Scott Reents

At ALM's upcoming Legalweek conference, one of the major overarching themes is how artificial intelligence will change the practice of law. In this episode of Law.com's “Unprecedented” podcast, we talk with one of the speakers at the event—Scott Reents, the lead attorney for data analytics and e‑discovery at Cravath, Swaine & Moore—about the challenges and advantages to integrating AI with the legal profession.

Reents, who formerly worked in the tech sector, talks about why law firm adoption of technology has been slow despite the arrival of powerful legal tech. “It takes a bit of translation to go from really good, cool technology to a reliable methodology that we can use in our legal practice,” he says. “No lawyer wants to be told, and certainly no client wants to be told, 'Your case is the guinea pig that we're going to try this on.'”

He also talks about why new e-discovery and analytics tools may not “solve” the problem of sifting through mountains of data. “As we make it cheaper to understand and process this information, it's probably just going to increase our appetite for this information.”

Listen to the full interview above, or through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Libsyn. You can catch Scott at Legalweek on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Fireside Chat session.

Related Coverage:

• The New E-Discovery: Q&A With Cravath's Head of Data Analytics
• For Corporate, Outside Counsel, A Lack of Understanding Around TAR Persists
• James Lee: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Litigation

If you like this podcast, check out What's Next, a weekly email news briefing by host Ben Hancock about technology and the future of law.