Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of AI Integration in Legal Departments

Foster Sayers is Vice President of Legal Operations for symplr. His career includes 15 years of in-house legal experience that began as a staff attorney for Mainline Information Systems, IBM's largest channel partner in North America, and he most recently was General Counsel and chief evangelist for Pramata Corporation.

Previously, Sayers was corporate counsel for Vertafore, where he led the company’s transformation of the contract lifecycle and automated the processes for organizing, storing and digitizing the company’s executed agreements using Pramata.
He also co-founded 121Nexus, a business with QR code technology solutions for the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Earlier in his career, Sayers held in-house counsel positions for companies in industries such as manufacturing, video and IT. Sayers has a law degree from Florida State University College of Law and a bachelor of arts degree in international politics and Japanese from Penn State University.

Daniel W. Linna Jr. has a joint appointment at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering as the Director of Law and Technology Initiatives and a Senior Lecturer. Dan’s teaching and research focus on innovation and technology, including computational law, artificial intelligence, data analytics, leadership, operations, and innovation frameworks.

Dan is also an affiliated faculty member at CodeX — The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. He joined Northwestern as a Visiting Professor of Law from Michigan State University College of Law, where he was a Professor of Law in Residence and the founder and Director of LegalRnD — The Center for Legal Services Innovation. At Michigan State, Dan taught Quantitative Analysis for Lawyers, Litigation {Data, Theory, Practice, & Process}, Entrepreneurial Lawyering, and Lawyer Ethics and Regulation in a Technology-Driven World. He has also been a visiting professor at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany, where he has taught Computational Law and Rules-Driven Automation, and an adjunct professor at IE Law School in Madrid, Spain, where he has taught Assessing Artificial Intelligence and Computational Technologies. Dan has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he has taught Negotiation as well as Legal Technology & Innovation: Legal-Service Delivery in the 21st Century.

Dan began his legal career with a one-year judicial clerkship for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James L. Ryan. After his clerkship, he joined Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, an Am Law 200 firm headquartered in Detroit. Dan was a litigator and member of Honigman's Automotive and Manufacturing; e-Discovery and Information Management; Commercial Transactions; and Social, Mobile, and Emerging Media groups. In 2013, Dan was elected equity partner.

Dan received his BA from the University of Michigan, received a second BA and an MA in public policy and administration from Michigan State University, and graduated magna cum laude, Order of the Coif from the University of Michigan Law School.

Before law school, Dan was an information technology manager, developer, and consultant. His work included computerizing and automating business processes, developing dynamic, data-driven websites, and building enterprise information systems.

Dan co-founded the Chicago Legal Innovation & Technology meetup group in 2014. He was named to the 2015 Fastcase 50 as a person who has charted a new course for the delivery of legal services. In 2018, Dan was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and named an ABA Journal Legal Rebel. He is Vice Chair of the Legal Analytics Committee of the ABA Business Law Section. Dan is also a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for the Future of Law Practice.

Heather Nevitt is the Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Counsel, Inside Counsel and Global Leaders in Law. Heather brings Valuable content to the various publications sites she manages while building communities and developing new event ideas to engage readers.

Heather joined ALM in 2005 and was the Editor-in-Chief of Texas Lawyer. Before joining ALM, she practiced law and earned her JD from Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, Michigan.