Last month, several of my colleagues within the Knowledge Management and Innovation department at Troutman Pepper Locke and I attended Thomson Reuter’s SYNERGY Conference in sunny Orlando, Florida. It was TR’s first year opening the conference up to folks in the legal sector, and we were lucky enough to make the cut. As we are all on different teams but connected via AI and technology, I was curious to compare our takeaways from the experience.
1. What are your names, and roles?
Darbi Howe, AI Solutions Analyst
Tiffany Jenkins, Director of Research Services
Dan Calanca, Senior Client Collaboration Manager
2. How would you describe SYNERGY/What were your expectations going into it?
DH: This was my second conference ever, so I wasn’t sure what to expect!
DC: I’d heard of SYNERGY but wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Prior to registering, I thought it was set to be mostly a naked product pitch from Thomson Reuters, which thankfully was not the case. SYNERGY ended up as an energetic venue for thought leadership and skill-building amongst peers in the law firm technology space, which I was only too happy to participate in.
TJ: I’ve been to a few conferences over the course of my career, but this was my first time attending one that was facilitated by a single vendor, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I agree with Dan that I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t just a constant sales pitch. I would describe the conference as a deep dive into the Thomson Reuters suite of AI products for the legal industry, providing key insights and training on how to effectively integrate them into your law firm.
3. How familiar are you with Thomson Reuters’ tools and technology?
DH: Not overly familiar – I had demoed CoCounsel prior to the event and often collaborate with Tiffany’s team, but don’t use it day to day. I feel much more comfortable with their tools after the event!
DC: I arrived at Troutman Pepper Locke in April of 2025 following more than eleven years at Thomson Reuters, so I had a pretty good idea of the products on display at SYNERGY! At the same time, the pace of development in legal tech has accelerated rapidly with the advent of generative artificial intelligence, so a wealth of product evolution news awaited me spanning the ~7 months I’d been away from TR.
TJ: I’m very familiar with the legal research side of the Thomson Reuters’ product suite. As a researcher and now the director of the Research Services team, we use these products every day and I’ve been a key member of the team deploying CoCounsel at Troutman Pepper Locke over the past year.
4. What’s one moment—demo, stat, or quote—that you’d want everyone at the firm to hear?
DH: During the General Legal session, the President of Legal Professionals at Thomson Reuters predicted that 25% of law firms would be gone in the next 5-10 years, particularly those that don’t utilize artificial intelligence. To me, this underscored a perspective my team has been discussing for some time – not that AI is here to replace lawyers, but that intentionally incorporating AI into their work will be an important part of staying competitive and relevant. It’s less about jobs being “replaced” and more about roles evolving and about making sure we’re on the right side of that change.
DC: I have to agree with Darbi on this one. Whether this prediction is reasonable or not is, to me, besides the point. It undergirds the notion that the law firm, viewed as an institution, exists in a landscape of broader upheaval. This sort of tumult can bring about positive outcomes for entities who anticipate and navigate these times, but the downside for disregarding the contextual circumstances within which firms currently operate are as stark as can be.
5. What was your favorite session and why?
DC: Though I am not a fee-earner, the law firm financial model sits at the heart of the services my colleagues and I provide. To that end, listening to TR’s take on how technology, alternate fee arrangements, and the billable hour might coexist in the near-to-medium term. So many sessions of this ilk have declared the billable hour dead for several years running, which made the “not necessarily” zag of this lecture more interesting. A financial ecosystem that understands what to bill and what to bake into the legal services product seems most palatable to firm and client alike, so it was fascinating to hear how TR sees such a reality coming to bear.
TJ: The Prompt Like a Pro session was my absolute favorite of the entire conference! Jackie Schmiedlin presented a deep dive on prompting in Westlaw AI and CoCounsel, but her tips can be extrapolated to other AI tools. Most of her discussion centered on interaction with generative AI tools, but she spent some time at the end on best practices for interacting with agentic AI tools and how that differs. I felt like I had a good handle on how to craft effective prompts prior to this conference, but the way she presented the information unlocked another level of understanding for me. I’m excited to bring this knowledge back to my team and the firm to provide a deeper level of training as we continue to support the deployment of CoCounsel at Troutman Pepper Locke.
6. What did you learn about rolling AI out to busy lawyers—training, incentives, champions, and feedback loops?
TJ: There were two sessions which presented case studies on the AI strategy at two different law firms. One of the key takeaways I identified was to incorporate AI training and awareness into existing meetings and conversations, rather than just presenting the information in separate trainings. The more we can integrate these tools into the daily work of the firm, the more awareness and familiarity there will be across the practice. Another key point I appreciated was for the research and innovation teams to partner with the attorneys in learning and implementing these tools. We’re all learning and growing together every day. There can be more success when we experiment as a team to determine the most effective workflows.
7. Did anything stand out to you about how other teams quantify ROI (time saved, cycle time, realization rates, win rates, client satisfaction)?
DH: I think what stood out is the question of ROI itself. There is very much an incentive in the legal sector to figure out how to quantify ROI from technology, particularly in a billable-hour environment. Historically, greater efficiency has seemed antithetical to the traditional billable‑hour model; if you complete the same work in less time, in theory, you generate fewer hours. What echoed across sessions, though, was the need for a shift in focus: away from an emphasis on hours billed and toward a broader understanding of value and differentiating between substantive and non-substantive work. So, what stood out to me is not just the metrics themselves, but the broader theme: firms are actively trying to reconcile innovation with the billable-hour model by reframing ROI in terms of attorney bandwidth, competitiveness, and client value, not just immediate billing impact.
8. Were there any emerging trends or topics that kept coming up across different sessions?
DC: TR very much sees the current moment of AI in law firms as a cusp between “late to the party” and “not interested in attending.” To that end, there was a noted focus on adoption across the week. Multiple firms who had rolled out CoCounsel in the 12-24 months prior took the stage to walk attendees through their entire process, from enablement to evangelism to excellence. Amongst these disparate firm representatives, I’d further drill down on the evangelism point as a trend for peer firms to bear in mind. We cannot bring our horses to the proverbial AI water, but we should make rockstars out of those who drink from it. If members of practice teams are leaning into innovative technology or solution bundles with broader applicability across the firm landscape, it very much behooves us to broadcast their stories. Knowledgeable and excitable though we may be, legal technologists do not have the same weight as attorneys when it comes to vouching for solutions. Sharing those stories to further cement what we know to be helpful technology is a necessary strategy in successfully rolling out anything that strays from traditional workstreams.
9. Based on what you learned, what should our department be paying attention to in the coming year?
DH: I think it will be critical to add attorney voices to our own when it comes to advocating for AI usage in the firm. Our department can build tools and provide training, but meaningful adoption will depend on lawyers serving as visible champions – sharing success stories, shaping guidelines, and showing how AI directly leads to better client service and work product. In the coming year, we should focus on engaging and empowering those attorney “AI ambassadors” so AI feels less like a tech initiative and more like an integrated part of how we practice.
DC: This is very much in line with my last response, but how attorneys interact with and feel about solutions we build and the technology which undergirds it is something I’d be thinking about. Our Knowledge Management & Innovation Department has its finger on the pulse of what’s latest and greatest, and we’ve successfully rolled out several products even in my short time here. Understanding the evolving relationship between practice groups and technology is critical to how we, as shepherds of that tech, understand it. Just as technology never stays in one place, so too will attorney perspectives shift over time. It’s imperative that we stay on top of those changes in the weather so that we may be prepared to alter our approach, our offerings, our tools, and so forth.
TJ: I echo Darbi and Dan’s sentiments above, and would add that we need to shift focus away from the general conversation around AI in the legal industry and start diving in on practice specific workflows. We all have a good understanding of what AI can do, but now is the time to put our heads together and identify the specific value these products can add for our firms at the practice group and individual practitioner level. Share case studies and success stories from AI early adopters as demonstrations of what is possible. Partner with attorneys to understand their current workflows and identify opportunities for integrating AI to increase efficiencies on routine and lower value tasks. Institute processes for measuring ROI and impact in a meaningful way. These small steps will combine together to lead your firm into the future with an effective integrated AI program.
As I reflect on our experiences at the SYNERGY Conference, one message resonates above all: the future of legal practice will be shaped not just by the technology we adopt, but by the people who champion its integration. The path forward requires more than technical know-how – it demands collaboration, open dialogue, and a willingness to evolve.