Microsoft Copilot for Legal Practice: Boosting Productivity While Staying Ethically Compliant (2026 Edition)

Therese earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2002 and her B.A. from Georgetown University in 1997. She is admitted to practice in New York and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Therese has been consistently ranked by Chambers USA for Nationwide E-Discovery & Information Governance since 2021 and by Chambers Global for USA E-Discovery & Information Governance since 2022 — recognition she has maintained through 2025. Her Chambers rankings reflect her standing as one of the country's leading practitioners at the intersection of technology, data, and the law.

Therese is an active speaker and thought leader on AI, data governance, and emerging technology in legal practice. Her recent speaking engagements include programs on AI implementation challenges for enterprises, AI use in data management for legal departments, generative AI in e-discovery, and data privacy and minimization strategies. She contributes to Reed Smith's Tech Law Talks podcast series, with recent episodes addressing how generative AI is transforming e-discovery document review and how TAR and GenAI are automating privilege review. She has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal on the topic of managing data risks in mergers and acquisitions.

Therese's practice is built around the intersection of AI, data risk, and legal compliance. She counsels large financial services institutions, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies, industrial companies, and food products companies on the full spectrum of data risk management — from AI technology implementation and governance to cybersecurity, data breaches, cross-border data transfers, data migrations, and legacy data remediation. A significant focus of her practice involves helping clients integrate AI and data analytics tools into their e-discovery and compliance workflows while ensuring those implementations meet regulatory and legal requirements. She has represented clients in proactive and reactive negotiations before federal and state regulators including the SEC, FINRA, CFPB, Federal Reserve, and the New York Attorney General, as well as before U.S. state and federal courts on data privacy, cross-border transfer, and cybersecurity matters. With a practice that sits squarely at the convergence of AI adoption and legal risk, Therese brings attorneys a grounded, real-world perspective on what responsible technology governance looks like in practice.

Ann earned her Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Colorado State University, where she studied from 1990 to 1995 and developed foundational skills in leadership and teamwork.

Ann has demonstrated leadership throughout her career at Reed Smith, most notably serving as lead Project Manager for the redesign of the firm's Global Intranet — a firm-wide initiative that established standardized branding across both intranet and extranet platforms. She has played a central role in advocating for the adoption of templatized sites and page layouts across the firm, and has been recognized within her teams for engineering bespoke tracking solutions that enhanced client collaboration. Ann is endorsed on LinkedIn for skills including SharePoint, customer service, leadership, and teamwork, and maintains a network of 125 professional connections along with 128 followers.

Ann is an active member of the Legal Innovation and Technology community on LinkedIn, reflecting her engagement with peers across the legal technology field. Within Reed Smith, she contributes to the firm's broader practice innovation and knowledge management community by collaborating closely with departmental teams, legal professionals, and stakeholders across the organization, and by conducting firm-wide training sessions that promote adoption of SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and custom applications. Earlier in her career, she served as a primary liaison between Keystone Municipal Collections Group and external stakeholders — including business owners, tax preparers, and major third-party tax entities — facilitating industry-wide adoption of streamlined electronic filing processes.

Ann has spent her entire tenure at Reed Smith LLP — twelve years and eleven months — advancing through roles of increasing responsibility within the firm's practice innovation function. Since April 2023, she has served as Practice Innovation Manager, where she proactively manages mid-to-large scale projects centered around Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and the M365 suite of applications, ensuring seamless integration and optimal functionality within the legal framework. In this role, she conducts thorough analyses of business needs to determine the most fitting applications, expertly plans and tracks tasks throughout project lifecycles, and designs focused training sessions tailored to the unique requirements of legal and support staff. She collaborates closely with stakeholders to adapt training programs to evolving challenges and opportunities within the legal landscape, contributing to the establishment of a tech-savvy and empowered workforce. From June 2013 to March 2023, Ann served as KM Practice Innovation Senior Coordinator at Reed Smith, where she spearheaded the redesign of the firm's Global Intranet as lead Project Manager and orchestrated the seamless execution of mid-sized projects in collaboration with departmental teams and legal professionals. She established and enforced standardized branding across intranet and extranet platforms, engineered bespoke tracking solutions that significantly enhanced efficiency and client collaboration, and advocated for the adoption of templatized sites and page layouts to streamline processes. She also authored comprehensive guidance and training materials and conducted firm-wide training sessions on SharePoint and custom applications. Prior to joining Reed Smith, Ann served as Compliance Coordinator / Business Portal at Keystone Municipal Collections Group in Irwin, Pennsylvania, from December 2011 to July 2013. In that role, she functioned as the primary point of contact for business owners, tax preparers, and major third-party tax entities, specializing in local tax filings. She conducted comprehensive training sessions on compliance laws, regulations, and filing procedures; analyzed and resolved intricate technical issues; recruited businesses to transition to electronic filing through a unified collector; and designed informative, user-friendly training and instructional materials.