Larry Liss.

While some at law firms have seen the evolution of legal technology throughout the decades, only few have had the chance to actually play a hand in its development.

Larry Liss, who recently stepped down after two decades as Blank Rome's chief information officer, has been instrumental in bringing legal tech from emails to AI. Now managing director and legal industry adviser at managed IT organization Alphaserve, Liss knows that while legal's technology challenges are not unique to its industry or time, the advancements defining its future are nothing if not novel.

Legaltech News caught up with Liss to discuss his 50 years working in technology, his views on what will define future innovation, and working with technology at Blank Rome.

How did you start your career in technology in the 1960s?

I started with IBM when I was still in school at Drexel University. I was a programmer on IBM mainframes, and the first few projects I had involved implementing the first computer banking systems in Philadelphia.

IBM had this come out in 1964 with their System 360, which was the first general purpose mainframe they offered as a banking system. Basically, whenever customers came into a branch to make a deposit or withdrawal, the bank could now key it in through a terminal where as previously they used some sort of machine with punch cards.

What did the early developments of legal technology look like?

Word processing, then document management and email—they were the main things that people used and really are still the main things they use. But now we have hundreds of systems of various types that apply to specific types of practices and administrative functions.

What's the most frustrating aspects of working with lawyers?

Well it's frustrating only in the sense that their priority is the billable hour, so when you need their time to get trained on new system or to be involved in the testing of new systems it's very difficult. On the other hand, they are very bright people, and I've found them to be remarkably appreciative of what we did and do.

Time, however, is going to be an important issue when we talk about artificial intelligence (AI), because the implementation of those system requires some dedicated attorney time.

What do you think will the most impactful technology for legal in the future?

I believe it's the whole AI area. It's just really just beginning to get a foothold in the legal industry, and it has so many different possibilities in helping firms be more productive and be able to compete better—it's by far the most import thing.

I think when IBM Watson first came to light, that's when people's eyes started to open up. I remember early in my career people talking about this kind of thing conceptually, but there were really no practical applications available then in the legal industry.

What truths have stayed the same about technology over the past five decades?

The thing that is more important than anything is the need to get the people utilizing the technology trained, and that's probably as big a challenge as we've had. But the truth is that you can put in all wonderful technology you can think of, but if you can't get people properly trained to use it it's a waste of money.

That's something we have had to focus on over the years, and that hasn't changed. Going back to my first part of my career, training has always been critical to the implementation of new technology.

What's the most memorable moment from your time at Blank Rome?

So when I first came to Blank Rome, 20 years ago, my boss at the time handed me a memorandum that was written by one of the partners who was displeased because the firm had just converted from an older email system to what then was GroupWise, and they lost some functionality.

So he handed me this memorandum which had 10 or 12 issues on it and he said, 'OK you need to work on these.' And over time we became very good friends and partners in implementing technology in the firm.

And it took me pretty much most of those 20 years to address all the points in this memo, and I told him. 'Listen once I get this done, I am retiring.' Which, coincidentally, I did.