Podcast appearances and mentions of jason barnwell

Scratch that, you probably need a dashboard, but trust us you don't need all those widgets. On this episode, host Jenn McCarron sits down with Jason Barnwell, who leads Digital Transformation and serves as Associate General Counsel at Microsoft. Jenn and Jason kick off our new CLOC Core 12 series with a conversation that could be its own Business Intelligence course. They go in-depth, discussing the journey of BI, its application in legal tech, and how to navigate the BI journey whether you're just starting out, or in a more advanced legal ops shop. Oh and about those dashboards. The two BI experts get into the utility of dashboards, sharing practical tips including how to start simple, and how to answer specific questions. They also share some common pitfalls that happen when you rely on dashboards too much.Enjoy the show!

This week we catch up with Jeff Pfeifer and Serena Wellen from LexisNexis to discuss the rapid development of AI tools for the legal industry over the past year. Pfeifer and Wellen give us an insider's view of what it took to bring their Lexis+ AI tool to the market and the balance between speed to market and getting solid customer guidance on what they need in a legal-focused Generative AI tool. Between the initial version released to a select group of customers and the current version, the product grew from an open-ended chat interface into more of a guided resource that helps users on creating and following up on prompts. As with most AI tools created in the past year, there is still more potential as more and more customers use it and give critical feedback along the way. In addition to Lexis+ AI, LexisNexis has now launched two additional AI products - Lexis Snapshot and Lexis Create. Lexis Snapshot summarizes legal complaints to help firms monitor litigation. Lexis Create brings AI capabilities directly into Microsoft Word to assist with drafting and research while lawyers are working on documents. The goal is to embed insights where lawyers are actually doing their work rather than separate AI tools. While the focus of the initial Generative AI tools from LexisNexis were focused on the US market, Serena Wellen and her team are busy expanding that to more of an international reach. This requires adapting the models, content, and interface to different languages and legal systems. This is complex undertaking, but Wellen discusses how LexisNexis has content and editors around the world to help customize the tools. Surprisingly, desired use cases are fairly consistent globally - both simple legal tasks as well as more advanced legal research and drafting. Greg Lambert brings up a recent LinkedIn discussion that he had with Microsoft's Jason Barnwell, where Barnwell told him that today's version of Generative AI tools are “the worst these things will ever be.” In response, Pfeifer says that LexisNexis is focused on continuously improving answer quality to build trust and prove the value of AI to skeptical lawyers. LexisNexis is leveraging relationships with companies like Microsoft to reinforce the stability and progress being made. Wellen and Pfeifer look into the future and predicted that AI assistants will become highly personalized to individual lawyers. AI agents will also proliferate across platforms to help automate tasks and workflows. Law firms will likely accelerate their adoption of AI tools based on rising expectations and demands from corporate legal departments to work more efficiently. Listen on mobile platforms:  ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ |  ⁠Spotify⁠ | YouTube ⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us:  Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gebauerm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@glambert⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads: @glambertpod or @gebauerm66Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.comMusic: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠ Transcript

On this episode, Jason Barnwell, General Manager for Digital Transformation of Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs at Microsoft, joins Mary to talk about his title. He describes it as being a professional cheerleader, meaning he is creating the vision for the future of the company. The way Jason sees it, law firms are starting to feel pressure to show value. The problem is value is determined by data and resources are needed to generate that data. They can't show value without the resources. He talks about the difficulty of generating change at a company like Microsoft, and how he has learned to frame the problem from a leadership perspective, not his own perspective. He has learned, over the years, that lawyers are in the feelings business. Decisions are made as much by feeling as by thinking. To get problems solved, you have to humanize the work. Jason Barnwell - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbarnwell/   If you enjoyed today's show, please leave a 5-star review. You can find more information, as well as the resources mentioned in this episode, at ironcladapp.com. #LegalOps #LegalCareer  

Jason Barnwell, General Manager for Digital Transformation of Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs at Microsoft, and Jae Um, Founder & Executive Director at Six Parsecs, join CLOC Talk host Jenn McCarron to discuss a wide range of juicy legal ops topics. They cover everything from the difference between rules and principles to effective leadership styles and all the multitudes in between. This trio of industry thought leaders will have you going "Ah Ha!", "Oh Wow!" and "So True!" over and over again.

This special teaser episode includes highlights from several episodes in the 2022 CGI Digital Experience. CLOC Talk host Jenn McCarron, member of the CLOC Board of Directors and Director of Legal Operations and Technology at Netflix, is joined by guest co-hosts Tom Stephenson, Director of Legal Operations at Credit Karma and Carl Morrison, Director of Legal Operations at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, to interview speakers and attendees at the 2022 CLOC Global Institute in Las Vegas. Conversations covered a wide range of topics from tech implementations to key leadership skills for effective change management.  https://events.cloc.org/event/1278d579-b12e-4c84-886b-cb76a3cb5583/websitePage:88e00e87-c848-4e1f-bf6a-027598e0a143 (Want to hear more? Check out the CGI Digital Experience package to access the full lineup of engaging conversations!)  This sample episode includes clips from interviews with the following legal industry thought leaders:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescoutermarsh/ (Frances Pomposo, Senior Director Legal Operations & Chief of Staff to General Counsel at Workday)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/troydunham/ (Troy Dunham, Senior Director of IT Applications Legal & GRC at ServiceNow)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-brereton-102311a1/ (Andrew Brereton, Vice President Legal Operations at ServiceNow)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacklynnpham/ (Jacklynn Pham, User Experience Designer)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbarnwell/ (Jason Barnwell, General Manager for Digital Transformation of Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs at Microsoft)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaesunum/ (Jae Um, Founder & Executive Director at Six Parsecs) 

In this episode, ELM Solutions' Nathan Cemenska is joined by two of Microsoft's foremost legal operations executives: Tom Orrison, Director of Legal Operations, and Jason Barnwell, General Manager for Digital Transformation. They speak openly about the complexities of managing legal departments on an enterprise level, and about how Microsoft is successfully leveraging data and technology to manage legal spend in such a fast-paced environment.

Gina Rubel goes on record with Jason Barnwell, an attorney in Microsoft's Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs department, to discuss tech and innovation in the legal industry, diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession, and the importance of storytelling to the practice of law. Learn More Jason leads Microsoft's law firm engagement strategy. His work is focused on creating deeper engagement with and more value from Microsoft's outside counsel relationships. He partners with Microsoft's Legal Operations team to build a virtuous value cycle built upon empowering Microsoft's legal professionals to: select the right partners; teach them about their business; ensure they assemble teams with talent and diverse perspectives; create incentives to innovate and work efficiently; measure partner performance and work quality; and collect, re-use, and build upon knowledge assets. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and his J.D. from the University of Southern California School of Law. According to Jason's Twitter bio he is a husband, father, attorney, engineer, tinkerer, nerd, cyclist, volunteer, and someone who helps Microsoft innovate the practice of law.

Ep. 26 — Jason Barnwell — How To Build an Innovation Machine by Chris Clearfield

Today's Guest is Jason Barnwell, Associate General Counsel, Modern Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs at Microsoft. In that role, he leads innovation efforts for the law department, as well as Microsoft's law firm engagement strategy. Jason has an active and vocal thought leadership role on the evolution of the profession, bringing his experience as an engineer to his insights. In his conversation with Steve, Jason reveals the three things he brings to his work from his engineering training, the moment he understood the misalignment of big law incentives with efficiency, and the role of storytelling in change management.

Welcome to our Elevate Debate series. Featuring industry leaders and Elevate Experts supporting and defending an approach, a viewpoint, or a practice. This episode features Elevate co-founder and Head of Innovation, Pratik Patel,with Jason Barnwell, Microsoft, Assistant General Counsel, and leader of Modern. Modern is driving the strategy and execution to digitally transform and modernize Microsoft's legal department practices and ways of working. [01:22] Topic: If you're a general counsel and you can't drive 1% net earnings, you should step aside[02:17] Let's make it spicy; 1% is not enough [03:37] The First point of descent, if I'm a GC, I will probably over-index on long term value[5:50] Velocity – structure around inputs and outputs[7:10] Reactive legal depart response[9:03] IACCM survey suggests 9% of revenue; could be net income leakage during the contracting process[12:12] There is a need for a mind shift[13:25] Many see themselves as a risk manager[15:20] Legal has access to business intelligence that can assist the business and drive value[17:10] Love the idea of activating entrepreneurism[18:00] The Socratic question

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, Jason Barnwell speaks with Thomas Burke (Partner and Chair, Pro Bono & Social Impact Committee at Davis Wright Tremaine), Beth Henderson (Pro Bono Director and Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft), Sima Sarrafan (Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft), about their partnership in the “Protecting Journalists” pro bono program. Learn about the issue being solved … Continue reading "Protecting Journalists Pro Bono Program Part 1"

Microsoft’s Pro Bono program supports its employees in doing righteous work.  Jason Barnwell speaks with Beth Henderson (Pro Bono Director at Microsoft; Senior Corporate Counsel), Megan Yoshimura (Principal Corporate Counsel), and Jen Scully (Assistant General Counsel) about their experiences with various Microsoft Pro Bono programs. They discuss Beth’s unique role in an in-house counsel legal … Continue reading "Business of Law Podcast – Microsoft’s Pro Bono Program, Dilley Detention, and Election Protection"

A few years ago, Robert Taylor and Jeff Marple of Liberty Mutual Insurance, along with Suffolk Law School's Gabriel Teninbaum sat down at Back Bay Harry's and hatched a genius plan over some truffle fries and sandwiches. The idea was to leverage Suffolk's law school technology training for students along with Liberty's desire for the law schools to help students actually learn how to address the issue of design thinking and how it applied to real-world legal issues they were facing. And while the truffle fries were still hot, the Boston Legal Design Challenge was born. On November 13th, 2020, the 4th Annual Challenge takes place, this time in a virtual setting. Fifty participants, making up 10 teams of five students from around the country will learn more about Design Thinking, identify an issue within the legal industry which needs addressing, and at the end of the day, pitch that idea to a blue-ribbon panel made up of Cat Moon, Bob Ambrogi, and Jason Barnwell. The winning team walks away with a few thousand dollars, and all of the participants end up with significant new skills to differentiate themselves from their fellow students. The competition is not just limited to law students, or to those people within Boston. Bob, Jeff, and Gabe are looking for diverse teams made up of different schools, disciplines, and geographical regions. Enrollment is open now, so go to LMI.co/BLDC to sign up. Information Inspirations Sometimes efficiency comes from small improvements in processes. One basic efficiency for word processing is to keep your hands on the keyboard, and away from the mouse. Deborah Savadra at Legal Office Guru has a short 7 1/2 minute video showing how you can use shortcuts and macros to reduce the use of your mouse, and just be a better user of MS Word. We're all concerned about data privacy whether it is the type of browser, search engine, or messaging app we use. Microaggressions are not small problems. They are the equivalent to death by a thousand cuts and can lead to an unbearable work environment for those who are the recipients of these acts. For Black attorneys, microaggressions are a constant issue. American Lawyer brought together five attorneys to have a roundtable discussion on the issue, and the result is an absolute must-watch for anyone who truly cares about improving themselves and wanting to learn how to identify when their own actions constitute microaggressions. We all watch the news. Most of us saw that debate. We know misinformation is rampant in our daily lives. The Knight Foundation and a few other prominent organizations are working to help us learn how to identify this misinformation. Listen, Subscribe, Comment Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Contact us anytime by tweeting us at @gebauerm or @glambert. Music by Jerry David DeCicca.

Amy Monaghan, Senior Practice Innovations Manager, Perkins Coie, had the great honor of speaking with Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel—Modern Legal at Microsoft for this inaugural episode of the Emerging Roles in Legal podcast series. Jason never fails to provide thought-provoking insights and my personal favorite quote from this episode is that "business presents a candy store of broken things!" Of course, we see the broken things as opportunities for innovation, which is where these new skillsets and emerging roles in legal are needed. If you're interested in hearing more from Jason, check out the Business of Law Podcast and also his posts on Legal Evolution (I recommend this post on designing knowledge work). Be on the lookout for a next episode soon!Interviewer:@Amy Monaghan, Senior Practice Innovations Manager, Perkins Coie  Speaker:@Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel—Modern Legal, Microsoft

Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel of Modern Legal at Microsoft, does not like it when his outside legal counsel comes to him with traditional offerings during a crisis. If there is ever a time to package legal services in a way that helps in-house attorneys manage their limited resources, that time is now. Don't ask the client to define what services you can provide them, come to the client with the knowledge you've learned from all your other clients' needs, and provide insights, and options on how to address current and potential issues. Bring options to the client. The options do not have to be perfect, or unassailable. But they start that conversation to find what the client needs, and how the firms can be creative in helping with that need. Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together. Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert) Producer: Janice Anderson Artwork: Dean Lambert Music: Jerry David DeCicca Twitter: @InSeclusionPod --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/inseclusion/message

Microsoft attorneys Dennis Garcia and Jason Barnwell discuss how legal teams can successfully and productively work remotely. They also discuss how recent work from home orders may speed up innovation and transformation in legal departments and law firms. Dennis is an Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft and a prior Technically Legal guest. We talked to him on Episode 4 about Automation, Cybersecurity and the Cloud. Dennis leads a team of lawyers assisting Microsoft’s Enterprise Commercial Sales and Services team, one of the company’s largest commercial businesses. Jason is also an Assistant General Counsel and heads up Microsoft’s Modern Legal team. In that role, his mandate is to drive industry leading innovation to digitally transform and modernize the Microsoft legal department. Dennis and Jason explain that for companies to equip their lawyers and employees to successfully work from home, they need to invest in the right tools. The first of which is good hardware—devices up for the task of running whatever software the business needs. Jason points out that if remote workers have good hardware, they are well positioned for success because most modern software is cloud based and “meets you where you are” permitting work to be done pretty much anywhere with an internet connection.  Dennis and Jason also explain that for successful remote work, the modern legal team needs collaboration tools to communicate and work with team members, productivity software like Word and Excel to create legal documents, remotely accessible data storage and knowledge management tools. Both Dennis and Jason agree that change is hard, but lawyers, like everyone else, just need to make the jump and try new tools and new ways of working. And… it all starts with a mindset shift. Technically Legal is hosted by Chad Main, an attorney and the founder of Percipient, a tech-enabled alternative legal services provider.

From Inspire.Legal 2.0, host Ralph Baxter talks with Jason Barnwell, Peter Krakaur, and Basha Rubin about the fundamental challenges that impede the process of creating and delivering new legal service models. They discuss takeaways from their un-panel and their overall focus on the importance of collaboration between stakeholders—both legal professionals and clients—to facilitate the creation of more effective legal service delivery models.

From Inspire.Legal 2.0, host Ralph Baxter talks with Jason Barnwell, Peter Krakaur, and Basha Rubin about the fundamental challenges that impede the process of creating and delivering new legal service models. They discuss takeaways from their un-panel and their overall focus on the importance of collaboration between stakeholders—both legal professionals and clients—to facilitate the creation of more effective legal service delivery models.

As corporate legal departments seek to control costs and drive innovation, how can better use of data, metrics and analytics help? How are corporate counsel using analytics to measure and improve performance internally and among outside counsel? These questions were the topic of a special episode of LawNext, recorded live during Legalweek 2020 in New York City with a panel of four corporate counsel and executives who are leaders in law department innovation. My guests for this special episode were: Jason Barnwell, assistant general counsel-modern legal at Microsoft, where he leads a team tasked with driving legal department innovation. Laurie Ehrlich, associate general counsel and head of legal operations at Cognizant, where she manages the finances, technology and knowledge management for its 200-plus person legal department. Jeff Reihl, executive vice president and chief technology officer at LexisNexis, where he is responsible for driving technology transformation, with a focus on data analytics and artificial intelligence. Mark A. Smolik, chief legal and compliance officer at DHL Supply Chain Americas, where he serves as global chair of the organization's supply chain legal practice group. Listen to hear their insights and experiences using data analytics to improve legal department operations and drive efficiencies both internally and externally. Special thanks to Valerie Chan, founder of Plat4orm PR, for her assiduous assistance in organizing this panel. NEW: Comment on this show: Record a voice comment on your mobile phone and send it to info@lawnext.com. We are now on Patreon! Subscribe to our page to be able to access show transcripts, or to submit a question for our guests. Thank you to our sponsor, MyCase, and to John E. Grant and Agile Attorney Consulting for being a lead Patreon supporter of our show.

When you think of algorithmic governance, you may go right to things like predictive law enforcement, or risk assessment of setting bail or prison sentences for those in the criminal justice system. However, algorithms have a much broader application in the legal system, far beyond those criminal justice aspects. Drexel law professor, Hannah Bloch-Wehba walks us through number examples of other areas which algorithm governance is being used. Broad areas which she labels as "typical poverty law settings" of welfare… medicaid… child protective services for example, and those area are continuing to expand. Court systems, administrative law departments, and other government agencies are relying upon algorithms to help with larger and larger caseloads. Algorithms, in and of themselves, are not inherently bad. In fact, it can be very helpful in streamlining processes and alleviate the burden on different government agencies in how to handle these issues. But is it fairer than what we have now? We don't have a good way of demonstrating that. Professor Bloch-Wehba sees the overall effect of algorithms as creating a newer playing field that is bumpy in different ways than the old one. There's still a human element in algorithms, not just in the creation of the algorithms, but also in the acceptance of algorithmic outcomes by those who are tasked to apply them. Add to this, the "black box" which some algorithms live, and how governments are relying upon private industries to create these processes, and an inability for the government to be able to discuss how they work. Can governments give up their duty to be transparent in the name of algorithmic efficiency? How far will a democratic society tolerate with algorithms which it may not fully understand, or trust? We cover all of these questions and discuss Professor Bloch-Wehba's upcoming Fordham Law Review article, "Access to Algorithms," which will be published later this year. Information Inspirations Archive and Delete are not the same. Garry Vander Voort of LexBlog writes about a disturbing trend he is seeing on apps where you might think you are archiving a magazine or a podcast, but in reality, you're deleting it. He has a few suggestions on how developers can use better descriptors, including some good ol' library terms. Business Intelligence and Data Analytics are not the same. Rob Saccone published and excellent article on Medium a few days ago that is worth reading. We may be looking for unicorns when it comes to having someone who understands the importance of analysis as well as the comprehension of the business model. Saccone has some excellent suggestions of what businesses can do, besides seeking that elusive unicorn. Being a Leader of a Firm and Understanding What is Going on in the Market is not the same. Tom Clay from Altman Weil suggests that all leaders at law firms take 15 minutes a day to focus on the evolution of their practice and firm. Being at CLOC, and Reading #CLOC2019 Tweets are not the same... but, we'll take it! Thanks to Jason Barnwell and others who are keeping us connected this week. (more...)

On the 30th episode of The Geek In Review, we talk with Debbie Ginsberg, Educational Technology Librarian at the Chicago-Kent Law Library. Debbie was recently quoted in law.com's "Where Are All the Women in Legal Tech?" So we cut right to the chase and ask that question to Debbie. She says that there are lots of women in legal tech, but that those putting on tech conferences need to take more action toward actively recruiting women for speaker and presenter opportunities. One profession where women are a majority, and are heavily involved in legal tech, is law librarians. The American Association of Law Libraries is approximately 75% women, and with the push toward knowledge management, analytics, competitive intelligence, and advancing the legal research and information tools, law librarians are an excellent resource when it comes to professionals in the legal tech market. Ginsberg also talks about the Women in Legal Tech Summit, held right before TechShow in Chicago. She mentions that there is an effort to expand the boundaries of women in legal tech beyond just women lawyers who are working in legal tech, and begin looking for other opportunities. Dovetailing nicely with that effort is Janders Dean, who is putting out a list of 180 highly qualified women speakers for legal tech on their Twitter page. And, Sarah Glassmeyer's crowdsourcing list of underrepresented people in legal tech and innovation. INFORMATION INSPIRATIONS Self-care isn't selfish and can actually help your performance - Author Jenna Cho interviews one of Jackson Walker's partners, Stephanie Sparks, who discusses how she was always waiting until the right time to take care of herself, and eventually realized that there was never a "right time" and she understood that she just had to make that time. Cho's article reminds us that we all need to take some time to listen to your body and mind, and remember that you can't take care of others if you don't first take care of yourself. Jason Barnwell gets a shout out from Marlene this week on his interview of Kate Ross. This Business of Law Podcast hits all the right buttons on the need for attorneys to collaborate and be transparent, not just with the good things, but how we need to show the warts and all. Greg points out Jason's comment that when it comes to culture in a legal environment, people shouldn't feel that they have "inherited someone else's shoes." This is a must listen for those looking at collaboration and better experiences for your organization. Marlene talks about how Zena Applebaum reminds us Humans are the Decision Makers… Data Isn't. And finally, Greg (and most librarians, historians, and researchers) aren't too happy with the Obama Presidential Library's plan to be an all-digital library. Subscribe Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and comment. You can tweet @gebauerm and/or @glambert to reach out. Thanks to Jerry David DiCicca for his original music.

On our 25th episode of The Geek In Review, Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert sit down and talk with Ivy Grey, Director of Business Strategy for WordRake. Ivy's recent Above the Law article, “Curiosity Is The Foundation For Innovation” discusses the disconnect between employers who think they promote creativity in their employees, versus employees who think that their bosses actually stifle creativity in the workplace. Ivy breaks down the nuances between creativity and innovation. Ivy points to law firms like Reed Smith, who are actually giving their attorneys and others (approved) time to come up with creative processes, and letting the employees build upon these ideas. The key is to allow people to think and be creative, and imagine possibilities that don't even exist. On that note, we'd like to point out that Baker McKenzie announced the hiring of a couple of creative and curious rock stars, fellow geek, Casey Flaherty as their new Director of Legal Project Management, and Geek in Review interviewee Jae Um, as their Director of Pricing Strategy. Hope they are ready for long memos filled with emojis! Greg flew through Dallas Love Field this week during a Herb Kelleher celebration. Southwest's original CEO was well known for creative marketing, and Greg was a little disappointed that he didn't get a free bottle of Chivas when we got off the plane. For a great story of how Southwest got its start, check out the Business War's Podcast on Clearing the Runway. Information Inspirations Microsoft Assistant General Counsel, Jason Barnwell, wrote a timely piece called "Bricklayers and Architects." His own experiences on being able to come up with a creative process to streamline and M&A deal back when he was an associate at a BigLaw firm, dovetails nicely with Ivy Grey's discussion. That great idea which would have saved a lot of time in creating the closing binders??? Stifled. Why? The billable hour. We are all way too familiar with the phrase Fake News, but what do you know about Deepfakes? Pew Research discusses how well fake videos, created with artificial intelligence, are causing issues with understanding what is real, and what is fake. Check out more at "Looks Can Be Deceiving: Deepfakes" on the Pew podcast. Marlene likes gamification ideas, so the collaboration between Stanford and Suffolk law schools on the Learned Hand game is right up her alley. It's not just a game, however, it is used to train the Natural Language Processor of machine learning algorithms. Read more at the Pew Research website, or at the Lawyerist. Don't forget to subscribeto The Geek in Review on your favorite podcast platform. If you comments, compliments, or suggestions, you can tweet @gebauerm and/or @glambert. Thanks to Jerry David DiCicca for his original music.

Jason Barnwell is an Assistant GC at Microsoft and leads a legal business operations and strategy team to help Microsoft’s legal team serve its clients more effectively and innovate the practice of law. This episode is brought to you by Lake Whillans, a commercial litigation finance firm making it easier for general counsels to manage their roles by providing funding for potential disputes. Episode Resources https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbarnwell https://lakewhillans.com   Episode Highlights Jason’s role at Microsoft and the unique challenges he faces within his legal department. What they think about when picking the right partner firm. How Jason’s engineering background has enabled him to look at the law differently. The main reason a general counsel would sever a relationship with a law firm.

Microsoft’s Trusted Advisor Forum was designed to ask this question: Do clients need to actively engage with their law firms to drive innovation in legal service delivery? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Dan Linna talks to Jason Barnwell about the Trusted Advisor Forum and how his team at Microsoft is working to build the practice of the future. They discuss the many aspects of Jason’s role and give insight into how innovation, diversity, and use of technology in the processes of law can lead us into the future. Jason Barnwell is assistant general counsel, legal business, operations, and strategy at Microsoft Corporation. Special thanks to our sponsor, Thomson Reuters.

Laurent Wiesel, Founder and CEO of Justly, talks with us about leaving his BigLaw partnership to create a startup focused on litigation analytics. Wiesel discusses how he saw that there was a growing gap between what clients were asking on issues of pricing and process, and what law firms were able to deliver. (https://justly.com) Greg (@glambert) talks about his ability to post an actual written blog post this week about who is the customer (https://bit.ly/2OXZIIc) If you haven't checked out Jason Barnwell's podcast "The Business of Law" yet (https://bit.ly/2xXDCOO), Marlene (@gebauerm) suggests that you do. Jason has an extended interview our episode 11 guest, Jae Um. Marlene also suggests checking out Gimlet Media's "Casting Call" (https://castingcallshow.com/). Casting Call is a reality audio series that chronicles the search for the next great podcast host. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review!

Jason Barnwell, Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, explains why he tries to structure his relationships with outside counsel as partnerships rather than a supplier or vendor relationship, and the signals he looks for that a firm will be a good partner to him. You'll also find out why Jason believes “The billable hour is a shackle on innovation and efficiency,” and what Microsoft is moving toward to replace it.

Ep. 151: Jason Barnwell is a Biracial man who grew up in the Deep South,"found" his "tribe of nerds" at MIT, and then pivoted to a career in law (and technology).  Listen as he discusses his life and his role now as the Dad in a Multiracial family with a Jewish wife and daughter.  For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/