I could not have asked for a better response. We were truly impressed with the caliber of lawyers, technologists and others who applied. The exclusive partnership, announced in May 2021, is what the firm is calling a ‘Moon shot venture’ and is part of Baker McKenzie’s wider innovation program, Reinvent.Īllgrove said: ‘We received over 750 applications for the Co-founder roles, validating our belief that we were offering something different here in setting up this new team. They will work under the leadership of the law firm’s Chief Innovation Officer, Ben Allgrove, and the team will leverage SparkBeyond’s AI-powered ‘advanced analytics and augmented research platforms on a series of projects, exploring new ways to apply machine learning to transform the legal industry and address key societal problems’.

However, Kuhn and Benecke will have plenty to do as heads of the new AI group. When Kuhn moved to Elevate it understandably was seen as a significant hire, given his leading role at IBM in terms of rolling out the giant company’s legal AI strategy and products, especially those aimed at inhouse legal teams. Elevate continues to offer legal tech consulting, which obviously includes AI and data, but we no longer build custom software solutions.’ ‘Brian’s passion is in custom solution consulting rather than building products, which is what I believe he will be doing at Bakers. In 2021, we decided to focus on building AI into our software (AI-powering our ELM, such as our module for contract analysis, module for invoice analysis, etc.) so we collapsed our AI engineers and data scientists into our software products business. It’s a challenge whose time has come to explore at scale, and one I couldn’t resist.’Īrtificial Lawyer also reached out to Elevate’s CEO, Liam Brown, to ask about the move, who said: ‘Brian was hired in 2019 to build our custom solution AI and data science consulting practice. ‘I love the thought that law firms are (will become) essential to inform the highest-context, highest-trust AI, where branded legal judgment is the value.

Kuhn told Artificial Lawyer when asked why he had left Elevate: ‘I left to focus more directly on my passion: the practical application of AI in the legal industry, which in the case of Baker McKenzie, with its legal expertise, data, and global scale, presented a unique opportunity to shift the market’s perceptions about what law firms can accomplish with AI in service of client value. Joining Kuhn as co-founder of the new group will be Danielle Benecke, who is already a lawyer at the global firm, and focuses on tech and IP. Brian Kuhn, previously with IBM, and most recently with law company, Elevate, where he was its VP for Digital Strategy & Solutions, has joined Baker McKenzie to co-head its new ‘Moon shot’ AI project in conjunction with machine learning company, SparkBeyond.

Baker mckenzie application