BDO's Legal Tech Talk Podcast

Guest Notes Kim Wolfe has a background in operations and years of experience supporting legal organizations. She focuses on legal department maturity, innovation, contracting transformation, and organizational effectiveness. Kim Wolfe | LinkedIn Key Takeaways AI helps experienced professionals move faster—but judgment still matters. Kim highlights a growing concern that younger lawyers may not hav...

Guest Notes Tyson Ballard is the CEO and Founder of Stella Legal, a consulting firm focused on AI enablement, contract excellence, legal operations, spend management solutions, and e-discovery. A longtime legal industry entrepreneur, Tyson has built his career around identifying patterns, improving processes, and helping legal professionals rethink how work gets done. Tyson Ballard | LinkedIn Key...

Guest Notes Kevin Bielawski has more than 20 years of experience in the legal industry and a background in finance. He works directly with law firm partners on performance metrics, pricing, operational strategy, and technology adoption. He is also involved with CLOC’s legal department maturity assessment and planning efforts and discussed the rollout of the new Compass tool at the conference. Kevi...

Guest Notes LaResa Young has spent nearly two decades at St. Jude, beginning as a contract management specialist and helping grow the legal team from four people to nearly 30. Her work focuses on building intentional legal operations functions, improving processes, supporting mission-critical legal work, and aligning operational decisions with organizational values. Key Takeaways Process has to co...

Guest Notes James Sherer is based in New York, where he co-leads the Emerging Technology Team within the Digital Assets and Data Management (DADM) Group at BakerHostetler. With a unique background that includes a J.D., an MBA, and serving as an in-house litigator for a Fortune 500 company, he provides commercially focused advice on the intersection of law, data, and advanced technology. James A. S...

Debbie Reynolds | LinkedIn Guest Notes Debbie has more than 20 years of experience in digital transformation and data privacy with a background in library science and information management, which shaped her view of data flows. Widely published and quoted in outlets such as Bloomberg Law, Law360, PBS, Wired, and The New York Times, Debbie translates complex privacy law into practical business guid...

Key Takeaways AI market fear is real, but adoption momentum remains strong. Despite volatility and uncertainty, firms are unlikely to stop investing in AI. Innovation is leveling the playing field. Smaller legal tech companies can move faster, reach market quickly with limited sales resources, and win customers by solving specific, high-value problems—especially where larger vendors have over-focu...

Guest Notes Stephen Dooley works with a diverse team of professionals that are responsible for supporting various data management needs, including the discovery process. He has over 25 years of experience advising attorneys, clients, and colleagues on a gamut of complex e-discovery and technical topics, including data governance, data privacy, and GenAI. He tries to remain a resource and thought l...

Guest Notes Lee Minkoff is managing director at Renovus Capital Partners, a lower middle-market private equity firm specializing in the Knowledge and Talent industries. From its base in the Philadelphia area, Renovus manages over $2 billion of assets across its several sector focused funds. The firm's current portfolio includes over 25 U.S. based businesses specializing in education and workforce...

Guest Notes Hannah Ji-Otto advises on data privacy, technology transactions and the use of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). Hannah is a partner at Quarls & Brady LLP. She also counsels clients on preparing for and responding to data breaches, network intrusions, ransomware attacks and email compromises. With a particular focus on emerging technologies and innovative business...

Guest Notes: Brendan Sullivan blends four decades of deep tape-storage expertise with a forward-looking vision for use of artificial intelligence in the legal sector. As founder and chief executive of S2 | DATA, he has built a company whose mission is to give law firms and corporations “total command of their legacy data,” turning what was once a liability into an analytic asset. Guest LinkedIn: B...

Guests’ Notes Angelic Benavidez and Joanne Liu are senior litigation paralegals within the legal department at Hyundai Motor America. Angelic oversees e-discovery, legal holds, and manages the Relativity database, working primarily in the class action and intellectual property group, and occasionally supporting product liability matters. She brings extensive experience from big law, particularly i...

Guest Notes Niki Black is Principal Legal Insight Strategist at 8am, the team behind LawPay, MyCase, CasePeer, and DocketWise. She operates at the intersection of law, technology, and innovation strategy. Inside the company, Niki provides insight on the legal market, law firm operations, and how AI is impacting the practice of law. Niki advises on AI implementation within our products, author lega...

Guest Notes Greg Buckles is the founder of eDJ Group Inc. He is an Independent corporate legal technology consultant focused on reasonable, defensible process solutions. Greg’s specialties are in forensics, consulting, software design, product management, legal technology, data classification, analytics, and efficiency consulting. Guest LinkedIn: Greg Buckles | LinkedIn Key Takeaways: 1. Efficienc...

Guest Notes: Chris Haley serves as VP of Practice Empowerment aiR at Relativity. Chris’s current focus includes helping industry leaders to understand the economics and practice of leveraging artificial intelligence to drive eDiscovery solutions and business. He consults with other leaders on practices to quickly supplement and experiment with artificial intelligence within their workflows and the...

Guest Notes Aron Ahmadia is the Senior Director for Applied Science at Relativity where he leads the development of AI capabilities for Relativity One, including AI-Assisted Review, Analytics, and Search. His specializations include the use of AI in Legal Discovery, Model Risk Management, and Responsible AI. Dr. Ahmadia holds a Ph. D. in Applied Math from Columbia University and a B.S. in Computer...

Guest Notes Matt Galvin is a globally recognized leader in corporate ethics, compliance, and legal risk transformation and a partner at Steptoe LLP. He is known for pioneering BrewRIGHT, a groundbreaking compliance analytics platform at AB InBev. He has co-founded multiple organizations—including Gentic Global Advisors, Transforming Legal, and Integrity Distributed—focused on integrating data, tec...

Guest Notes: Nick Abrahams is the Global Leader of Technology & Innovation for Norton Rose Fulbright. NRF has more than 4,000 lawyers in 50+ offices around the world. Nick is the founder of successful online legal site, LawPath (90,000+ users) and he created the world's first AI-enabled privacy chatbot, Parker. He also has a thriving career as a keynote speaker on future trends and innovation....

Guest Notes Tom Pfennig is a global leader in digital transformation, renowned for his pioneering work in digitalizing Legal, Compliance, and Data Privacy services worldwide. Licensed as an attorney in both Germany and New York, Tom brings over 20 years of professional experience and has cultivated a global network of General Counsels, Chief Compliance Officers, Senior Partners, Executives, and Re...

Guest Intro: Bjarne Tellmann is CEO of FjordStream Advisors, a consultancy dedicated to empowering legal leaders and organizations to navigate disruption, embrace change, and achieve transformative impact. With decades of award-winning global experience as General Counsel and a key member of executive teams at several large public companies, Bjarne is a recognized expert in organizational excellen...

Guest’s Notes: Featured on this special reunion episode are multiple guests from the past few seasons of BDO’s Legal Tech Talk. Key Takeaways: 1. AI Enhances, Not Replaces, Human Judgment: Generative AI is a powerful tool that accelerates legal workflows and analysis, but it cannot substitute for the nuanced decision-making and expertise of legal professionals. 2. Transparency and Ethics Are Cruci...

Guest Notes: Karissa Boley is the Director of Legal Operations at Baker Hughes. With more than 20 years of experience, I am a strategic leader and business strategist who believes clear thinking creates clear communication. Guest LinkedIn: Karissa Boley | LinkedIn Key Takeaways Clarity First: Make communications clear, concise, and actionable. Repeat Messages: People need to hear a message six tim...

Guest Notes Derek Mogck is the Head of Legal Operations at Munich Re America Services, a role that places him at the intersection of legal strategy, operational efficiency, and innovation. He is recognized as a thought leader in legal operations, frequently featured at industry events such as Running Legal Like a Business (RLLB) 2025, where he joins other top legal ops professionals from global or...

Guest Notes Christina Wojcik is the Chief Innovation Officer and a partner at Pierson Ferdinand, a law firm renowned for its partner-focused, office-free model and commitment to culture-driven success. With a career dedicated to building solutions for critical legal and business challenges, Christina brings expertise in strategy design, consulting, and the implementation of best practices. She lev...

Guest Information: Jennifer McIver, Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insight at Wolters Kluwer. She is an attorney with a passion for connecting corporate legal departments and technology. She believes there is no better feeling than partnering with legal teams to realize the value technology brings to increasing efficiency and accuracy, reducing costs, and incorporating data and analytic...