Legal Marketing Association President Rachel Shields Williams On AI, Innovation, and Why People Still Come First

Recorded live at the annual meeting of the Legal Marketing Association in New Orleans, this episode features a conversation with Rachel Shields Williams , president of the LMA and director of client intelligence at Sidley Austin, where she has spent 17 years building out roles at the intersection of marketing, business development, knowledge management and data. Earlier this year, Rachel was named a recipient of ALM's Monica Bay Women in Legal Tech Award . Rachel and host Bob Ambrogi discuss how AI is reshaping the work of legal marketers, and why she believes the marketing community is uniquely positioned to help law firms move past the "I'm curious, I want to click the buttons" stage of AI adoption to sustained, repeatable value. They get into the state of innovation in big law — including Rachel's view that firms cannot use AI or money to "skip the canyon of despair" in change management — and why she thinks meaningful innovation often looks less like a headline and more like getting one percent better every week. The conversation also covers the changing competitive landscape facing traditional firms, from AI-native entrants like Norm AI to MSOs and a resurgent ALSP market; the long-running debate over the billable hour; the four interrelated elements Rachel sees at the heart of every law firm's data — documents, clients, matters, and people; and what firm leaders should be doing right now to stay competitive over the next decade. Throughout, Rachel returns to a theme about which she calls herself an "unapologetic humanist" — technology and process will keep changing, but the firms that win will be the ones that put the right people in the room first. Thank You To Our Sponsors This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out. Paradigm , home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther , Bill4Time , MerusCase and LollyLaw ; the e-payments platform Headnote ; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks . Briefpoint , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Legal Marketing Association President Rachel Shields Williams On AI, Innovation, and Why People Still Come First is an episode from LawNext by Ben Ambrogi.

This episode is 44:31 long.

This episode was published on Apr 27, 2026.

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