Next week, I’ll be in Chicago for the CLOC Global Institute as part of ACEDS’ media partnership with CLOC. The event takes place May 11–14, 2026, at McCormick Place in Chicago. I’m looking forward to the sessions, the exhibit hall, and the conversations that happen between sessions, the ones where people start connecting ideas that may not always appear next to each other on an agenda.
This year’s theme, Stronger by Design, is a fitting one. CLOC describes CGI 2026 as a place to explore how thoughtful design shapes stronger teams, smarter processes, and more connected organizations.
That theme also feels closely aligned with the work ACEDS does every day. ACEDS exists to help legal professionals improve and validate their e-discovery knowledge and skills, increase technology competence, advance their careers, and build connections in e-discovery and related fields.
In other words, ACEDS has always been focused on helping legal professionals become stronger by design.
One of the reasons I’m especially looking forward to CGI is the opportunity to continue a conversation that has been building for some time: the connection between e-discovery and legal operations. Carl Morrison, Rich Robinson, and I have been discussing this alignment for several years. A few weeks ago, Mike Quartararo and I had the opportunity to meet with Carl and CLOC Executive Director Oyango Snell to discuss the continued partnership between ACEDS and CLOC and how our organizations can create greater value for both communities.
That conversation matters because e-discovery and legal operations are sometimes treated as separate disciplines. E-discovery is often viewed through the lens of litigation, investigations, preservation, collection, review, production, and defensibility. Legal operations is often viewed through the lens of process improvement, spend management, technology strategy, vendor management, and legal department efficiency.
Those distinctions are real, but they are not walls.
The work overlaps more than many people realize.
E-discovery is not only a litigation function. It is also a data function, a technology function, a risk function, and a process discipline. Legal operations teams are increasingly focused on many of the same issues e-discovery professionals work through every day:
- AI governance
- information governance
- legal data
- cost control
- defensible workflows
- technology adoption
- vendor strategy, and
- measurable value.
That is why ACEDS belongs in the legal operations conversation. It is also why CLOC belongs in the e-discovery conversation.
CLOC brings together legal operations professionals, service providers, and stakeholders from across the legal ecosystem to explore how innovative practices can drive transformation and success. ACEDS brings a community deeply experienced in the legal data lifecycle, technology, certification, training, and practical education in e-discovery and related disciplines. These are different entry points into many of the same business and legal challenges.
From what I’ve seen on the agenda, e-discovery is not positioned as a standalone focus at CGI. But that does not mean the e-discovery connection is missing. In many ways, it is hiding in plain sight.
- Sometimes e-discovery shows up as AI governance.
- Sometimes it shows up as legal data.
- Sometimes it shows up as information governance, legal document workflows, audit-ready outputs, spend management, or process design.
- And sometimes it shows up in a session about AI agents.
The session that stands out most to me is “Beyond the Buzz: Building and Deploying AI Agents in Legal Ops,” featuring James Vinson, Jessica Escalera, and E.J. Bastien. The session will explore how legal operations leaders are designing and deploying AI agents, including how they are built, trained, governed, and integrated.
That is exactly the kind of conversation ACEDS members should be part of.
AI agents raise familiar questions for e-discovery professionals. What data is being used? How are outputs validated? What records are created? What decisions need to be documented? Where does human oversight belong? How do we ensure that technology is not only fast but also reliable, explainable, and appropriate to the matter or workflow at hand?
Those questions are not theoretical for the e-discovery community. They are part of the work.
I’m also interested in “Legal Hack: Fiduciary-Grade AI at Scale: Generating Accurate Insights from Thousands of Legal Documents,” presented by DLA Piper. Any session focused on deriving and validating insights from large volumes of legal documents, producing audit-ready outputs, and making those outputs useful for downstream legal and business processes feels highly relevant to ACEDS members. It may not have “e-discovery” in the title, but the connection is clear.
The same is true for “AI for Lawyers & AI by Lawyers: How to Support Legal AI Literacy & AI Governance.” Legal teams cannot govern what they do not understand. As AI becomes more embedded in legal workflows, technology competence becomes even more important; not only for lawyers, but for legal operations teams, litigation support professionals, e-discovery practitioners, information governance leaders, and service providers.
That is one of the places where ACEDS’ mission is especially relevant. Training, certification, continuing education, and community are not “nice to have” when technology is moving this quickly. They are how professionals stay current, credible, and prepared.
I’m also looking forward to sessions that speak to the human side of building stronger legal teams. Verna Myers’ session, “Fostering an Inclusive Workplace in a Shifting Financial, Legal & Cultural Landscape,” is high on my list. Stronger teams are not built by tools alone. They are built through trust, inclusion, belonging, communication, and leadership. If we are talking about designing better legal organizations, inclusion has to be part of the design.
The “Yes, And” improv session caught my attention. At first glance, improv may seem like an unexpected fit for a legal operations conference. But the more you think about it, the more sense it makes. Legal operations is full of change management, stakeholder alignment, competing priorities, and the need to listen well before solving quickly. E-discovery is no different. Strong communication is not a soft skill in this work. It is part of the infrastructure.
And of course, “Building a Personal Brand in the Age of AI” is a must-attend session for me. Professional visibility, career growth, and authentic communication are important across the legal ecosystem. In a world where AI can help anyone sound polished, the real differentiator is still clarity of voice, credibility of experience, and consistency of value. That matters for legal ops professionals, e-discovery professionals, and anyone building a career in legal technology.
Another must on my sessions is “Navigating Career Growth, Pathways, and Success,” featuring Marla Crawford and others. Career development is another natural connection point between ACEDS and CLOC. Both communities support professionals whose roles are evolving quickly. The future of legal work will require people who understand technology, data, process, risk, communication, and business value. No one builds that kind of career alone.
There is even an ACEDS connection in the wellness programming. Ari Kaplan, CEDS, Chair of the ACEDS Global Advisory Board, will lead the 5K.
I’m also looking forward to spending time with partners, sponsors, exhibitors, and industry friends. The sponsor list includes many familiar names across legal operations, legal technology, legal data, and e-discovery-adjacent services, including Relativity, Consilio, Everlaw, and Exterro. I’ll also be looking to connect with ACEDS affiliates, affinity, training, and media partners throughout the broader conference ecosystem, including organizations such as HaystackID, Cosmonauts, OpenText, Veritext, Today’s General Counsel, LegalTechTalk, and others.
The exhibit hall is always a good place to see where the market is moving. Legal departments are rethinking how they buy technology, evaluate AI, manage vendors, measure value, and connect tools to practical workflows. E-discovery providers are also continuing to expand into legal data intelligence, investigations, information governance, compliance, and broader enterprise legal workflows.
That is another reason the ACEDS/CLOC connection matters.
The lines between legal operations, e-discovery, legal technology, information governance, and legal data are becoming less rigid. That is not a problem. It is a sign that the legal industry is maturing.
Carl Morrison and Rich Robinson are two examples of why this bridge is so important. Carl serves on the CLOC Board and focuses on transforming data intelligence, information governance, and eDiscovery practices into business strategy enablers. Rich is an ACEDS member and serves on the CLOC board helping shape conversations at the intersection of legal operations, data, technology, AI, and eDiscovery.
I’m also looking forward to catching up with Oyango Snell, CLOC’s President & CEO. His leadership is centered on advancing CLOC’s mission to transform the business and practice of law through innovation, collaboration, and community. That spirit of collaboration is exactly what makes this partnership between ACEDS and CLOC so promising.
For ACEDS members, CGI offers a valuable opportunity to better understand how legal operations leaders are thinking about department design, AI adoption, spend, process improvement, and operational maturity.
For CLOC members, the ACEDS community brings deep experience in legal data, defensible processes, discovery workflows, technology competence, and the practical realities of managing information when risk, cost, and timelines matter.
Both communities are asking similar questions.
- How do we help legal teams work smarter?
- How do we use technology responsibly?
- How do we reduce risk without slowing down progress?
- How do we build better processes before a crisis forces the issue?
- How do we prepare professionals for the next phase of legal work?
Those questions are not owned by one discipline. They belong to all of us.
That is what I’ll be listening for at CGI. I’ll be looking for the sessions, conversations, and connections that show how legal operations and e-discovery can work more closely together, not because it sounds good in theory, but because it reflects how legal work is actually evolving.
Stronger legal teams do not happen by accident.
They are built through education, collaboration, technology competence, process discipline, community, and trust.
They are built when legal operations and e-discovery professionals learn from each other.
They are built when associations like ACEDS and CLOC create opportunities for members to connect across disciplines.
They are built when people who care about the future of legal work are willing to keep asking better questions.
It is a useful reminder of where the legal industry needs to go next, and why e-discovery and legal operations should be part of the same conversation.
While I’m at the CLOC Global Institute, I’ll be taking videos, capturing photos, gathering takeaways, and sharing what I learn with the ACEDS global community. I’ll be listening for the ideas, trends, questions, and conversations that matter to e-discovery professionals, legal operations leaders, legal technologists, service providers, and anyone working at the intersection of legal data, process, risk, and innovation.
So, if you’ll be at CGI, please come find me.
I’d love to hear what you are working on, which sessions are sparking ideas, what challenges your team is navigating, and where you see opportunities for stronger alignment between e-discovery and legal operations. Whether you are an ACEDS member, a CLOC member, a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, partner, or attendee, I would be glad to connect.
The best conference insights rarely come from the agenda alone. They come from the conversations in the hallway, the quick catch-ups after sessions, the questions people are asking in real time, and the moments when someone says, “We should be talking about this more.”
That is exactly what I’ll be looking for in Chicago.
Come say hello, share your perspective, and help me bring valuable insights back to the ACEDS community.
