Kathryn DeBord

Our guest today is Kathryn DeBord, vice president of product strategy at DISCO, a company that utilizes artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and data analytics to automate parts of the legal practice so that lawyers can focus their attention on other important areas. While Kathryn is known today for her work in legal innovation, her career journey actually began in an unexpected place—the Central Intelligence Agency. When Kathryn joined the CIA, she fulfilled a lifelong dream, but after four years as an intelligence analyst, she made a left turn and decided to go to law school. As a summer associate, Kathryn discovered her love for litigation, and went on to have a complex commercial litigation practice for over a decade. She was partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP when she joined the firm’s innovation committee, learning the ins and outs of law firm innovation and change management. Kathryn would go on to apply this knowledge as chief innovation officer, leading the firm’s international cross-disciplinary team to advance the quality of legal services through developing and adopting new technologies. Today, as vice president of product strategy at DISCO, she is helping the company determine what’s next in the litigation technology space. In today’s discussion, Kathryn tells us about how she started with the moniker “007,” leading to her life in the CIA; making left turns in her career; what litigation and innovation have in common; and working at DISCO.