KMK Law, CIO: We Went From Pallets of Banker's Boxes to Databases and AI

Richard E Wills, CIO, KMK Law, speaks with David Hammond, Senior Account Executive, Parallel Technologies, about the law firm’s journey, including adopting technology over the last few decades and the impact of COVID on tech adoption. 

“It's been interesting to see several generations of lawyers come through our firm. We have lawyers here well into their 70s, and we have recent law school graduates. It has been a spectrum of a user base that we have to cater to. We've gone from the time when someone would back up a tractor-trailer and unload pallets of banker's boxes for people to go through and do their discovery to having databases and using artificial intelligence to automatically code those documents,” Wills says.

While the technology comes with its own problems because of the amount of data and its security, he adds, the team does its bit to stay on top of the latest legal technology.

Wills highlights the conferences and trade shows, organized by the International Legal Technology Association, that have helped KMK stay abreast of the latest tech the industry has to offer and collaborate with others in the legal industry.

“It's a very interesting thing to sit in a board meeting with a bunch of attorneys that are saying, ‘I don't know what such-and-such firm is doing in this regard.’ And I'll be able to say, ‘I can tell you exactly what they're doing because I get to know my counterparts in the city, and we're very friendly and very collaborative and always willing to help each other out in ways in which we are adopting technology or solving certain problems,’” he adds.

Regarding changes made due to COVID, Wills says that KMK Law has always been accustomed to working in the office, but remote work would be allowed in specific situations. Technology-wise, the firm was prepared for a remote setup, he notes. The firm’s employees have been back in the office since June 2020.

“We had some great partners that allowed us to scale our remote environment and work successfully through the pandemic. People realize that they can work remotely, and we now have a population that wants the flexibility to be able to work remotely. We're adopting technology that will more closely align with that kind of work philosophy and making that happen for them,” he concludes.