Legalweek 2026 concludes today with a partial day of sessions! Here are the Thursday Legalweek 2026 sessions to check out!

Legalweek 2026 has been conducted this week from Monday through today. For the first time ever, it has not been held at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City; instead, it has been held at the Javits Center (side note: as you can see above, my Apple Watch has never been prouder of me!). I published a word cloud based on the agenda last week to give you a sense of the topics in this year’s conference.

Each day, I’ve been covering what’s going on at the conference in terms of sessions related to eDiscovery, information governance, cybersecurity, data privacy and (of course) artificial intelligence – so much so, I’d have to clone myself to catch them all!

Sessions

With that in mind, here’s a list of the Thursday Legalweek 2026 sessions of note you may want to check out, along with the location (all times ET):

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

2026 State of the Industry Keynote – The Reckoning: Why Yesterday’s Playbook Won’t Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success

Join Patrick Fuller and Heather Nevitt for a special Legalweek State of the Industry presentation. Drawing on ALM’s unique insights, this keynote session will provide a forward-looking assessment of the global legal market through data, analysis, and thorough research. Going beyond surface trends, the session explores the work behind the headlines—how firms, legal departments, and providers are planning, adapting, and investing to future-proof their organizations amid regulatory uncertainty and changing client demands.

This presentation will challenge legal leaders to envision what success will look like in five years and whether current strategies are designed to achieve it. By examining emerging risks, structural shifts, and opportunities within law firms, corporate legal departments, alternative legal service providers, and legal technology companies, the session emphasizes a key point: what has brought the industry to this point will not be enough to sustain it moving forward.

Speakers: Patrick Fuller, Chief Legal Industry Strategist – ALM, Heather Nevitt, Editor in Chief, Corporate Coverage – Law.com.

Location Name: Rooms 501 – 502

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM

Innovation in Disputes & Investigations: Three AI Case Studies

Every day, e-discovery teams are finding new and innovative ways to leverage AI for disputes and investigations. This session will showcase three recent client case studies in which various tools and innovative workflows were used to expedite fact-finding and discovery, leading to positive client outcomes.

Attendees will learn:

• How to spot key use cases within disputes and investigations that lend themselves to Generative AI
• Best practices for supporting workflows that ensure human oversight and defensibility
• Tips for measuring the costs and benefits of Generative AI versus other analytics tools

Speakers: Andrew Szwez, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting, Ryan Leske, Counsel, A&O Shearman, Maria Georges, Associate, Covington & Burling, Steven DiCesare, Counsel, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.

Location Name: Room 405.1

Change Is Inevitable, Success Is Optional: Change Management Strategies for the Modern Law Firm

Technology is reshaping the legal industry at lighting speed, but adoption doesn’t happen overnight. In this session, we’ll go beyond checklists and training manuals to explore the human side of change. You’ll learn why lawyers (and firms!) often resist new tools, how to anticipate and work with that resistance, and practical strategies to ensure smooth adoption.

Discussion topics include: 

• The psychology of resistance: Why lawyers resist change and how to reframe adoption as an opportunity rather than a burden
• People-centered strategies: How to build buy-in and work with your team rather than against them
• Process and platform alignment: Tips for integrating new technology into existing processes without disruption
• Proven adoption tactics: Real-world examples from law firms that successfully navigated technology change

Speakers: Katie DeBord, VP, Product Strategy, CS DISCO, Shannon Capone Kirk, Managing Principal and Global Head, Advanced E-Discovery and A.I. Strategy Group, Ropes & Gray, Wendy Butler Curtis, Chief Innovation Officer, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Meredith Williams Range, Chief Legal Operations Officer, Gibson Dunn.

Location Name: Room 406.2

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

How New Export Rules Reshape Cross-Border Discovery

Rapid changes in export controls, data-transfer laws, and geopolitical dynamics are rewriting the rules for global discovery. Legal teams must navigate new restrictions on data movement, heightened scrutiny of cross-border workflows, and the operational hurdles created by fragmented regulatory regimes. This session breaks down the emerging export rules shaping international eDiscovery and offers practical guidance for keeping investigations, regulatory response, and litigation strategy compliant and efficient across jurisdictions.

Discussion topics include:

• What recent export-control changes mean for cross-border data transfers and hosting decisions
• Designing discovery workflows that respect national security restrictions, data sovereignty laws, and foreign blocking statutes
• Working with regulators and courts when key evidence cannot freely leave a jurisdiction
• Strategies for minimizing delays, risk, and cost when conducting multi-country investigations

Speakers: Ignatius Grande, Director, BRG, George Rudoy, Principal/Partner, Crowe LLP, Denise Backhouse, Shareholder, eDiscovery Counsel, Littler Mendelson PC, Craig Pfister, VP Sales Engineering, Kiteworks.

Location Name: Room 405.1

Who Decides What Happens Next? When Agents Move the Work

As AI agents begin to move legal work forward on their own, a new question becomes unavoidable: who decides what happens next? This fireside conversation shifts the focus from what agents can do to the governance decisions that give them real authority—routing, escalation, completion, and next steps. It’s a practical look at how legal ops leaders define the rules that let agents execute reliably across teams and systems.

Attendees will learn how to:

• Identify the decision points that must be defined before AI agents can operate safely and effectively
• Understand how routing, escalation, and completion rules shape agent-driven workflows
• Clarify ownership and accountability when work moves autonomously
• Align legal, operations, and business stakeholders on how agents should act
• Move from “AI as a tool” to “AI as part of how work actually gets done”

Speakers: Aaron Bromagem, GM, LegalWorks, Tonkean, Bennett Pray, Senior Product Manager, American Express, Anna Zearley, Head of Legal Technology and Engineering, Block, Inc., Kristin Calve, Editor, CCBJ.

Location Name: Room 406.1

If You’re Not Using AI, Are You Committing Malpractice?

The ABA’s December 2025 Year 2 Report is unequivocal: the legal profession has moved from debating whether to adopt AI to determining how to deploy it responsibly. Five sitting judges published guidance explicitly endorsing AI for core litigation tasks, including summarizing depositions, generating case timelines, and verifying citation accuracy. These aren’t suggested efficiencies. They’re baseline expectations.

Yet that same report acknowledges a fundamental problem: no known generative AI tool has solved hallucination. The technology mandates human verification of every output. The ABA warns specifically against “automation bias”—the tendency to accept AI-generated work without critical review—and states unequivocally that AI cannot replace human judgment.

This creates an unavoidable paradox for practitioners: ethical competence may require using tools that ethical practice prohibits you from trusting. Where does that leave the profession?

Speakers: Joe Stephens, Director of Legal Solutions, Steno Agency, Inc., Allison Harbin, AI Portfolio Manager, Jenner & Block, Matt Krengel, Director of Information Retention Counseling, Cooley LLP, Shannon Boettjer, Partner — Commercial Litigation & Governance, Jaspan Schlesinger Narendran LLP.

Location Name: Room 406.2

12:45 PM – 1:45 PM

Locked Down & Litigated: Security Hardening Meets eDiscovery Reality

As cybersecurity expectations intensify, legal teams face the challenge of meeting stringent security requirements while keeping discovery workflows moving. Encryption standards, data-handling protocols, and vendor scrutiny are rising in tandem with litigation demands that still require speed and flexibility. This session explores how leading organizations are reconciling the push for hardened security with the operational realities of eDiscovery, highlighting practical approaches, governance updates, and the trade-offs that matter most.

Discussion topics include:

• Aligning eDiscovery workflows with evolving cybersecurity standards and internal security mandates
• Real-world strategies for secure data transfer, hosting, processing, and review
• Managing friction points between IT, security, and litigation teams
• Preparing for client, regulator, and court expectations around secure discovery practices

Speakers: Graeme Turner, Litigation Support Manager, Dickinson Wright, Adriano Ferreira, Manager of Ediscovery Services & Operations, Holland & Knight, David Kessler, Global Head of eDiscovery and Information Governance Head of Privacy, US, Norton Rose Fulbright, Glenn Melcher, VP, Public Sector, Cimplifi, Christine Simmons, Senior Editor, Business of Law, ALM Media.

Location Name: Room 405.1

Here’s the full agenda for the week.

So, what do you think of the Thursday Legalweek 2026 sessions?  Did you attend Legalweek 2026 this week? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the authors and speakers themselves, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.