The Rise of AI: How Technology is Transforming the Legal Profession

Daniel W. Linna Jr. has a joint appointment at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering as the Director of Law and Technology Initiatives and a Senior Lecturer. Dan’s teaching and research focus on innovation and technology, including computational law, artificial intelligence, data analytics, leadership, operations, and innovation frameworks.

Dan is also an affiliated faculty member at CodeX — The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. He joined Northwestern as a Visiting Professor of Law from Michigan State University College of Law, where he was a Professor of Law in Residence and the founder and Director of LegalRnD — The Center for Legal Services Innovation. At Michigan State, Dan taught Quantitative Analysis for Lawyers, Litigation {Data, Theory, Practice, & Process}, Entrepreneurial Lawyering, and Lawyer Ethics and Regulation in a Technology-Driven World. He has also been a visiting professor at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany, where he has taught Computational Law and Rules-Driven Automation, and an adjunct professor at IE Law School in Madrid, Spain, where he has taught Assessing Artificial Intelligence and Computational Technologies. Dan has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he has taught Negotiation as well as Legal Technology & Innovation: Legal-Service Delivery in the 21st Century.

Dan began his legal career with a one-year judicial clerkship for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James L. Ryan. After his clerkship, he joined Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, an Am Law 200 firm headquartered in Detroit. Dan was a litigator and member of Honigman's Automotive and Manufacturing; e-Discovery and Information Management; Commercial Transactions; and Social, Mobile, and Emerging Media groups. In 2013, Dan was elected equity partner.

Dan received his BA from the University of Michigan, received a second BA and an MA in public policy and administration from Michigan State University, and graduated magna cum laude, Order of the Coif from the University of Michigan Law School.

Before law school, Dan was an information technology manager, developer, and consultant. His work included computerizing and automating business processes, developing dynamic, data-driven websites, and building enterprise information systems.

Dan co-founded the Chicago Legal Innovation & Technology meetup group in 2014. He was named to the 2015 Fastcase 50 as a person who has charted a new course for the delivery of legal services. In 2018, Dan was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and named an ABA Journal Legal Rebel. He is Vice Chair of the Legal Analytics Committee of the ABA Business Law Section. Dan is also a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for the Future of Law Practice.

Javaid is an innovative and multilingual strategist/advisor/educator who has been helping transform businesses and governments across North America, Europe, and Asia for the past two decades. He is the co-founder & CEO of transformx.io, a global advisory in the digital customer transformation, disruption and innovation space with a focus on AI, Mobile, IoT, and Data Science. He advises multiple tech startups, teaches innovation focused executive and board level courses globally, is an adjunct professor at DePaul University and is actively researching the effects of The Fourth Industrial Revolution in the developing world.

Previously, Javaid served as a Customer Engagement and Success Leader at Salesforce and held leadership positions at multiple consultancies including EY and PwC.

Javaid attended Purdue University for his undergraduate studies in Computer Information Systems and holds a Master’s degree in Communication Systems Strategy and Management from Northwestern University where the focus of his academic research was bridging the business, technology and communication gap towards finding growth opportunities across global enterprises.

As Privacy Counsel for Accenture, Alison Harkins provides data privacy legal guidance to Accenture focusing on compliance for internal Accenture matters including roll-out of technology tools and applications for the CIO and Information Security organizations, HR matters, and marketing. She consults on incorporating privacy by design into technology and business solutions and also advises on risk assessments and data privacy audits. During the past year she assisted with the roll-out of the updated business ethics hotline, updated our managing director recruiting practices, and determined our GDPR strategy for the Global Marketing group including an assessment of programmatic marketing initiatives. Alison is familiar with data privacy laws across the Accenture footprint of 60 countries, including APAC, LATAM, North America, and the EU. Alison and her Data Privacy legal group have been ground zero for GDPR compliance efforts for the past year. Alison is International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) CIPP US and CIPM certified.

Previously Alison served as Senior Counsel for Information Resources, Inc., Savvis Corporation, Accenture HR Services, and MCI.

Alison has conducted numerous in-house trainings to legal and business teams during the past two years on a range of topics including biometrics, marketing compliance, and CIO/IS privacy by design. Alison recently spoke at the International Association of Professionals, IAPP Knowledgnet on Biometrics issues and is joining a roundtable for the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance. She is licensed in both Illinois and Arizona.

John Albright, HUB International Limited’s Chief Legal Officer, joined the Executive Management Team in May 2014. Albright is a seasoned, business-focused executive with 20 years of legal and commercial management experience in public, private and private equity-owned company and large law firm settings. While serving as the general counsel for several multinational corporations in complex and vastly different market segments, Albright amassed a record of building and leading highly efficient legal departments that effectively supported the achievement of commercial objectives.

Prior to accepting his current role of CLO at HUB International, Albright served as Senior Vice President, Global Legal and Compliance for Information Resources, Inc., a billion dollar data, technology and market research company with operations in 14 countries. Albright also worked as General Counsel for Accenture HR Services, Inc., an HR outsourcing joint venture that was ultimately acquired by Accenture during his tenure, and as both Division Counsel and Intellectual Property Counsel for Network Solutions, Inc., a large internet products and services company. In this latter role, Albright supported the $21 billion sale of Network Solutions (then a public company) to Verisign, Inc.

Albright began his legal career as an intellectual property and technology attorney with both Alston & Bird and Finnegan Henderson, focusing on complex litigation before state and Federal courts and the United States International Trade Commission.

Albright earned a BME in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, before pursuing his JD at Vanderbilt University Law School.