#LegalTechLives with Ken Heaps, CIO, Latham & Watkins Ken Heaps’ job is both highly challenging and rewarding, covering the gamut from managing Latham & Watkins’ worldwide technology, voice and video communications strategy, to overseeing data governance, practice support services, eDiscovery and security. Here’s our talk about innovation, AI and the future of LegalTech.
“New technologies can take greater advantage of large-scale data and intellectual capital in ways that may have never been thought of before.” Ken Heaps has been involved with large-scale technology systems his entire career, starting in 1971 with Sunkist, where he worked for nearly two decades. He subsequently learned a lot about law firms and their
clients during a stint in the early 1990s as Chief Operating Officer at Computer Network Systems, where his clients included several US law firms (including Latham & Watkins), aerospace firms and major entertainment studios. By the time Ken joined Latham in 1994, the firm had a technology team of about 50 people but had not yet grown to its current global size and scale. His team now numbers more than 300, serving more than 2,200 lawyers and their clients around the world from Latham’s 30-plus offices. The firm consistently ranks among the global elite and is distinguished by innovative approaches to law firm management, a deep commitment to client service and a collegial culture. ROSS: What is your advice to newly minted CIOs? Ken Heaps: Always stay open and adaptable to rapid changes in technology and the opportunities that are presented to you. View those forward-looking opportunities as an integral part of your ongoing strategies. ROSS: That makes a lot of sense. How has Latham & Watkins been able to balance being nearly a century old firm, but also a leader in legal innovation? KH: Innovation and collaboration are ingrained in the DNA of Latham & Watkins. Latham has always been an early developer, adopter and industry leader with respect to the implementation of a variety of technologies. I like to point out that Latham is one of the few organizations in the world with a two-letter domain name for our website (lw.com), which is an easy way to demonstrate that we’ve
historically been early adopters of technologies. It’s been a long time since a two-letter domain name was given out! Over time and with an eye toward providing superior client service, our lawyers are continuously exploring new ideas and new solutions to evolving issues. Our technology services are fashioned around the way those lawyers team up for and with their clients — so that a collaborative spirit underpins all we do on a daily basis. Once we identify and develop creative technology solutions, we aim to make them scalable. In that regard, we’re fortunate that the firm’s leadership and culture encourage our lawyers and technology staff to ask how we can do things better, and gives us the support needed to pursue that vision of innovation and service. Also, my fellow law firm technology leaders are a tight-knit community that shares knowledge and ideas that help move the industry as a whole forward.
“There are many emerging technologies nowadays that are disruptive to various types of businesses. AI is the most profound one for the legal profession.” ROSS: Latham & Watkins prides itself on being truly multinational, with no one headquarters. What challenges or advantages does this have in regards to your role as CIO? KH: The firm’s strong leadership and values are hallmarks of Latham’s success. Our “no headquarters” is central to the spirit of teamwork and culture of innovation — because there is no center of gravity, no one dominant office or practice within the firm pulling people away from being entrepreneurial in their thinking and actions. Instead, we are truly one firm. Our challenges are numerous and diverse, particularly as a
global organization that must navigate through various jurisdictions with different rules governing privacy and security, for example. As a global enterprise, integration is key. Latham’s single IT and backoffice support system is a major advantage for the firm in this regard. Our lawyers and staff operate on the same platform with the same set of technologies and tools available to them, as well as a suite of mobile onthe-go-technologies. We equip our lawyers with technology tools that contain a vast array of capabilities to help meet client demands for communications, systems information access and delivery in an anytime/anywhere mode. That helps us maintain a consistently high standard of client service and fosters collaboration. ROSS: As a firm committed to ensuring the best possible representation for its clients, how does AI factor into what the firm is able to deliver? KH: There are many emerging technologies nowadays that are disruptive to various types of businesses. AI is the most profound one for the legal profession. It holds the promise of allowing us to sift through large amounts of data at lightning speed, and it has the potential to deliver the same level of quality at a much faster pace to drive client value. By the way, we don’t view AI as an “either/or” proposition in regard to a person or machine doing such labor-intensive tasks. Rather, it is a potential “win-win” situation where the technology helps perform tasks quickly and efficiently, in ways that free up our lawyers to provide more high-value advice to their clients based on insightful data analytics.
ROSS: As a leader in the field, what do you think 2017 holds for the future of LegalTech? KH: We are at an important inflection point for technology in the legal sector. Finally, processing power and storage capabilities are no longer a limiting factor. As a result, new technologies can take greater advantage of large-scale data and intellectual capital in ways that may have never been thought of before. For example, we’re looking at predictive outcomes that can help our lawyers analyze data such as case histories to extrapolate the best legal tactics. Or predictive coding that requires far fewer lawyer hours to do eDiscovery work and allows them more time to explore and test new opportunities with their clients. It’s an exciting time. ROSS: What is your best time-saving life hack? KH: I read fast and I read a lot. That’s a little “old school” for a CIO but it allows me to maintain a broad view of the technology landscape so we don’t go chasing random distracting ideas down a rabbit hole. In other words, I like to stay well-informed so we continually look at opportunities that offer the best value to our firm and our clients. ROSS: If you could make one chore artificially intelligent, what would it be? KH: How about an intelligent random number generator based on past lottery results? I’d probably have to keep that to myself, however, because it could prove to be very popular! ROSS: I imagine so! If you had the day all to yourself, how would you spend it?
KH: Reading about ancient history, preferably beside a fireplace at a ski resort. We’d join you by the fire for some hot chocolate and a long chat about ROSS and AI — but we’ll bring our own literature, if that’s ok — perhaps In 100 Years: Leading Economists Predict the Future? Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
Tagged in Legaltechlives, Legal, Legaltech, Legal Services By Ava Chisling on April 25, 2017. Canonical link Exported from Medium on August 18, 2017.