RelFest 2026 concludes today, with sessions all day and more! Here’s what you can expect from RelFest 2026 Thursday sessions!
Relativity Fest is now officially “RelFest”, which is an annual conference designed to educate and connect the eDiscovery community The conference is being conducted at the Hyatt Regency Chicago for the fifth straight year and concludes with a full day today. As usual, I’ve been covering educational sessions at the conference and reporting on whatever else seems interesting. Here are RelFest 2026 Thursday sessions (location in parenthesis):
10:15 AM-11:15 AM CT
AI in Legal 2026: Advanced Access Research Preview (Regency C)
How has AI affected legal professionals in 2026? How have things changed over the last few years? The RelFest tradition of previewing educational research continues with this year’s edition highlighting artificial intelligence. In this AI session, RelFest attendees will get an advanced access look at the latest research results, including AI in Legal 2026: A Relativity Study with Research by IDC, the Relativity-National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) State Court Judges Survey, The 8th Annual General Counsel Report by Relativity and FTI Consulting, and Relativity’s State of AI in Legal Data Intelligence survey.
Speakers: David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity, Chief Justice Amy Lyn Blake, Chief Justice, Massachusetts Appeals Court, Ryan O’Leary, Research Director, IDC, Wendy King, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting, Ari Kaplan, Principal, Ari Kaplan, Adam Weiss, Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Legal Officer, Relativity.
10:15 AM-11:00 AM CT
Shaping the Next Generation of Legal Professionals (Crystal A)
As artificial intelligence and changing client expectations reshape legal practice, the expectations for tomorrow’s legal professionals are rapidly evolving. This session brings together legal educators and industry leaders to explore how law schools and the broader industry are reimagining legal education and preparing the next generation of talent. Panelists will discuss the ways law schools are adapting curricula to meet the needs of a changing profession, the skills future lawyers will need beyond foundational knowledge, and how academia and the legal profession can best prepare graduates to succeed in an increasingly complex and technology-driven world.
Speakers: Adam Rouse, Director, Corporate Legal Community Engagement, Relativity, Bobby Williams, Director, iDS/NExT, April Dawson, Professor of Law & Faculty Director of AI Initiative, Howard University School of Law, Dorna Moini, VP, Product Management; CEO/Founder of Gavel, Relativity.
11:30 AM-12:15 PM CT
e-Discovery Gone Wrong: A Choose-Your-Own-Disaster (You’re Holding the Paddle) (Grand Hall IJ)
It’s 4:47 p.m. on a Friday. A new, urgent project just landed on your desk. Forty custodians. Slack threads, WhatsApp voice notes, Copilot outputs. And a legal hold that somehow never went out. Opposing counsel wants a meet-and-confer Monday morning. Tight deadlines. What do you do first? You decide. In this fully interactive session, the audience drives the case forward, voting at every fork in the road on scoping the project, the preservation and collection strategy, tool selection, cost-shifting posture, privilege calls, and sanctions risk. Our panel of e-discovery veterans, in-house counsel, and a sitting judge react in real time to your choices, share what they’d do differently, and show you where each path leads: to successful project outcome, a bruising sanctions hearing, or somewhere painfully in between. Bring your instincts and your strongest opinions. Every seat comes with a paddle. Every vote changes the story. You’ll leave with a mental playbook for the fact patterns keeping GCs up at night, and maybe a few new friends in the room who voted with you.
Speakers: Cristin Traylor, Senior Director, AI Transformation and Law Firm Strategy, Relativity, Mike Quartararo, President, Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS), Stephanie Clerkin, Director of Litigation Support, Korein Tillery.
Modernizing Legal Data Intelligence in the Cloud (Regency D)
As expectations on in-house legal teams rise and AI workflows become increasingly common, many organizations are reevaluating whether legacy legal technology can support the flexibility, scalability, and pace of innovation required for the future. In this session, panelists representing different organizations and perspectives across the legal ecosystem will discuss how moving from Relativity Server to Relativity aiR helped streamline operations, improve scalability across matters and teams, and provide faster access to continuously evolving capabilities and innovation. The discussion will also explore practical lessons learned throughout the transition to the cloud, including how teams approached modernization strategically, aligned key stakeholders, and balanced immediate operational needs with long-term flexibility while minimizing disruption.
Speakers: Gary Leuis, Executive Director, Commercial Banking Risk Management, Wells Fargo, Scott McVeigh, Senior Director of Enterprise Records Management, Regeneron, Clint Davis, Director, eDiscovery & Legal Projects, ConocoPhillips, Danny Frank, Senior Sales Engineer, Relativity.
12:30 PM-12:50 PM CT
From Counsel to Catalyst: How Legal Data Intelligence Is Redefining the Legal Profession (Spotlight Stage, Community Pavilion, Riverside)
The legal data landscape is changing faster than ever, AI is transforming workflows, and client expectations are climbing. By leaning into their technology fluency and curiosity for solving complex data challenges across legal workflows, data-oriented legal professionals can turn this moment into a pivotal opportunity to chart new paths in their careers. In this session, legal industry analyst Ari Kaplan – who has spent decades studying, chronicling, and analyzing the evolving relationship between technology, lawyers, and the industry – talks to Legal Data Intelligence leaders to discover how the LDI model can help legal professionals expand their remit, move up the value chain, and turn AI into an operational reality.
Speakers: Marla Crawford, Cimplifi, Ari Kaplan, Principal, Ari Kaplan, Josh Kreamer, Cofounder/CEO, Seedless.
1:30 PM-2:15 PM CT
Justice Disrupted, Access Delivered: Using AI to Empower Pro Bono Attorneys at Scale (Crystal C)
As demand for pro bono legal services continues to grow, legal AI technology is increasingly essential to expanding capacity without compromising ethics or quality. This session explores how AI can responsibly empower pro bono attorneys by improving readiness, accelerating issue identification, and supporting complex, data‑heavy matters, particularly for lawyers new to this work. Drawing on real‑world use cases, panelists will discuss how thoughtful implementation of AI can strengthen attorney confidence, safeguard client interests, and translate innovation into meaningful gains in access to justice.
Speakers: Martha Louks, Managing Director, Discovery Technology Services, McDermott Will & Schulte, Dan Degener, AI Discovery Consultant, Akerman LLP, Jaclyn Sattler, Relativity, Josh Zylbershlag, Director of E-Discovery Services, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garr.
1:30 PM-2:30 PM CT
Hot Topics on Trial: The Great Debate in e-Discovery (Crystal A)
e-Discovery is constantly evolving, and the toughest questions legal teams face do not always have clear answers. In this interactive debate session, industry experts will take opposing sides on three major hot-button issues shaping the future of e-discovery, including generative AI and other timely topics transforming legal practice. Each round will feature advocates arguing the pros and cons before a judge, followed by an audience vote and a final ruling from the bench. Designed to be lively, practical, and thought-provoking, this session will surface competing perspectives on the trends, risks, and decisions defining the industry today, while giving attendees a chance to test their own views against the arguments in the room.
Speakers: Cristin Traylor, Senior Director, AI Transformation and Law Firm Strategy, Relativity, Jessica Tseng Hasen, Senior Counsel, U.S. Lead of Advance, Ashurst Perkins Coie, Nirav Shah, Corporate Counsel, The Home Depot, Melissa Weberman, Counsel & Head of eData, James Bekier, Ben Sexton, Vice President of eDiscovery, JND.
The International Panel (Regency C)
How can taking your law and technology training to another nation—even to another continent—advance your career? How can you make the move internationally? What can your international perspective bring to your organization and your clients and customers? Find out at the 12th Annual Edition of The International Panel as legal data professionals from around the world, most of whom earned their legal training in one nation and moved across the world to another, share their experiences. We’ll also cover the latest international legal data developments in AI, e-discovery, and other areas of legal data intelligence. Join us to get the latest international legal news and possibly take your career in a new direction.
Speakers: Danbee Kim, Head of Digital Legal Delivery, US, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Fiona Campbell, In-house Counsel, LexisNexis, Jonathan Armstrong, Partner, Punter Southall Law, Linda Sheehan, Head of intelligENS, ENS, Meribeth Banaschik, Forensics Partner, EY’s Europe West Chief Innovation Officer, EY GmbH & Co KG, David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity.
2:45 PM-3:45 PM CT
Design Thinking in Legal: A Modern Approach to Tech Adoption and Problem Solving (Crystal A)
Legal departments are under pressure to adopt new technologies – but traditional methods of problem solving often fall short when it comes to securing buy-in, defining the right problems, or creating solutions that stick. Design thinking offers a practical and human-centered approach to these challenges. In this interactive session, legal operations leaders from corporate legal departments and law firms will introduce the core principles of design thinking and share real-world examples of how they’ve used these tools to overcome resistance, unlock innovation, and accelerate technology adoption. Attendees will explore techniques such as reframing assumptions, collaborative ideation, and structured experimentation – all through a legal-industry lens.
Speakers: Rose Hunter Jones, Partner, Hilgers PLLC, Carl Morrison, James Vinson, Morgan Lewis, Brian Corbin, Global Head of Strategic Services, QuisLex.
2:45 PM-3:30 PM CT
Legaltech Week Journalists Roundtable at RelFest (Regency D)
Here’s your chance to be in the studio audience for Legaltech Week. Join host Bob Ambrogi and a panel of legal tech journalists as the weekly program takes place at RelFest. The irreverent band of legal pundits will recap the week at RelFest Chicago as well as other late-breaking news from the world of legal technology.
Speakers: Joe Patrice, Senior Editor, Above the Law, Victor Li, Assistant Managing Editor, ABA Journal, David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity, Stephen Embry, TechLaw Crossroads, Stephanie Wilkins, Editor-in-Chief, Legaltech News, ALM Media, Robert Ambrogi, Publisher, LawSites/LawNext.
4:00 PM-5:00 PM CT
The Relativity Innovation Awards (Grand Ballroom)
Forget the Oscars or the Grammy’s – you have a front-row seat to the best award show in the industry. Every year, the Relativity Innovation Awards brings the legal intelligence community together to recognize the individuals and organizations defining the industry with their bold, brave ideas. Come celebrate the incredible work happening across our community and see who takes home the prize in each of our 10 categories.
6:30 PM-11:30 PM CT
RelFest Networking Event (Field Museum – 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605)
The RelFest Masquerade Ball will take place on the final night of RelFest Chicago, at the Field Museum. Join us for an evening of dancing, networking, and decadent food and drink. This is a masquerade – so a mask is a must! If you don’t have one, we will have a station in the Community Pavilion to make your own. There’s no dress code, but we welcome gowns, blazers, or your best going out look.
The full agenda is here. Register to attend RelFest 2026 here. If you’re here at the conference, say hi!
So, what do you think? Which RelFest 2026 Thursday sessions are you attending? 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.