{"id":149970,"date":"2026-04-30T14:59:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/30\/legal-marketing-association-president-rachel-shields-williams-on-ai-innovation-and-why-people-still-come-first\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:59:56","slug":"legal-marketing-association-president-rachel-shields-williams-on-ai-innovation-and-why-people-still-come-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/30\/legal-marketing-association-president-rachel-shields-williams-on-ai-innovation-and-why-people-still-come-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Marketing Association President Rachel Shields Williams On AI, Innovation, And Why People Still Come First"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post Legal Marketing Association President Rachel Shields Williams On AI, Innovation, And Why People Still Come First<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recorded live at the annual meeting of the\u00a0Legal Marketing Association<\/a>\u00a0in New Orleans, this episode features my conversation with\u00a0Rachel Shields Williams<\/a>, president of the LMA and director of client intelligence at Sidley Austin, where she has spent 17 years building out roles at the intersection of marketing, business development, knowledge management and data. Earlier this year, Rachel was named a recipient of ALM\u2019s\u00a0Monica Bay Women in Legal Tech Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rachel and I discuss how AI is reshaping the work of legal marketers, and why she believes the marketing community is uniquely positioned to help law firms move past the \u201cI\u2019m curious, I want to click the buttons\u201d stage of AI adoption to sustained, repeatable value. We get into the state of innovation in big law \u2014 including Rachel\u2019s view that firms cannot use AI or money to \u201cskip the canyon of despair\u201d in change management \u2014 and why she thinks meaningful innovation often looks less like a headline and more like getting one percent better every week.<\/p>\n

The conversation also covers the changing competitive landscape facing traditional firms, from AI-native entrants like Norm AI to MSOs and a resurgent ALSP market; the long-running debate over the billable hour; the four interrelated elements Rachel sees at the heart of every law firm\u2019s data \u2014 documents, clients, matters, and people; and what firm leaders should be doing right now to stay competitive over the next decade. Throughout, Rachel returns to a theme about which she calls herself an \u201cunapologetic humanist\u201d \u2014 technology and process will keep changing, but the firms that win will be the ones that put the right people in the room first.<\/p>\n

Listen here:<\/p>\n

Watch here:<\/p>\n