ILTACON 2026 concludes today! One more day of sessions & the Closing Reception. Here are Thursday happenings at ILTACON 2026!

As I discussed here and here, the International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) annual conference ILTACON 2026 has been conducted this week at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN. Each day at ILTACON 2026, eDiscovery Today has been highlighting notable sessions for the day – in most cases, those sessions will relate to eDiscovery, Information Governance, cybersecurity, data privacy, or artificial intelligence (as well as a few other happenings during the week).

Also, several eDiscovery Today partners are exhibiting at ILTACON this week. Here they are with their booth numbers: Everlaw-331, KLDiscovery-213, Relativity-210, Syllo-747 and Epiq-430. Please check them out!

Here are Thursday happenings at ILTACON 2026!

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM CDT:

Thursday Keynote: G100/G200 Recap (Delta Ballroom A)

During ILTACON, the CIOs of the world’s largest law firms gather for dedicated programming. These “under the tent” conversations are designed for and by these large-firm CIOs.

Join us as Dan Hauck from NetDocuments leads a conversation with five G100 and G200 attendees, who will share some key insights from these programs.

Speakers: Dan Hauck, Chief Product Officer, NetDocuments; Karen Campbell, Chief Information Officer, Foley Hoag LLP; Alexis Collins, Chief Information Officer, US, Norton Rose Fulbright; Axel Koelsch, COO, Lawfront Group Limited; James McKenna, Chief Information Officer, Foley & Lardner LLP; Jim Merrifield, Chief Data Officer, Robinson & Cole LLP.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CDT:

Managing Scope, Spend, and Surprises in eDiscovery (CLE) (Tennessee AB)

Discovery budgets fail when estimation, communication, and vendor strategy fall out of alignment. Too often, cost surprises damage client trust and force teams to absorb avoidable expenses. This session provides practical guidance on building defensible discovery budgets from RFP through final invoice, managing scope changes, and aligning vendor relationships to support cost predictability.

Attendees will gain tools and frameworks to plan, defend, and deliver discovery budgets with confidence.

Speakers: Brett Burney, eDiscovery Consultant, Burney Consultants; Mike Gaudet, Senior Managing Director, J.S. Held Inc; James Vinson, Manager of eData Client Services, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, L.L.P.

Legaltech Week Live (Tennessee Ballroom DE)

Join Bob Ambrogi and his panel of industry experts, Caroline Hill and Joe Patrice, for an ILTACON week’s-end round-up and review of legal technology and innovation.

Speakers: Bob Ambrogi, Publisher, LawSites; Joe Patrice, Publisher/Press, Above the Law; Nicole Black, Lawyer/Principal Legal Insight Strategist/Journalist/Author, My Case, ABA Journal, Above the Law; Caroline Hill, Editor in Chief/Press, Legal IT Insider; Stephen Embry, Principal/Press, TechLaw Crossroads LLC.

Secret Agentic Man: When AI Starts Acting on Its Own (Davidson North)

As we are well into 2026, the legal industry is shifting from “Generative AI” (which creates content) to “Agentic AI” (which takes action). In this session, we peel back the curtain on AI agents – autonomous systems capable of reasoning, using specialized tools, and executing multi-step legal processes without constant human oversight.

While the efficiency gains are staggering, the transition from human-led tasks to AI-led agency fundamentally alters the risk landscape for any legal organization. We will explore how delegation replaces prompting, and why your current AI policies might be obsolete in the face of autonomous tool-chaining.

The 2026 Inflection Point

We have officially entered the era of Production-Grade Agency. AI is no longer just drafting a memo; it is monitoring a docket, identifying a deadline, pulling the relevant files, drafting the response, and filing it with the court – all while the human professional is asleep.

High-Stakes Examples

The Autonomous Processor: An AI agent receives a discovery request, identifies privileged documents using a proprietary tool, redacts them, and transmits the production set to opposing counsel without a final human “eyes-on” review.

The Self-Executing Auditor: An agent monitors contract compliance across an entire organization, automatically triggering “notice of breach” emails to vendors based on its own interpretation of real-time data feeds.

Key Takeaways

Demystifying Agency: A plain-English breakdown of how agents use “reasoning loops” to move beyond simple text generation.

Why Controls Break: An analysis of why traditional “human-in-the-loop” mandates fail when AI starts “chaining” multiple tools together at scale.

The New Governance Framework: Essential principles every organization must implement to maintain ethical and professional obligations in an autonomous environment.

Liability & Attribution: Who is responsible when the “Secret Agent” makes a legal error?

Speakers: Valerie McConnell, Vice President, Solutions Engineering, Thomson Reuters; Ali Mohammed, CEO, JuristAI Legal Software Corporation; Leyla Samiee, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Introhive; Victoria Grech, Chief AI Officer, iCompli by LegalRM.

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT:

High-Velocity eDiscovery: How to Move Fast Without Crashing (Tennessee AB)

When a matter drops with an impossible deadline, eDiscovery can feel less like a workflow and more like a race; fast, high-pressure, and completely unforgiving. In the fast lane, every decision matters: one wrong turn can jeopardize defensibility, and one missed hazard can send the entire project off the track. Teams need a clear approach for staying in control.

This session examines how seasoned litigation support and eDiscovery professionals navigate projects that move at racing pace. We will explore how to stabilize scope quickly, make smart processing choices under pressure, and maintain a defensible workflow while still moving at top speed. Panelists will share tactics for communication, risk management, and rapid issue resolution along with the warning signs that signal you are about to skid into trouble.

Speakers: Deedra Smith, Managing Director, FTI Consulting; Dave Shargel, Attorney, Bracewell LLP; Andy Kim, eDiscovery Counsel, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM CDT:

Document Review Strategy Playbook: Mastering AI + Human Partnership (CLE) (Tennessee AB)

In 2026, the hallmark of a successful legal team is the ability to seamlessly integrate early technology-driven triage, focused human judgment, and Generative AI (GenAI) into a single, cohesive workflow. This session provides a field-tested playbook for legal operations, litigation support managers, and discovery counsel to architect reviews that are not only faster but legally unassailable.

How can legal teams determine which review tasks must stay in human hands and which can safely migrate to GenAI without sacrificing quality, privilege protection, or defensibility? This session will answer that question, with clear, field-tested frameworks for integrating GenAI responsibly into document review workflows.

Attendees will explore the review ecosystem, moving from broad data reduction to high-stakes deposition prep.

Speakers: Murali Baddula, Chief Digital Officer, Law In Order; Jon Lavinder, Senior Director, Epiq; James Park, Director, AI Consulting, DISCO; Jim Sullivan, Founder, eDiscovery AI.

Here’s a link to the detailed agenda for the week. Final day!

So, what do you think? Are you checking out the Thursday happenings at ILTACON 2026? If you’re here in person, look me up!  And 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 author, 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.