Financial Management

#0189: (CT) AI in the Business of Law: Low Risk, High Gain

This episode reframed “AI in law” as a business-operations opportunity, focusing on low-risk, high-return use cases across the back office (finance, operations, IT, HR, and knowledge). Bill Brice and April Heimerl emphasized starting with real process pain points, then using AI to reduce repetitive work (e.g., time-entry cleanup, month-end support, intake triage, policy/FAQ summarization) while keeping human oversight and clear guardrails. The discussion closed with practical steps firms can take immediately: pick one workflow, pilot with users, and measure time saved and friction removed.
Moderator:@April Heimerl - April Heimerl, Manager, Epiq Advisory for Law Firms 
Speaker:@Bill Bice - CEO, Zebraworks
Recorded on 06-16-2026.

#0050: (CCT) Exploring DORA: What the New EU Regulation Means for Legal

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is an EU regulation that will apply as of January 17th, 2025. Its goal is to strengthen the overall information and communication technology security of financial entities in the remit of the 3 ESAs and ensuring that the financial sector in Europe is able to stay resilient in the event of a severe operational digital disruption. In this podcast, we hope to learn more about how DORA will specifically impact law firms that work with banks.
Moderator:@Leigh Zidwick - Sr Director Info Governance, DLA Piper LLP (US)  
Speaker:@Jonathan Armstrong - Partner, Punter, Southall Law
Resources:FAQS - EU DORA Regulation & Operational Resilience Requirements - Punter Southall LawDORA Legislation 
Recorded on 11-04-2024.

Budget: Lessons Learned

In this podcast interview, the speaker will provide tips in how to achieve excellence in budget creation, defense and control, especially for the Legal area.Questions Marcelo will ask the speaker:
What are the challenges of preparing a Budget in a legal area where we know that calculations, metrics, statistics and other data models are not part of the lawyer's daily life?
We know that communication not only in topics such as the Budget but in many others, in fact in all topics is something that must be encouraged and reinforced, drawing on this topic, how important internal and external communication is for the creation of a Budget effective?
Thinking about accuracy, is there any budget model that you think is more assertive, how do you know which is the best Budget model (opening) for my company?
So once all the assumptions have been aligned with the team, the teams in turn are safe for the defense, can you give us some tips for sustaining the numbers against the approval area? We know this is the hardest part, especially when you need more money compared to growing your business.
How can we know if we are asking enough, when we can know if we need to ask for more?
A point that I always see in the definition of Budget in several companies from the most diverse branches is the famous one: fat, that is, calculating the correct amount but leaving an extra amount for unplanned expenses, what do you think of this approach?
Leave an extra Budget or not?
What is the role of the Legal Ops team in the composition of the Legal Budget? I'll try to make myself clearer, we know that some areas tend to work in silos, that is like a black box, how do you think the Legal Ops team can help?
Moderator:@Marcelo Cardoso - Supervisor of Data Analytics, Mercado LivreSpeaker:Guillermo Calvo - Legal Ops Regional Supervisor, Mercado Livre
Recorded on 12-16-2022​​​

How Collaboration Between Finance and IT Creates a Successful Work Environment

Finance & IT often need to work together since finance uses multiple financial systems and needs support. IT uses finance for paying invoices and getting help during the budget season. In this session, we will showcase and review best practices implemented by firms in creating a successful financial system implementation or roll out.Moderator:@Jarmila Pencikova - Director, Finance, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLPConfirmed Speakers:@Jason Thomas - Chief Information Officer, Cole, Scott & Kissane P.A.@Ed Aguero - Chief Financial Officer, Cole, Scott, & Kissane P.A.
Recorded on 03-05-2021​​

Do You Know How Good You Are?

In this micro-learning podcast, we will briefly highlight benchmarking, competitive intelligence, what tools do you use and how do you compare yourself to others?Moderator:@Jarmila Pencikova, Director, Finance, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Speaker:
@Kevin Bielawski, Director of Legal Operations, Husch Blackwell LLPRecorded on 10-22-2020

How to Win Friends With E-Billing

In this podcast session, we will discuss ways to maximize ROI of an e-billing system, tool support, and highlight why a unified process allows you to better track spending.Moderator:@Will Pett, Senior Business Analyst, Fidelity Investments
Speaker:@Donald Knight, Director of Legal and Tax Operations, Crown CastleRecorded on 10-12-2020

Global Document Management Challenges

In this micro-learning podcast session, the speakers will provide best practices and tips on how law departments and law firms with global presence can address document management challenges for a user base that is spread across the world.
Moderator:@Jetashree Shah - IT Manager, Caterpillar, Inc.Speakers:@Matthew Hobbs - Managing Director – Legal Management Consulting, Duff & Phelps, LLC@Mike Ferrara - Director, Legal Management Consulting, Duff & Phelps, LLCRecorded on 07-01-2020

Success Story in How to Pivot So You Can Remain Employed

In this podcast session, please enjoy listening to a success story in how to pivot during this tumultuous time so you can remain employed.Interviewer/Speaker:@Jarmila Pencikova, Director, Finance, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Speakers:@Prashan Loganathan, Senior Manager, Billings & Collections, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLPHeather Smith, Senior Manager, Hospitality & Special Events, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP​Recorded on 6-25-2020

Financial Management Discussion: ILTACON 2018 PeerShare

Please join us during this quarter's financial management virtual roundtable as we discuss all things ILTACON 2018. We'll highlight what our panel heard, what their favorite takeaways were, information they obtained while at the conference and much more.
 
If you attended ILTACON 2018, we encourage you to share your feedback as well. If you didn't get a chance to attend this year, this is a great opportunity to hear what your fellow members thought was hot and what was not. We look forward to the conversation!
 
Panel:Andrea Engels - Director of Finance, GoodmansJarmila Pencikova - Director of Finance and Controller, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLPRobin Simmons - CFO, Rogers Towers, PA
 
Recorded on 9-11-18

Distribution of Financial Information

In this ILTA Radio recording, four ILTA members discuss their firm's insights on forms of financial distribution, how to get buy in, and the technology, tools and best methods for analyzing this information.
Moderator:Jarmila Pencikova has been the Director of Finance and Controller at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP for the past seven of her 27 years at the firm. She has played a major role in various projects at Osler over the past 20 years, including the implementation of Aderant Expert, Chrome River, Prebill Viewer, Control Systems and other financial systems. Jarmila is a CPA with 30 years of experience in finance, accounting and information systems.
Panel:John Ashley is the Director, Financial Systems & Projects at Cozen O'Connor in Philadelphia.
Lynn Bond is the Director of Financial Applications and Project Management at Morrison & Foerster. She has been in the legal industry for 22 years, with experience in implementations, conversions, training, vendor selections and project management. Lynn develops teams to go beyond the status quo and see how a project can transform the business.
Suzanne Koch is the Controller at Nyemaster Goode, P.C. and has 17 years of experience working in the legal industry. She holds certifications as a CPA and CMA, and is the President of the board of directors for the Iowa Association of Legal Administrators.
Patrick Robey is a Senior Budget & Analysis Manager at Morrison & Foerster. He has over 20 years of experience in finance-related positions within professional services, including FP&A, reporting, general ledger and process improvement. Patrick has a passion for leading teams and growing talent. He is interested in how data is driving businesses to change the behavior of employees, and how to present information to non-financial leaders in a clear and concise way.

Emerging Tech Spotlight on Financial Management

Listen to the monthly series of podcasts from the Emerging Technologies group. Each month Lance Rea and Mark Manoukian have a conversation with the peer group of the month. This month's spotlight is on the Financial Management Group. David Smith, Steve Odum and Jarmila Pencikova talk about issues and initiatives in the Financial Management space. Format is conversational and touches on a number of different topics.