal Bench. Recently awarded as a Thought Leader Nationwide by Who’s Who Legal, Shannon has published numerous cutting-edge articles in leading publications such as Law360, New York Law Journal, Law Technology News, Corporate Legal Times, National Law Journal, among many others, and frequently presents at prestigious institutes including Georgetown Law’s Advanced eDiscovery Institute, the Annual Electronic Discovery Institute (“EDI”) Leadership Summit, and SIFMA’s Compliance & Legal Forum examining all aspects of E-Discovery, and in November 2023, Shannon will serve as a faculty member faculty of EDI’s Sixth Annual Judicial Training Symposium.

Notably, Shannon examined on National Public Radio's “All Things Considered” how technology is changing the legal profession, and specifically document review. Shannon was a professor of E-Discovery at Suffolk Law School in Boston for several years.

Shannon also leads Ropes & Gray’s interactive E-Discovery training for attorneys, part of Ropes & Gray’s #1-ranked formal training program for the past several years by Vault.

Drew Berweger is a registered patent attorney practicing in multiple technology areas. Drew has prosecuted hundreds of U.S. patent applications from filing to issuance, guided by prior experience and informed by patent analytics. Drew also represents Plaintiffs and Defendants in patent litigations and other technology fueled federal litigation. Additionally, Drew provides patent portfolio guidance as he handles the filing and international patent strategy for a European Medical Device manufacturer. Representative technologies of his practice include medical devices, diagnostic devices and methods, semiconductors, small molecule pharmaceuticals, pollution reduction technologies, and chemical and consumer products.

Drew also teaches a Business Law course to undergraduate students, covering all relevant areas for everyday business practice, including IP law and Contracts.

Drew earned his J.D. from Syracuse University School of Law, where he received certificates in Technology Commercialization and Corporate Counsel, and his B.S., in Environmental Engineering, from Manhattan College. Drew is admitted to practice in New York, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the EDNY, SDNY , 2nd Circuit and the Federal Circuit.