The Legal Innovation Forum Chicago 2025


FULL-DAY FORUM

Location: TBC

Structure
Agenda
Chicago skyline at dusk

OVERVIEW

The Legal Innovation Forum is bringing its flagship forum to Chicago in November 2025.

This full-day forum is centered on its unifying theme: Navigating disruption in a risk-on era.

The legal ecosystem and the broader business world are undergoing a profound transformation driven by a wealth of factors including the rapid rise of generative AI, financial pressure, political unrest, globalization, shifting client expectations, and increasing risk and regulatory complexity.

Generational shifts, evolving workplace dynamics, and conflicting perspectives between legal professionals and their third party partners are creating further challenges, while also presenting new opportunities for collaboration and innovation within the legal ecosystem. 

This year’s forum will shine a light on the dynamics at play at the intersection of business, innovation and law, and will reveal the skills needed to be successful in the evolving legal profession. By combining legal acumen with business awareness, tech expertise and emotional intelligence, Chicago legal professionals will redefine the industry and deliver more innovative, client-centered solutions.

PURPOSE OF FORUM

  • Review key drivers and trends influencing the shifting dynamics of the legal ecosystem

  • Uncover new business models shaping the legal industry and learn how practitioners can embrace agile strategies to stay competitive and relevant

  • Look at best practices in law firms, legal departments and their third-party partners for driving business resilience through innovative thinking

  • Create a network of leading legal innovators to share knowledge and experiences to help drive change in the legal ecosystem and the organizations they support

Graphic photograph of glass ceiling with many metal bars insersecting in a futuristic style desktop

Discussion Themes

Registration Coming Soon

Full-Day Forum | November 13, 2025. 8:30 am to 5:00 pm:

  • Innovative Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World: How are legal leaders redefining their role amid disruption and rising complexity?

  • Beyond the Hype: AI and the Business of Law How is AI giving law firms and legal departments a competitive edge?

  • The Complexity Mandate: Legal’s Expanding Role in Digital Risk + Regulation: How is legal leading in an era of intensifying
    complexity and compliance?

  • Globalization’s Second Draft: Trade, Supply Chains + Legal Risk in a New World Order How are legal teams managing risk across
    borders and supply chains?

  • The Talent Crunch: Challenges and opportunities in an evolving legal ecosystem

  • Risk, Resilience + Reinvention: Leading Through Change: How are legal functions transforming to lead through uncertainty?

Who’s attending

150+ high-level decision-makers from legal departments, law firms and third party partners from across the US and overseas, including the below titles: 

Legal departments: General counsel, associate/assistant general counsel, in-house counsel, legal operations professionals

Law firms: Heads of innovation, knowledge management, senior partners, COO, CIO, chief client officers

Tickets:

  • In-house counsel: Limited free tickets available

  • Law firms

  • Legal sector service providers

Tables of eight are available for purchase: Located in a premium location at the conference, a table offers convenience, flexibility and a significant cost discount on a per delegate basis. For more information contact jacquie@adbinsights.com

FEATURED SPONSORS

Gold Sponsor
Gold Sponsor

THEMES + AGENDA

Panel: Beyond the hype: AI and the Business of law

AI is no longer theoretical; it’s reshaping legal work today. This session examines how legal departments and law firms are applying AI across workflows, addressing the real-world challenges of data security and risk, and collaborating to adopt AI responsibly and ethically.

  • Exploring the realities of how AI is actually impacting legal workflows and reshaping the business model of legal services

  • Addressing legal risk, data security in generative AI’s real-world applications

  • How in-house teams and law firms are collaborating to ensure ethical and responsible AI adoption
Erica Kitaev
Erica Kitaev

Vice President - Legal Practice and Productivity, Thomson Reuters

PANEL: THE COMPLEXITY MANDATE: LEGAL'S EXPANDING ROLE IN DIGITAL RISK + REGULATION

From data privacy and cybersecurity to AI governance and multi-jurisdictional compliance, legal teams are at the center of a fast-evolving risk landscape. This panel explores how legal functions are not only adapting, but also leading, by shaping the data foundations, workflows, and governance structures needed to navigate digital and regulatory complexity.

Key themes:

  • Managing an increasingly complex digital risk environment

  • How legal is driving enterprise readiness on data, privacy, cybersecurity, and AI adoption

  • Regulatory shifts across multiple jurisdictions and future-proofing operations through smarter systems and process design

Panel: Globalization’s Second Draft: Trade, Supply Chains + Legal Risk in a New World Order

As trade dynamics shift and global supply chains evolve, legal leaders are playing a critical role in helping businesses stay agile and resilient. This session explores how legal teams are managing cross-border risk, navigating regulatory change, and supporting strategic realignment in an uncertain global context.

  • Legal leaders on helping businesses stay resilient amid evolving trade policies and cross-border realignments

  • Practical approaches for contract management, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation

  • Lawyers as strategic advisors to the business in an unpredictable global landscape

Fireside Chat: Innovative Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World

In a time of constant disruption and rising complexity, in-house counsel are being called upon to lead in new and strategic ways. This candid conversation explores how today’s legal leaders are balancing immediate business needs with long-term resilience, while redefining the legal function as a driver of opportunity, insight, and value.

  • How in-house counsel are navigating today’s cascading risk landscape

  • Balancing business demands with long-term resilience

  • Redefining the role of the legal functions to help them seize opportunities and navigate disruption

Panel: The Talent Crunch: Challenges and Opportunities in an Evolving Legal Ecosystem

The legal industry is facing significant challenges in attracting and retaining top talent amid generational shifts, evolving workplace dynamics, and differing perspectives among internal and external stakeholders.

Remote and hybrid work models have increased competition for talent across geographic boundaries, while younger legal professionals are increasingly prioritizing work-life balance and opportunities for growth, prompting a shift away from traditional career paths in law.

Discover how firms and legal departments can position themselves as attractive employers by fostering an inclusive culture and seeking opportunities for innovation as they embrace the generational shift in the Midwest.

  • The multigenerational law firm: Understanding the unique work styles and preferences of each generation

  • Overcoming roadblocks to attracting and retaining talent

  • Workplace culture in a hybrid world: Evolving workplace norms and values

  • Aligning with the generational shift in leadership by challenging long standing business models

  • Bridging the divide: navigating conflicting perspectives between general counsel, managing partners, hiring managers, associates and ALSP leaders, to drive alignment

  • The career lattice trumps the career ladder: how are legal professionals embarking on new and innovative career paths?

Panel: Risk, Resilience + Reinvention: Leading Through Change

In a high-risk, high-opportunity environment, legal leaders must do more than respond. They must reinvent. This closing session focuses on how legal functions can drive innovation, strengthen organizational resilience, and build the next generation of legal leadership.

  • Strategies to support the business in risk-on environments

  • Turning uncertainty into opportunity through innovative legal leadership

  • Developing the next generation of legal talent in a changing ecosystem
Registration Coming Soon

The Legal Innovation Forum Chicago 2023

Agenda

OVERVIEW

The Legal Innovation Forum is hosting its first in-person, US conference in Chicago on June 22nd, 2023.

This year’s forum is centered on its unifying theme: Leading to drive change and deliver value in an evolving legal ecosystem.

The sector faces numerous headwinds: an uncertain economic climate, emerging risks (digital and analog), pressure to do more with less and ongoing generational shifts.

To address these challenges – and create opportunities from them – the sector is embracing innovative approaches unpinned by leadership and collaboration amongst sectoral practitioners (law firms, legal departments and third party partners).

The purpose of this year’s forum is to shine a light on the dynamics at play in the Midwest’s legal ecosystem when it comes to the intersection of business and law. And provide examples of how leadership and collaboration within the ecosystem is helping to deliver value and sustain and drive change.

STRUCTURE

Half-day event (afternoon) held in Chicago: June 22nd, 2023

  • 80 high level decision makers from legal departments and law firms from the Midwest
  • 4 panel discussions focused on key topics for law firms and legal departments related to the intersection of business + law
  • This course is approved for 4.00 Illinois MCLE general credit hours

purpose & Themes

  • TALENT: The people puzzle – attracting, retaining and developing talent in a new paradigm
  • LEADERSHIP:L Leading at the intersection of business and law – how are leading lawyers in key sectors driving growth in their organizations?
  • RISK: Mastering digital risk – how to define, develop and implement a strategy to navigate emerging digital risks
  • LEGAL OPERATIONS: How to make the business case for and deliver change in your law firm/legal department

Meet our speakers

SANDRA PERRI Senior Vice-President & General Counsel, Sun Life
SANDRA PERRI

Senior Vice-President & General Counsel, Sun Life

CONNI GIBSON Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Interac Corp
CONNI GIBSON

Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Interac Corp

Av Maharaj VP, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Kraft Heinz
Av Maharaj

VP, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Kraft Heinz

SACHA FRASER General Counsel, IBM
SACHA FRASER

General Counsel, IBM

ANTHONY RUFFOLO AVP, Shared Services, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Honda & Honda Financial Services
Anthony Ruffolo

AVP, Shared Services, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Honda & Honda Financial Services

PETER V. NGUYEN SVP, Legal General Counsel & Corporate Security, Descarts Systems Group
PETER V. NGUYEN

SVP, Legal General Counsel & Corporate Security, Descarts Systems Group

CHERYL GRADEN Senior Vice-President, Group Head of Legal & Business Affairs and Corporate Secretary, TMX Group
CHERYL GRADEN

Senior Vice-President, Group Head of Legal & Business Affairs and Corporate Secretary, TMX Group

Melissa LaFlair Head of Law, Compliance and Government Relations Strategy and Operations, Manulife
Melissa LaFlair

Head of Law, Compliance and Government Relations Strategy and Operations, Manulife

Dmitri Smidovich Chief Legal Officer, Cboe Canada
DMITRI SMIDOVICH

Chief Legal Officer, Cboe Canada

David Luther General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, WorkSafeNB
David Luther

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, WorkSafeNB

JENNIFER ARMSTRONG General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, CIRO
JENNIFER ARMSTRONG

General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, CIRO

LIBBY EVANS AVP, Legal Knowledge Management, Education, Technology and Transformation, TD
LIBBY EVANS

AVP, Legal Knowledge Management, Education, Technology and Transformation, TD

IsabelleBousquetL
ISABELLE BOUSQUET-LAROCQUE

Director, Legal Operations and Reporting, Sun Life

Louise Kennedy VP & Associate General Counsel, OPTrust
LOUISE KENNEDY

VP & Associate General Counsel, OPTrust

IMRAN AHMAD Partner and Head of Technology, Co-Chair Cybersecurity and data privacy, Norton Rose Fulbright
IMRAN AHMAD

Partner and Head of Technology, Co-Chair Cybersecurity and data privacy, Norton Rose Fulbright

DARCY LEGROS Chief Legal Talent Officer, Bennett Jones
DARCY LEGROS

Chief Legal Talent Officer, Bennett Jones

TANIA DJERRAHIAN Senior Director of Innovation and Knowledge Management, Davies
Tania Djerrahian

Senior Director of Innovation and Knowledge Management, Davies

JAMES QUINN Chief Executive Officer, Clarilis
JAMES QUINN

Chief Executive Officer, Clarilis

LISA CHAMANDY Chief Knowledge & Innovation Officer, BLG
LISA CHAMANDY

Chief Knowledge & Innovation Officer, BLG

GARY KALACI Chief Executive Officer, Alexa Translations
Gary Kalaci

CEO at Alexa Translations

ROB MORRIS Chief Operating & Information Officer, BLG
ROB MORRIS

Chief Operating & Information Officer, BLG

JASON MOYSE Legal Business Solutions, NewLaw, Senior Manager, PwC
JASON MOYSE

Senior Manager, Legal Business Solutions, PWC

Andrew Bowyer Founder of Legal Innovation Forum
Andrew Bowyer

Founder & CEO at ADB Insights

THEMES + AGENDA

12:00-12:50 PM | REGISTRATION & Lunch

12:50-1:00 PM | Opening Remarks

1:00 - 2:00 PM | TALENT: The people puzzle - how are law firms, legal departments and sector service providers attracting, developing and retaining talent in an era of change

The legal market is witnessing an unprecedented shift when it comes to talent. Lawyers are changing firms, moving in-house, to alternative legal service providers and in some cases moving out of the profession entirely. This is having a significant impact on the shape of the sector and promises to continue to do so for years to come.

On this panel, we’ll review the following:

  • What are the key drivers and trends shaping the battle for talent in the legal sector?
  • What are law firms, legal departments and sector service providers doing to attract, develop and retain talent in a dynamic marketplace?
  • Portfolio careers. What types of new career paths are available to lawyers versus traditional ones?
  • Passion, purpose and generational change. A new generation of lawyers is taking the reins in the legal sector. Purpose driven, portfolio careers must be matched with authentic organizational values (flexibility, diversity and inclusion, collaboration). What does this mean for the legal profession moving forward?

Speakers:

Shauna Fulbright-Paxton, Division Counsel – Labour + Employment, Abbott Laboratories

Brooke Loucks, Director, Brand and Communications, McDermott Will & Emery

Beth Solomon, SVP & Deputy General Counsel, Pathward, N.A.

Amol Bargaje, Global Chief Innovation Officer, Mayer Brown

Neil Araujo, Co-Founder + CEO, iManage

Chair: Kevin Clem, Chief Growth Officer, HBR Consulting

MCLE credit requirements here.

2:05 - 3:05 PM | LEADERSHIP: Leading at the intersection of business and law - how are leading lawyers driving value in their organizations?

In a complex operating environment, legal leadership plays a critical role in helping guide organizations’ approaches to risk management as well as growth.

Areas such as corporate governance and ESG, privacy, compliance and flexible organizational strategy are all at the top of the corporate agenda. And for organizations and law firms, having an effective and empowered legal team coupled with an optimized and innovative approaches to address these and other areas is key.

On this panel, our speakers – legal leaders from the Midwest – will look at how their roles are evolving in terms of the challenges they are facing, how they are aligning their teams with their broader organizations and how they are acting as agents of change.

Topics covered will include:

  • Drivers and trends for legal leaders in a complex operating environment.
  • Examples of how lawyers’ roles and legal departments are evolving to meet mission critical needs of their organizations and what these challenges are.
  • How are legal departments evolving their strategies and engaging with the wider legal ecosystem to better align with the business to both manage risk and drive growth?

Speakers:

Douglas Barnard, General Counsel and Secretary, CF Industries

Kruti Trivedi, Executive Director and Assistant General Counsel, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Dennis Garcia, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft

Vania Montero Wit, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, United Airlines

Trisha Cole, General Counsel + COO, Medtelligent

Chair: Stuart Douglass, Vice President, iManage

MCLE credit requirements here.

3.05 - 3.25 PM | Networking Break

3:25 - 4:25 pm | RISK: Mastering Digital Risk - how to define, develop and implement a strategy to navigate emerging digital risks

Managing digital risk is at the top of many corporate agendas. The explosion of use of collaborative technologies and the attendant data trails left by them, managing complex entity structures, evolving privacy rules and breaches are all examples of the critical importance of having a robust digital risk mitigation strategy in place.

For legal departments and their advisors – increased digital risk equals increased legal risk – especially as they relate to accelerating regulatory scrutiny and compliance.

On this panel, our speakers will look at how they are assessing and addressing present and emerging digital risks.

Topics covered will include:

  • Key drivers + trends when it comes to digital risk – data breaches, know your customer (KYC), ultimate beneficial owner (UBO), privacy rules and complex entity management
  • How to develop and define an organization wide strategy to address digital risk and the role that legal departments play in supporting them
  • Delivering a digital risk mitigation strategy across the organization. Best practices in leveraging people, process and technology to manage risks? How to work cross departmentally and with 3rd parties to support these strategies.

Speakers:

Daniel Farris, Partner-in-Charge, Chicago, Norton Rose Fulbright

David R. Cohen, Partner (Chair Records + E-Discovery Group), Reed Smith

Ashley S.A. Jackson, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer, Olive AI, Inc

Adrian Camara, Chief Executive Officer, Athennian

Chair: Stephanie Curcio, CEO + Co-Founder, NLPatent

MCLE credit requirements here.

4:30 - 5:30 pm | LEGAL OPERATIONS: Mastering change management - how to deliver change in your legal department

In order to effect change in organizations, effective execution is key. On this panel our speakers – legal operations leaders – will review how to define, develop and implement a change management strategy in legal departments..

Topics covered will include:

  • Foundations of change management in legal departments. What fundamentals need to be in place for successful change management initiatives to succeed in legal departments and their wider organizations?
  • Frameworks to approach change management initiatives in your legal department to drive change in your wider organization. Including how to build consensus, put the right teams in place, enhance processes, apply metrics to change management and choose the right technology.
  • How is legal operations acting as a catalyst for change in the legal ecosystem?

Speakers:

Curtis Batterton, Director of Global Legal Technology + Innovation, McDonald’s

Adina Newman, Associate Counsel, Legal Innovation & Operations, Con Edison (Former)

Adam Rouse, Sr. Counsel and Director of eDiscovery Operations, Walgreens

Jonathan Johnson-Swagel, Senior Legal and Business Operations Manager, Uber

Tiffany Epps Brown, Senior Consultant, Legal Operations, Aecom

Chair: Kim Craig, Co-founder, Bold Duck Studio

MCLE credit requirements here.

5:30 - 6:30 pm | Closing Remarks + Networking Reception

OUR SPONSORS

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