Richard Robbins, ’91, joined Reed Smith last year as the firm’s first director of applied artificial intelligence. In this role, he leads Reed Smith’s artificial intelligence and data science teams in designing, deploying, and promoting generative AI, predictive AI, and data science resources that support the delivery of the firm’s legal and business services.

What does your newly created role as director of applied AI mean in practice?

It means that I spend my time thinking about how we can make effective and responsible use of AI at scale aligned to firm strategy. We are a global law firm with approximately 1,700 attorneys and 1,300 other business professionals located in 36 offices across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. We have a robust mix of practices and industry groups. We can do anything, but we can’t do everything. We need to make wise choices.

What excites you most about applying AI in the legal field right now?

I practiced law for 25 years, have been involved in legal technology for 35 years, and have worked with AI and other advanced technology for 45 years. Right now, we are getting closer to being able to build the kinds of systems we always dreamed of. That excites me very much.

You’ve been a law firm partner, a general counsel, and a tech consultant. How have those experiences shaped your approach to innovation?

I understand how large law firms work and how attorneys evolve within them. I understand what it means to lead a corporate legal department and serve your stakeholders while being a bridge to outside counsel. And I have a very deep technical perspective. So, when we talk about innovating, making changes to the status quo in any area, I have an intuition about what that might mean to each group. I am comfortable connecting people who live in these too-often separated worlds.

You recently earned a master’s in data science. Why did you go back to school at this stage of your career?

I am an academic at heart. Anyone who works with me knows that (which may delight some and frustrate others). About a decade ago I began studying the fundamentals of data science and machine learning on my own. I had been working with natural language processing technology then, too. In 2017 the transformer architecture revolution began in earnest—that resulted in generative AI as we know it now. Within a few years I realized the only way I was going to learn what I wanted was to return to school.

What’s one common misconception lawyers have about AI?

Too many fail to understand that current AI systems work best in the hands of someone who is skilled in the art. These tools do not transform novices into experts. It’s about supplementing human talent, not replacing. That said, attorneys and firms who do not make effective use of AI are at a competitive disadvantage to those who do.

What advice would you give young attorneys who want to build a career at the intersection of law and technology?

Learn both. For real. That takes time. Years, not months. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. What you have done does not define what you will be. When I started working in law, people saw me as an engineer. When I went in-house, people saw me as just another former big law lawyer. When I started focusing on law firm tech, people saw my decades as an attorney but missed the computer science part. Now, people see me as an AI expert who happens to work in a law firm, until they realize I practiced law for 25 years.

Can you tell us about a project— past or upcoming—that shows the potential of AI in legal services?

The ramifications of the rapid evolution of generative AI to our domain are profound. In a few years we have moved from emphasizing prompt engineering and magical incantations to tools built around the tasks lawyers need to complete. We are at the dawn of agent-based legal technology, with systems that start with a goal and then derive the requisite tasks. The possibilities are dizzying. For example, two years ago, we used this technology to help with slices of a contract; now we see powerful tools that dramatically change how complex contracts are negotiated and drafted from start to finish.

What’s one legal tech tool or AI application you think every lawyer should at least try?

I start my AI talks (whether to engineers or attorneys) by stressing that generative AI is not a spectator sport. Develop your intuition for the technology’s strengths and weaknesses. There’s an old saying among photographers that the best camera for a situation is the one you have in your hand. By analogy, when it comes to generative AI, take what you have and use it. At core, it’s technology for language and concepts, something that cuts across all we do. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, CoCounsel, Lexis+ AI, Harvey, I don’t care. Once you start you will not stop.