ILTA Voices

Listen to Akin’s shift from AI experimentation to firmwide adoption, featuring Jeff Westcott with Akin and NetDocuments’ Heath Harris. Akin began its journey by testing many AI tools, then focused on practical platforms such as NetDocuments AI  to unlock value from its large document repository. The speakers emphasize embedding AI where lawyers already work, especially in the document management system to reduce friction and improve searchability. Key themes include trust, governance, client sensitivity, and internal buy-in.
 
To learn more about Akin, visit https://www.akingump.com
To learn more about NetDocuments, visit https://www.netdocuments.com/
Find Jeff Westcott, Director, Practice Technology, Innovation & AI, Akin, on LinkedIn
Find Heath Harris, VP, Applied AI, NetDocuments, on LinkedIn

Join Dawn Hudgins, ILTA's CXO, and Josh Villareal, Steno's Director of Field Marketing, as they dive into what to expect at this year's ILTACON 2026!

Nicole Stone is Director of AI & Agentic Solutions, Product Management at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., where she leads the development of AI-powered legal and regulatory solutions. A former attorney with more than 17 years of experience in legal technology, she specializes in applying generative AI, trusted legal content, and expert insight to help legal professionals navigate increasingly complex regulatory and legal environments.
Want to learn more about some of the things we discussed in the episode? Check out the links below:
Wolters Kluwer homepage: Wolters Kluwer - Combining Domain Expertise With Advanced Technology | Wolters Kluwer
More information on CCH Jurisdictional Compare: Wolters Kluwer introduces new agentic CCH Jurisdictional Compare solution | Wolters Kluwer
More information on how Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. approaches legal research: VitalLaw® Expert AI | Wolters Kluwer

Join us for our newest podcast series, Hot Topics, posted weekly every Monday. We'll take you through the latest news in the Legal Tech and AI space to keep you up-to-date for the week ahead.
 
Interested in reading more on a certain story? We've got you covered—all of our sources are linked below:
 
AI News
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/10/meta-muse-glimmer-open-weight-ai.html
https://aitoolsrecap.com/Blog/AINewsAugust2026.aspx
https://aiweekly.co/ai-news-today
https://aibriefing.dev/
https://aireleasetracker.com/latest
https://techstartups.com/2026/08/14/top-tech-news-today-august-14-2026-apple-anthropic-deepseek-google-ibm-pony-ai-openai-spacex-uber-more/
Legal Tech News
https://legaltechnology.com/latest-news/
https://legaltechnology.com/category/latest-news/
https://legaltechnology.com/
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/
https://www.legaltechmonitor.com/
https://www.legaltechdigest.com/
https://www.law.com/topics/artificial-intelligence/

Relevance isn’t a given—it’s a discipline. In this episode, we look ahead to what leadership demands next and how seasoned executives stay sharp when the ground keeps shifting.
- How do you keep growing—even when others assume you've “arrived".
- One thing C-suite hopefuls should be doing right now that nobody’s talking about.
- Reflections on the belief or habit he had to shed to stay sharp.
- Jim lays out his “skate to where the puck is going” strategy for the next five years.
This episode tees up the live conference conversation with forward-looking insights, honest reflections, and a challenge to every leader: evolve, or risk irrelevance.

Join Dawn Hudgins, ILTA's CXO, and Daryl Fitzpatrick, Intellek's CRO, as they dive into what to expect at this year's ILTACON 2026!

Join Mailise Johnson, Imare' Jordan, and their moderator, LaKeesha Bailey, for the second part of a three-part discussion about mentoring inside of law firms.

Join us for our newest podcast series, Hot Topics, posted weekly every Monday. We'll take you through the latest news in the Legal Tech and AI space to keep you up-to-date for the week ahead.
 
Interested in reading more on a certain story? We've got you covered—all of our sources are linked below:
 
AI News
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/05/meta-debuts-muse-code-to-take-on-anthropic-and-openai-.html
https://aibriefing.dev/
https://aiweekly.co/ai-news-today
https://llm-stats.com/ai-news
Legal Tech News
https://legaltechnology.com/latest-news/
https://legaltechnology.com/
https://legaltechnology.com/category/latest-news/
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/
https://www.legaltech-talk.com/insights/news/
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/
https://www.law.com/legal-technology/

In this episode, the speakers explored why mentorship has become increasingly important at this pivotal moment for the legal industry and how organizations and individuals can rethink mentorship to support knowledge sharing, leadership development, career growth, and the next generation of legal technology professionals. Why mentorship? Why now? And how can the right mentoring relationships help you navigate change while enhancing your career trajectory?
Join us for Part One of this three-part conversation—and stay tuned as we continue to explore the evolving role of mentorship in building the future leaders of the legal technology community.Moderator:@Samuel Smith - Information Governance Senior Analyst, Latham & Watkins LLP
Speakers:@Lydia Flocchini - Founder & CEO, Scarab Strategies@Ann Gorr - Legal Technology Consultant & Information Governance Strategist
Recorded on 08-10-2026.

Join us for our newest podcast series, Hot Topics, posted weekly every Monday. We'll take you through the latest news in the Legal Tech and AI space to keep you up-to-date for the week ahead.
 
Interested in reading more on a certain story? We've got you covered—all of our sources are linked below:
 
AI News:https://www.distillintelligence.com/briefings/ai-leaders-2026-07-31
https://www.aicritique.org/us/2026/07/31/from-intelligence-to-execution-power-and-governance-how-the-main-arena-of-global-ai-competition-shifted-in-july-2026/
https://jmacweb.com/ai-news/daily/2026-07-31
https://thursdai.news/releases/2026-07
 
Legal Tech News:https://legaltechnology.com/latest-news/
https://legaltechnology.com/category/latest-news/
https://www.legaltech-talk.com/insights/news/
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/
https://www.legaltechmonitor.com/site/legal-it-insider/
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/

Jessica Cannon, Information Security Manager at Mintz in Boston, joined host Heather Morrow for the ILTA Women and Security Committee's She Secures podcast. Jessica's unconventional path, from geology to web development to cybersecurity, is the throughline of the conversation.
She explains that her scientific instincts around pattern recognition are what ultimately drove her toward security work. In her current role at Mintz, no two days look alike: she might be collaborating with an AI innovation team in the morning and doing detection engineering by afternoon.
When discussing her career milestones, Jessica highlights two pivotal moments: being tapped to lead a security team at AspenTech after years of quietly excelling at side projects, and then making the bold decision to leave a comfortable 13-year tenure to bring her skills to a new environment, the law firm world at Mintz.
She speaks candidly about the challenges of communicating risk to highly intelligent non-technical professionals, and warns that AI is rapidly weaponizing vulnerabilities that organizations had long deprioritized. Her advice: get the fundamentals right first.
Jessica closes with an inspiring personal anecdote, how a stinging performance review drove her to enroll in a digital forensics course out of spite, eventually leading her to nearly complete a full master's degree in cybersecurity. Her message to women looking to grow: stay curious, channel your frustration productively, and never stop stitching your experiences together.