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Bridgette Carr is a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan and founding director of the Law School’s Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC). The HTC was launched in 2009 and was the nation’s first legal clinic devoted to providing comprehensive representation to victims of human trafficking. Bridgette represents victims of human trafficking in a variety of legal matters and her clients come from both the U.S. and abroad and are both sex and labor trafficking victims. I spoke with her about a very unique course she teaches focused on how to “design” your life in the law. Continue Reading Bridgette Carr

David Lat
David Lat

David Lat is a name familiar to many. David is a managing director in the New York office of Lateral Link, a leading legal recruiting firm, where he focuses his efforts on placing top associates, partners, and in-house counsel into preeminent law firms and corporate legal departments around the country. David also writes about legal affairs for national publications and speaks for law firms at events such as firm-wide retreats, partner retreats, summer associate gatherings, and diversity initiatives.

Prior to joining Lateral Link, David founded and served as managing editor (2006-2017) of Above the Law (“ATL”), a widely read and award-winning website about the legal profession that reaches more than 1.5 million unique visitors a month. David continues to write a semimonthly column for ATL and also contributes to other publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Prior to ATL, he launched Underneath Their Robes, a popular and buzz-generating blog about federal judges that he wrote under a pseudonym.

Before entering the media world, David worked as a federal prosecutor, a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz in New York, and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

David is also a published author. His first book, Supreme Ambitions: A Novel, was published in 2014. According to the New York Times, “for an elite niche — consisting largely of federal judges and their clerks — Supreme Ambitions has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year.” Continue Reading David Lat

Eric Laughlin

Eric Laughlin is the CEO of Agiloft, the global leader in contract and commerce lifecycle management (CCLM) software. Eric has over a decade of leadership experience running legal software and tech-enabled services business serving Fortune 1000 clients. Prior to Agiloft, Eric was the global leader of Legal Managed Services at Ernst & Young, LLP. His organization, including the Pangea3 and Riverview Law teams, provided EY clients with technology and service solutions in the contracts, e-discovery, and compliance domains globally. Before EY, he was managing director of the Corporate Segment within Thomson Reuters, responsible for information, software, and service offerings for corporate legal departments. His career at Thompson Reuters included posts as general manager for Serengeti (e-billing & matter management software), consultant in the Global Strategy function, and marketing leadership roles. Continue Reading Eric Laughlin

Varun Mehta

Varun Mehta is the CEO of Factor, a leader for complex legal work at scale. Factor serves over 50 of the Fortune 500 / FTSE 100 companies, combining the legal skill, market know-how and expertise of Traditional Law with the process efficiency, technology and data orientation of New Law.

A long-time problem-solver and biomedical engineer by training, Varun is a trusted advisor to general counsel and legal operations leaders within global organizations. His efforts have helped legal departments innovate, transformed how legal work is delivered and generated value across the legal landscape.

Before joining Factor, Varun was a founding member, EVP, and CRO of Clutch Group. He learned the market, built the organization from the ground up and transformed it from a staff augmentation company to an industry-leading, tech-enabled managed legal services firm. In three years, Clutch expanded to $55M in annual revenue, 500 people and 7 offices across the globe, then merged and became Morae Global. His focus on advising and investment flowered in 2015 when he founded Rogers Avenue, a firm focused on partnering with founders and CEOs to grow their business through fundraising, corporate development and growth strategy. Varun guided the development of Bodhala, a Legal Technology provider, which grew 600% in 24 months. Continue Reading Varun Mehta

Matthew Berrick

Matthew Berrick is an impressive individual who I first connected with by virtue of our mutual interests in legal technology and legal innovation. Matt isn’t yet a lawyer, but already has accomplished quite a bit including publishing a book and co-founding a legal magazine. He is most certainly destined for more upon entering the legal field.

Continue Reading Matthew Berrick

Aaron Kotok

Aaron Kotok is Director of Strategy & Innovation at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, where he landed just before the pandemic, returning to BigLaw (in a business role) after over a decade of various consulting roles in and around the legal industry.

After starting his legal career at Venable LLP, Aaron built a series of legal, management, advisory, and leadership experiences at Gerson Lehrman Group. CEB Leadership Council for Legal Executives (f/k/a the General Counsel Roundtable, now part of Gartner), and AdvanceLaw (a GC cooperative vetting outside counsel for performance and quality). Continue Reading Aaron Kotok

Bryan Parker

Bryan R. Parker is CEO and Co-Founder of Legal Innovators. Bryan oversees the day-to-day operations of the business and drives strategy of Legal Innovators. Bryan has been a critical voice on diversity and inclusion issues and has written and spoken about these issues frequently. Bryan’s passion is to help the legal industry innovate, rationalize costs and drive systemic progress in diversity and inclusion. Continue Reading Bryan Parker

Jack Newton

Jack Newton is a name familiar to many, especially those with an interest in legal technology. He is the forward-thinking CEO and founder of Clio. Clio is a legal technology company focused on making technologies to help lawyers manage legal matters and client relationships. Jack is the type of person much-needed in the legal industry – one with a keen focus on making the industry focused on clients and NOT on lawyers. Continue Reading Jack Newton