More Than A Lawyer with Holly Cope

In this episode, I'm talking with Anna Popowicz - Pazdej, Global Senior Data Privacy Lawyer at Dentons.Anna walks us through the heavy-lifting required to move a firm from a "proof of concept" to full operational readiness, ensuring that innovation never comes at the cost of client confidentiality.We talk about the meticulous process of implementing AI—starting with the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and ending with firm-wide AI literacy. You’ll hear perspectives on why your architectural diagram is your best defense against data leaks and how to prevent your client’s trade secrets from becoming part of a vendor’s training set. The Compliance Blueprint: Why the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is your primary tool for assessing data residency and encryption risks. Architecture Matters: Understanding the data flow between models and the importance of encryption both in transit and at rest. The Hallucination Fix: How Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) databases can minimize AI errors by grounding responses in your own secure data. The "Shadow AI" Threat: The dangers of using unassessed AI tools that may retrain their models using your sensitive client data. Operational Readiness: Balancing innovation with policy through specific guidelines, retention periods, and tiered training for junior vs. senior lawyers. Vendor Warranties: Essential clauses for your Data Processing Agreements (DPA) to ensure vendors and subprocessors do not use your data for their own model training.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Dharshi Harindra, a tech lawyer, Assistant General Counsel, and Executive Coach.She is the founder and host of the Unbiased podcast, a platform dedicated to exploring the legal industry through the lens of curiosity and leadership.We first met at Legal Tech Talk in London in 2025, and after a brief chat for my show, she invited me onto hers to dig deeper into the "why" behind the work I do.We talk about the transformation of the legal industry and how the widening mindset gap between generations is the primary barrier to AI adoption. You’ll hear perspectives on reclaiming your career autonomy and the importance of upskilling in an era where AI is rapidly automating junior-level tasks.In this conversation, we explore:The "Inside-Outside" Perspective: My journey from training as a lawyer to building a freelance career that supports a digital nomad lifestyle.The Gen Z vs. Traditional Firm Conflict: Why law firms are no longer just competing with each other, but with the flexibility of consultancy models.The Trust Gap in AI: Why most legal tech marketing misses the mark and how practitioners can bridge the knowledge gap.The Global AI Skills Summit: Reflections on the November 2025 summit and the necessity of mandatory AI training for the future of the profession.Living Intentionally: A closing question on whether your daily actions actually align with your long-term goals.I usually spend my time interviewing others, but Dharshi gave me a rare opportunity to share my own story. I’m sharing this here because many of the themes we discussed - specifically the mindset shift required to survive the AI era - are the core of why I created this podcast. I hope you enjoy the "other side" of the microphone as much as I did. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with James Smither, Global Head of Risk Management at Freshfields. James is a self-described "risk geek" dedicated to redefining how law firms perceive uncertainty as both a massive upside and a critical downside.We talk about the "apocalyptic spectrum" of AI risks - from the common trip-ups like hallucinations and citation errors to the looming threat of quantum computing breaking modern encryption. You’ll hear why the traditional graduate recruitment model is officially obsolete and how firms must pivot to training "AI natives" who can balance technical curiosity with human scepticism.Defining Risk 101: Why risk is the "impact of uncertainty on objectives" and why that matters for your bottom line.The Talent Gap: The disconnect between "AI natives" who instinctively use the tools and the "analogue generation" who know how to spot their mistakes.The End of the Billable Hour?: Why AI efficiency is creating a tangible, existential threat to traditional legal pricing models.The Human Value-Add: Why your unique insight and reliability are the only things that will distinguish winners from losers when everyone uses the same machines.--------Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI eraI'm focused on:What AI is exposingThe opportunitiesThe blind spotsAnd the shifts shaping the next five years.This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Sandy MacDonald, Senior Director and Head of Legal Operations at DocuSign. Sandy is recognised for building an "ahead of the curve" team that treats AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborative digital assistant embedded into the very fabric of their workflow.We talk about the cultural shift of AI adoption and how focusing on individual "pain points". You’ll hear perspectives on "human-in-the-loop" governance and why the most successful legal teams are moving away from "AI slop" toward high-value, verified automation that lawyers actually trust.Overcoming the Fear of Replacement: Sandy explains that the primary cultural hurdle is fear; however, she emphasises that AI won't replace lawyers, but lawyers who use AI will replace those who do not.The "Foot in the Door" Strategy: Instead of massive overhauls, the team focuses on "narrow use cases" such as using Gemini to generate images for presentations - to build curiosity and comfort."Human-in-the-Loop" Governance: DocuSign implements a strict governance model where humans remain responsible for validating every piece of AI-generated output.Peer-to-Peer Learning Over Formal Training: Sandy shares why monthly "AI wins" segments in Town Halls are more contagious and effective than top-down mandates or formal one-hour training sessions.Criteria for AI Adoption: How to identify the best starting points for automation by looking for tasks that are high-volume but low-risk, such as processing customer questionnaires.The Evolution of Legal Ops: The shift in the Legal Ops role from being CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) experts to becoming "AI evangelists" and builders who design their own custom workflows.--------Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI eraI'm focused on:What AI is exposingThe opportunitiesThe blind spotsAnd the shifts shaping the next five years.This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Zack Shapiro, founder of an AI-native law firm, Rains LLP. Zack is a corporate lawyer focused on startups and business law who has transformed his two-person practice into a high-leverage powerhouse serving over 200 clients. Despite describing himself as "uniquely bad at using tech tools," he has pioneered a "Claude-native" workflow that uses agentic AI to handle his legal work.We talk about the shift from "billable hours" to "high-judgment lawyering" and how prompting is becoming the most critical white-collar skill of the next decade. You’ll hear perspectives on why most legal tech "wrappers" are actually counterproductive that most lawyers are missing.The Power of "Bare Metal": Why Zack avoids expensive legal AI platforms in favor of direct, "bare metal" interaction with reasoning models like Claude.Prompting as an Essay: Moving beyond simple queries to 2,000-word "context dumps" that capture the nuance of a client's specific leverage and goals.Building Custom "Skills": How to use your own past work as a reinforcement learning environment to create agentic workflows that compound in value over time.The Entrepreneurial Opportunity: Why now is the greatest time in history for small, AI-empowered legal teams to steal market share from rigid, legacy firms.The Hallucination Filter: Practical strategies for using AI to check itself, ensuring that "turning your brain off" never becomes an option.--------Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI eraI'm focused on:What AI is exposingThe opportunitiesThe blind spotsAnd the shifts shaping the next five years.This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.