Leadership Perspectives From RelFest London 2026

I was fortunate to attend RelFest London 2026 and speak with the following leaders at Relativity:

Chris Brown, Chief Product Officer Georgia Foster, Managing Director and VP Sales, International David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel and Legal Education Director Phil Saunders, Chief Executive Officer Cristin Traylor, Senior Director, AI Transformation & Law Firm Strategy Adam Weiss, Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Legal Officer 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Reinventing Professionals,a podcast hosted by industry analyst
Ari Kaplan, which shares ideas,guidance, and perspectives from market
leaders shaping the next generationof legal and professional services.
This is Ari Kaplan at RelFest London 2026.

(00:22):
My name is Phil Saunders, andI am the CEO of Relativity.
And proud to be here.
Can you share a little bit aboutwhat Relativity is trying to convey
at this year's RelFest London?
Thanks, Ari, and pleasureto chat with you once again.
It's always enjoyable.
The keynote covered a wide variety oftopics, but what I tried to accomplish

(00:43):
was to get grounded because there's somuch taking place, not just in the legal
tech market, but in the wider macro.
For me , getting grounded with ourcommunity, who rely so much on what we're
doing and how we're thinking, that if wecould create a level of trust in what we
agree on, we can then leap together andtackle all the opportunities that are out

(01:07):
there and manage as best we can the risks.
That was really my focus.
To explore those topics closely with ouraudience, to build that level of baseline
so that when Chris and his team wouldtalk about all the wonderful new offerings
and surface areas and ways to engage withRelativity, that there was a baseline

(01:28):
and scaffolding that we can leap from.
You said innovating and evolving isnot as important as transforming.
I did say that ' because evolutionis something that naturally
occurs over a period of time.
Transformation is purposeful.
It's more disruptive in a moment of time.
When I think about Relativity overits past 25 years, and when I think

(01:51):
about Relativity today and wherewe're going, simple evolution and/or
iteration is simply not enough.
We need to be able to look at what'staking place and understand, is
iteration going to get us there, ordo we have to stop and positively
disrupt how we're doing work?
When we look at Relativity in ourplatform, we could have continued to just

(02:12):
bolt on cool AI things or decide we'regonna completely transform and disrupt the
core and make an end-to-end AI platform.
My name is Chris Brown, and I'm thechief product officer at Relativity.
You just announced theacquisition of Gavel.
Congratulations.
How does that improvethe Relativity ecosystem?

(02:36):
We were really excited aboutthis acquisition at Gavel, and
it's a quick and long view ofwhere we see the business going.
The guiding strategy the lastcouple years is meeting legal
practitioners where they are.
They, of course, are inside RelativityOne,but they are now starting to engage
in multiple surfaces as well, andone of them is Microsoft Word.
When you think about all the setup wedid on legal data intelligence use cases

(02:59):
and the work you do to organize data,discover the truth, and act on it, we
often think about examining triggerdata and evidence, but if you're deep
inside our platform, you know we're alsogenerating a lot of work product so over
time, that work product is becoming quitesubstantial, particularly our products
like aiR for Case Strategy and aiR Assist.
They're now allowing lawyers in theplatform to pull together deposition

(03:21):
outlines, do witness summaries,to a bunch of other things that
ultimately get exported to Word.
We really wanted to continue theexperience to the lawyers, not exporting,
but opening in Word, and inside of thatWord experience, be able to ask questions
still of the data to refine those outlinesor those documents or those references,
redline with potentially their bossheading into that deposition specifically,

(03:44):
and then have those things synced back.
Over time, at our scale, there's justso many work products being built.
We wanted to extend that system of action.
That's number one why we're excitedabout Gavel and a longer term
vision, they're also a great team.
The way they built a very smallbudding business, product-led growth,
earning one lawyer at a time intothe platform really excited us,

(04:05):
and they're technically extremelysharp, so they're just a great fit.
In your keynote discussion, you talkedabout integrations and the success of aiR.
Relativity became successful becauseit was able to create a way for
people to build on it, embraceit, and use it in their own way.
How is this new eracontinuing on that vision?

(04:27):
What we're seeing in the market is thataiR is basically the new way to solve
most use cases in incredible ways.
One of the themes that really go back toAndrew Sieja is this theme of openness,
and this notion the platform itselfhas to be able to be tapped into by the
practitioners with their own expertiseand extend it, whether that's through
coding, knowledge sharing, throughanything else they bring to bear.

(04:50):
This week we announced custom analysesfor aiR, and that was chiefly one of
the motions to extend the platformand allow any practitioner to bring in
their expertise and get results in away that's scaled through Relativity.
A lot of what we do in aiR is unblockadoption of different parts of the
platform, unleashing the full communityof practitioners is a major milestone.

(05:12):
And today I showed a preview of where thisis going for practitioners and lawyers.
You could have an advancedpractitioner build a custom analysis.
Soon they'll be able to publish thatskill for other people to participate
and use later in the platform.
It's also a way of harvestingtheir capabilities and offering
it to more folks on their team.
My name is Adam Weiss.
I'm the chief administrative officerand chief legal officer of Relativity.

(05:37):
The concept of governance, of ashifting regulatory environment
came up in several presentations.
You're the chief legalofficer of the company.
How do you see a differentiation inthe way Relativity is used in Europe
versus in the US or even in Australia?
The beauty of what we do is thereis differentiation, and we're able

(05:58):
to accommodate that differentiationby geography, by jurisdiction, but
there's also a lot of similarities,and whether you come to a session at
RelFest London or RelFest Sydney orRelFest Chicago, a lot of the topics,
a lot of the speakers, a lot of theinformation is going to be very similar.
While laws do vary from jurisdictionto jurisdiction, Relativity as the AI

(06:20):
platform for legal data intelligenceis able to accommodate the whole range
of matters that one might experience ordeal with in a particular jurisdiction.
Particularly this market inLondon, UK, and EMEA, governance
and defensibility really matters.
It's been part of theplatform since the onset.
What we're seeing is with peoplebringing more AI to use, they want

(06:41):
it to be transparent, auditable,validated and defensible.
They understand that at differentparts in managing legal matters,
that's essential to deliveringthe results and getting the ROI.
From a product perspective, we'rebuilding governance, audit trails, the
ways you validate into the platform.
It's something we'll continue toinvest in and the market demands.

(07:01):
I'm Georgia Foster.
The managing director and the vicepresident of sales for international.
That encompasses EMEA and APAC region,so bringing all the goodness from the
US out to the international markets.
What was your objective forthis year's RelFest London?
Every year the objective is tobring the community together at all
different levels and types of work,and certainly we see that again today.

(07:23):
We've exceeded capacity in most rooms,and there were 70 people standing outside
the keynote, which was phenomenal.
Second was making sure that thosethat are starting to look at what AI
works best for them and correctly,that they're understanding, unpacking,
and alleviating some of the noisethat exists today in terms of how to
run defensible workflows in a robustsystem and how they do it correctly.

(07:47):
The objective is as it always is tocelebrate our customers, to recognize
them, to help them see what's coming downthe pike, to hear from them, and to share
best practices as we all rise together.
That's really what we do at Fest, whetherit's in Chicago, London, or in Sydney.
We cannot ignore the elephant inthe room, which is AI, and the

(08:08):
pace of innovation and change.
Our customers and ourpartners are very excited.
There's probably a littlebit of anxiety as well.
But everybody is leaning into thischange, and I think well-prepared.
We're on this journey together, andthe focus on AI, and certainly our AI
platform for legal data intelligence,is more acute than it's ever been.

(08:28):
Have you achieved your objectivefor this year's Rel Fest?
We used to have major announcementson the stage at Chicago Fest, and we
can't wait for October anymore becausethe innovation's coming out so fast.
For Fest London to be announcing suchmajor innovation and products to come, and
just looking around at all the familiarfaces and excellent people that make

(08:48):
this community, really happy with it.
David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel andLegal Education Director at Relativity.
You hosted several panelsat RelFest London this year.
What were some of the key takeawaysfrom the perspectives that were shared?
We did one with the International LegalTechnology Association, where we did a
roundup of various AI data law issues, andtoday we had the research data session,

(09:13):
and we discussed some of the research datawe're doing, including some of the data
that you and I have done over the years.
One of the big issues was whetheror not to disclose your use of
any type of AI, and the data areshowing that up to a third are not.
But, the audience here in theUnited Kingdom was definitely
full disclosure, probably becausethere is guidance here in the UK.
What's the hope for what people willtake from RelFest London when they

(09:36):
leave and go back to their teams?
Usable action that you can take, whetherit's from case law, the practice guidance,
the technical exhibits, the vendors thatyou see here, it's something you can
take back and use on your job tomorrow.
If we can do that, we've done our job.
This market is particularly unique.
It's not just the UK, eventhough the event is here.

(09:57):
There are countries all across EMEA thatwe work with that are grappling with
different policy changes and requirementsand regulations, and coming together
and trying to work through some of thatin addition with the technology is key.
Kristin Traylor, SeniorDirector, AI Transformation and
Law Firm Strategy, Relativity
Great panel at RelFest London.

(10:18):
What was the focus for that discussion?
To help the industry understandthat we're way past pilots.
We're at the point where we canstart to standardize on how we're
using generative AI in review, indisclosure, in investigations, helping
people understand that there areways to validate and understand what

(10:39):
the technology is doing, how it'sworking, and to use it in live matters.
What's different about Rel FestLondon versus Rel Fest Sydney or the
traditional Relativity Fest in Chicago?
I see it as an opportunityfor rolling thunder.
Almost like if you compare it tothe old way of development in a

(11:00):
waterfall method versus a very clearAI native, agentic, agile manner.
These are stories that we are rollingout, and we began in Australia
with the beginning of the yeartalking about where we're going.
But it was really the first chapterof a couple of chapters to follow
about the further transformation thatwe're making inside our business.

(11:24):
Chris and his team, in the next weekand over the past 30 days, have released
three innovation offerings right insideRelOne that weren't there at Fest Sydney.
That's an example of this chapter afterchapter showing that innovation at speed.
What I find fascinating with our employeebase throughout the world, is there is

(11:45):
a common bond that binds relativians,no matter their age, country, first
language, religion, or culture, and thatis our commitment to organizing data,
discovering the truth, and acting onit, and by doing so, pursuing justice.
That is shared by all relativians.
Similarly, that's shared by our customers,no matter where they're located.

(12:05):
So their needs may vary based on howbig they are, whether they're a law
firm or a corporation or a governmentalentity or a legal service provider.
But there are also a lot ofthe same shared challenges,
no matter where they are.
One of the things I love mostabout RelFest is getting that
commonality, that similar spirit.
No matter where one is in the world,we're all doing the same important work.

(12:28):
Did you anticipate last year thatyou'd be having these conversations
this year, and what do you thinkwe'll be talking about next year?
There are no crystal ballsto ponder upon or to look at.
A year ago, if you would have askedme we'd be this far accelerated as a
market in terms of adoption of AI, Iprobably would have questioned that.

(12:49):
If I could go back in time, I'dsay there'd be more testing.
What we have acknowledged isthat we're way beyond testing.
There's full up deployment of a varietyof tools, which is really wonderful
and candidly daunting at the same time.
If we did our job right in the keynote,it was this balancing of opportunity

(13:10):
and risk in the world we live in.
We want to enable our community withthe best tech and the best AI in the
form of aiR for our clients in a verytrusted, disciplined environment.
We're very thoughtful about the governancerequired to do that and it's that balance.
In the keynote, I calledit the readiness gap.

(13:31):
Part of the power of the AI platformfor legal data intelligence is to
contain risk so our customers cantake advantage of the opportunity.
This is Ari Kaplan at RelFest London2026, speaking with Phil Saunders,
Chris Brown , Adam Weiss, KristinTraylor, Georgia Foster David Horrigan.
Chris Phil thank you thank you very much

(13:52):
Adam, what a privilege.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Ari.
Appreciate it.
Kristin, thanks so much.
Thank you.
David, it's a privilege to collaborate.
Great to talk to you.
Ari, great working with you as always.
Georgia, congratulations.
Thank you.
Thanks again for coming.
Thank you for listening to theReinventing Professionals podcast.
Visit reinventingprofessionals.com orarikaplanadvisors.com to learn more.