Enhancing Legal Department Efficiency and Automation With The Use of AI

Nicola Shaver, managing director, innovation and knowledge, at the law firm Paul Hastings, was recently named 2020 Innovative Leader of the Year in the International Legal Technology Association’s Distinguished Peer Awards. Not only was that, but the law firm where she oversees innovation initiatives named Innovator of the Year.

While a major honor for anyone in the field of law firm innovation, it is even more remarkable given that until just seven years ago, Shaver was a lawyer practicing media law in Australia with no connection to the field of law firm innovation. When she moved to Toronto for family reasons in 2014, she could find no work in her legal specialty, so took a job at Cassels Brock & Blackwell leading the firm’s innovation initiatives. She was immediately hooked.

After a stint at another Toronto firm, Stikeman Elliott, as director of knowledge management, she moved to Paul Hastings in New York in 2018, where she describes herself as “Dedicated to future-proofing law firms and accelerating the pace of positive change in the legal industry.” She is also founder of Legal Innovation and Design, a global membership group for anyone driving innovation initiatives in the commercial legal space, and publisher of the blog Tower of Babel.

In a year that has presented so many challenges for law firms, Shaver joins LawNext to discuss the innovation initiatives that helped her and her firm earn these awards. She also shares her career journey, her thoughts on innovation, and her perspectives on the pandemic’s impact on the legal profession.

As a Managing Director in our New York office, Scott brings 25 years of M&A, capital markets and operating experience working with global organizations in the business information, technology, news distribution and B2B media industries. Scott has added experience across the Legal, Compliance, Public Relations, Investor Relations and Technology verticals.

Prior to joining JEGI CLARITY, Scott led Bloomberg’s legal market business, was global co-head of M&A for UBM and had added responsibilities at PR Newswire and Vannin Capital, one of the world’s largest legal finance organizations.

Scott earned his BA degree from Williams College, and his JD degree from Fordham University School of Law. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Pro Bono Net, a not for profit organization focused on using technology and innovation to close the Access to Justice gap, and a certified FINRA representative.

Marco is a 20-year veteran of the language translation industry and he was a certified Italian and Spanish interpreter for Continental Airlines. With a keen focus on legal industries, Marco has trotted the globe creating successful and long-standing business relationships with some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Marco is a recognized expert in the translation industry and has supported over 40,000 client engagements. He is currently a Senior Director of Business Development focusing on the delivery of language technology and translation solutions to the legal industry.

Marco holds a degree in Social and Behavior Sciences from the University of Arizona, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Iota, the international foreign language honor society.

Armin Hendrich heads the Litigation & Regulatory group in Austria. His practice focuses on the wider area of regulatory law, including general and banking regulatory law, securities law, data protection law, outsourcing, anti-money laundering as well as sanctions regulations. He has advised clients on compliance in the intersection of civil code and common law jurisdictions, with a focus on U.S. pre-trial discovery in U.S. civil procedures and investigations of regulatory authorities.

Armin has a strong background in IT and acts on the forefront of IT inclusion in legal processes and cyber security. Building on his education and several years of entrepreneurial experience, he focuses on efficiency through legal project and process management. He is a member of DLA Piper's innovation group as well as global cyber security steering group, working with cyber security experts at DLA Piper and technical third party experts in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Armin has further accumulated expertise in air and space law.