LegalTech Talks –live 22nd April 2026 at 14:30 (BST).
AI success in legal isn’t about who adopted first — it’s about who built the right foundations to scale safely, securely and strategically.
As firms move beyond pilots and point solutions, the real challenge has shifted: fragmented tools, disconnected content and weak governance are now the biggest barriers to value. In this session, we’ll cut through the hype to explore what it truly means to be AI‑ready — and why your information architecture matters more than your AI roadmap.
We’ll examine how a secure, well‑governed document management environment underpins responsible AI, reduces risk and enables meaningful automation at scale. You’ll learn what leading organisations are doing differently to connect content, workflows and permissions — and where others get stuck as AI initiatives stall.
This is a practical, forward‑looking discussion for firms that want AI to move from experimentation to everyday advantage.
Key Takeaways
- A clearer view of what an AI-ready foundation looks like in practice
- Insight into the role of the DMS in secure, governed AI adoption
- Common barriers that can limit long-term AI success
- Practical steps to strengthen the people, content and systems behind sustainable value
Moderator
Tony McKenna
Chief Information Officer
Lawfront
Tony McKenna is Chief Information Officer at Lawfront, a leading group of regional law firms. With extensive experience driving digital transformation in the legal sector, Tony specialises in aligning technology strategy with business objectives to deliver innovation and operational excellence. Before joining Lawfront, he served as Director of IT & Change at Howard Kennedy LLP, where he led major modernisation initiatives, enhanced cybersecurity frameworks, and implemented scalable solutions to support growth. Tony is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to improve client service and streamline legal operations. His leadership combines strategic vision with hands-on expertise in IT governance, change management, and cloud adoption.
As a senior volunteer leader for ILTA Tony has chaired the European and International planning councils, chaired the annual European ILTACon many times, joined the ILTA Board in 2021 and achieved the ultimate volunteer position as ILTA President 2023-25. Committed to fostering collaboration and continuous improvement, Tony plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of legal technology.
Speakers
Nigel Tranter
Chief Digital Officer
Orrick
‘Nige is a technology executive with a distinguished track record of defining and delivering enterprise-wide technology strategy across international law firms and regulated financial institutions.
A trusted advisor to boards and senior partnerships, he specialises in aligning technology, data and AI capabilities with commercial growth, client service innovation and operational resilience — bringing particular depth to the legal sector’s fast-evolving regulatory and competitive landscape.
His career spans senior leadership roles at the intersection of finance and law, including a decade as Chief Architect for EMEA at Barclays, four years as Chief Information Officer at Gulf Bank in Kuwait, more recently as Chief Technology Officer at Pinsent Masons and currently as Chief Digital Officer at Orrick. Across these roles he has led large-scale transformation programmes, modernised complex legacy estates and embedded AI-driven productivity at enterprise scale, while strengthening governance, risk and security frameworks in highly regulated environments.
Beyond his executive career, Nige is an active contributor to the broader legal technology community. He sits on several legal technology advisory boards, serves as a judge for the Legal Technology Awards, and gives back through his roles as an accredited One Million Mentor and UK ambassador for Stemnet.’
Colleen Baehrend
Legal Solutions Director
NetDocuments
Colleen Baehrend helps law firms and in-house teams unlock greater value from their documents, data and workflows through innovative, AI-powered legal technology as a Legal Solutions Director at NetDocuments. Dual-qualified in New York and in England & Wales, she brings international legal experience from roles at Freshfields in London and a secondment to Barclays, advising on capital markets, public M&A financing and U.S. securities regulatory matters across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Today, she applies that expertise to consulting legal teams on strengthening their AI readiness and finding practical solutions that drive meaningful results.
Sponsor
NetDocuments is the #1 trusted cloud-based content management and productivity platform that helps legal professionals do their best work. Backed by over 20 years of experience in native cloud innovation, NetDocuments offers a complete end-to-end platform for document and email organisation and management, including award-winning security and research capabilities; robust automation, collaboration and search technologies; and seamless integrations with other tools professionals use daily. NetDocuments supports 7,000+ law firms, corporate legal departments, and public sector entities globally. For more information, visit netdocuments.com.