This 3/4-day workshop brought together in-house lawyers from various industries across the Southeast for presentations and interactive sessions focused on AI. The program addressed the unique challenges and opportunities AI presents for in-house counsel and guided participants in developing strategies to leverage AI for organizational value. Emphasizing collaboration, the workshop explored the current and future state of AI, practical applications in legal workflows, partnerships with third-party tech providers, and ethical considerations.
View programming from the workshop below:
The Legal Innovation Forum's AI Workshop - Hosted by Baker Donelson
https://youtu.be/S66Xtf_4hak
In this wide-ranging session, you'll learn how legal teams are navigating the fast-moving world of AI adoption, from building a business case to vetting vendors and managing risk. You'll see how in-house counsel, law firms, and tech providers are collaborating to ensure tools like Harvey, Copilot, and others are integrated responsibly. The discussion covers strategies for training teams, ensuring ethical use, and measuring value beyond just cost savings. You'll also hear practical examples of AI in action, including predictive maintenance, contract summarization, and automating discovery.
Chapters:
- 0:00 - Introduction to the Program – Andrew Bowyer, Innovation Forum; Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson
- 5:28 - Fireside Chat: The Current State of AI for Legal Departments – Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson; Cailin Heilig, Baker Donelson; Mariette Clardy-Davis, Primerica; Rick Liu, Harvey
- 46:04 - Navigating the Road Ahead – The Future of AI in the Legal Ecosystem – Vivien Peaden, Baker Donelson; David Rueff, Baker Donelson; Johnny Lee, Grant Thornton; Mike Hale, Smurfit Westrock
- 1:34:06 - From Theory to Practice: Ethical AI Use in Legal Setting (CLE Ethics Credit) – Alex Koskey, Baker Donelson and Matt White, Baker Donelson
Breakout Session: Creating Effective AI Prompts to Optimize Results for Your Business
https://youtu.be/-bJ_R-n4Y0s
In this session, Matt White and Alex Koskey demonstrate how different AI tools respond to the same prompt and why specificity matters. You'll learn how to craft prompts that clearly define intent, context, and desired output, whether you're summarizing a legal letter, preparing a board memo, or shifting the tone of a response. You'll see how sequential prompting improves results and how to guide AI with roles and reading levels. You'll also learn key tips for using AI safely in a business setting, including privacy considerations and how to choose the right tool for the task.
TableTop Exercise: Vetting a Legal Department Use Case + Third Party AI Vendors
https://youtu.be/DeELRd0natc
In this tabletop exercise, Matt White and Alex Koskey explore how AI can be used to enhance litigation processes within a legal department, focusing on use cases like drafting pleadings, reviewing discovery, and researching opposing counsel. They highlight the importance of vetting third-party AI vendors by assessing key areas such as data privacy, model reliability, cybersecurity, and intellectual property rights. The discussion emphasizes that while AI tools can boost efficiency, careful consideration must be given to training data, output validation, and vendor contracts.