Lawyers are under pressure to modernize the way they deliver legal services without sacrificing the trust, judgment, and professionalism that define the profession. Clients expect clearer communication, more transparency around costs, and a smoother experience at every step of the matter. At the same time, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping how legal work gets done.
At the Commission’s annual Future Is Now: Legal Services conference, two sessions will help lawyers meet this moment with creativity and care. Have you registered yet?
Legal technology company Clio’s Lawyer-in-Residence, Joshua Lenon, and April Dawson, Associate Dean of Technology and Innovation at North Carolina Central University School of Law, will offer practical guidance on designing client-centered innovation and building ethical AI governance structures that best serve clients and the profession.
The Future Is Now will be held virtually on Thursday, April 30, from 12 – 4:30 p.m. CDT. Registration is open via this link.
Four hours of professional responsibility CLE in Illinois is available, including 1 hour of diversity and inclusion CLE and 1 hour of mental health and substance abuse CLE.
Why this conversation matters
The evolution of legal technology and client expectations isn’t slowing down. At the same time, regulatory bodies and courts are increasingly signaling that lawyers must understand and manage the risks of AI and other advanced tools as part of their duty of competence.
Lenon and Dawson sit squarely at that intersection. Through talks and an interactive town hall, they will provide realistic strategies that all lawyers can use to better implement technology in daily tasks while staying grounded in strong ethics and governance.
Law firm efficiency in the age of AI
The modern legal client expects more than a well-researched brief or a solid courtroom performance. They expect regular updates, clear next steps, and a sense that their lawyer is empathetic to their needs. Yet, many lawyers are still working with systems and workflows that were built for a very different era.
Joshua Lenon has spent years studying the evolution of work in law firms, including how they track time, communicate with clients, and use (or don’t use) technology in their systems.
During his talk, Designing Client-Centered Innovation: Practical Ways to Modernize Your Practice, Lenon will draw on insights from Clio’s annual Legal Trends Report to show how data, innovative tools, and intentional workflow design can transform how legal professionals deliver value. He will explore how AI fits into a broader ecosystem of practice tools that help lawyers become more responsive, transparent, and aligned with client needs.
Attendees will see what it looks like to redesign a matter lifecycle (from intake to invoice) around client expectations for clear communication, status visibility, and cost predictability. Along the way, Lenon will flag key ethical considerations that come with increased automation and data use, then hand it off to Dawson to go deeper on governance and professional responsibility.
Building effective AI governance for legal practice
If innovation is about what is possible, governance puts those possibilities into action. In her talk, AI Governance for Every Lawyer: An Ethical Framework to Protect Clients and the Profession, April Dawson will unpack what AI governance really means in legal practice: not just a written policy in a handbook, but an ongoing framework of expectations, rules, training, and oversight for how AI and other legal technologies are selected, tested, used, and monitored.
Dawson will connect this framework directly to lawyers’ ethical duties and professional values. This includes a practical governance checklist rooted in competence, confidentiality, supervision, transparency, and fairness. Dawson will also raise the questions every lawyer should ask before using any technology, whether AI-powered or not, including what the tool’s purpose is, what data it uses and stores, and what human review and accountability should look like.
Dawson will demonstrate that strong AI governance is not a brake on innovation, but a precondition for sustainable, trustworthy advancements in law. Attendees will leave with a clear, repeatable framework they can recall when evaluating new tools, updating office policies, and training colleagues and staff.
Town hall: Where innovation meets governance
After the talks, Lenon and Dawson will join Commission Chief Counsel Mark C. Palmer for a town hall discussion that brings these themes together. The town hall will invite candid questions about what it really takes to modernize a practice while staying on the right side of ethics and client expectations.
The discussion will explore common pain points and examine how to:
- Explore new tools without exposing clients or the firm to unnecessary risk
- Embed governance into everyday workflows, not just policies
- Talk to clients about the use of AI and automation in their matters
Whether you are just beginning to explore technology and AI, or refining your firm’s existing tools and policies, these sessions will offer practical, actionable insights you can bring back to your practice.
To learn more about this year’s full Future Is Now: Legal Services speaker lineup, including sessions on “The Lawyer Brain,” navigating conflict through stoic empathy, advancing inclusion through mentoring, and more, click here.
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