K&L Gates LLP announced on May 4 the appointment of Jake Bernstein to the newly created position of Global AI and Innovation Partner. In this role, Bernstein will oversee the law firm’s artificial intelligence strategy, governance, and innovation operations across its practices and offices.
The creation of this role reflects K&L Gates’ intention to centralize responsibility for its AI initiatives under a practicing partner. The firm aims to ensure that its approach to artificial intelligence keeps pace with rapid developments in technology and meets client needs.
Bernstein will also serve as co-chair of the firm’s AI Solutions Group alongside Shiau Yen Chin-Dennis, who is responsible for leadership coordination and revenue growth related to AI, and Guillermo Christensen, who focuses on policy, cybersecurity, and geopolitical matters. Together they will direct the firm’s vision for AI governance and implementation.
“Jake’s appointment reflects a deliberate choice about how this firm leads in AI: with a practicing partner, accountable for outcomes, working in close partnership with our technology and security functions,” said Stacy Ackermann, Global Managing Partner of K&L Gates. “Agentic AI is moving from concept to deployment in months, not years. The market demands a partner driving this work who is in the practice every day, who understands what clients need, and who can move at the pace this moment requires.”
K&L Gates recently achieved ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its use of artificial intelligence platforms such as Legora. Other tools used by the firm include Vincent, Westlaw Advance, Relativity Analytics, CoCounsel, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The firm’s “AI Forward℠” framework encourages lawyers to use these technologies regularly within established policies.
“The AI Forward℠ posture is straightforward: lawyers should be using these tools every day, on their own work, within governance the firm has built and certified,” Bernstein stated. “What’s coming next—agents that can plan and execute multi-step workflows on a matter—makes supervision the central partner-level question of the next 18 months. The firms that build that fluency now will lead what follows. The firms that wait will not.”
Bernstein works in Technology Transactions as well as Data Protection practice groups at K&L Gates where he advises on privacy compliance issues related to technology agreements including those involving artificial intelligence.
