How Caryn Sandler is Shaping the Future of Legal Innovation

At Gilbert + Tobin, my role sits at the intersection of legal expertise, technology, and transformation. I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can redesign the way legal services are delivered by combining deep legal judgement with new technologies and ways of working.

For me, innovation is not about adopting technology for its own sake. It is about creating better solutions to real problems, whether that is improving the client experience, helping our lawyers work more effectively, or unlocking entirely new ways of delivering value. At its core, innovation is about curiosity, creativity, and being willing to rethink long established processes.

What excites me most is the opportunity to build something new. That might mean experimenting with generative AI tools, redesigning workflows, developing new knowledge systems, or partnering with our lawyers and clients to solve challenges in a different way. The most impactful innovation often comes from bringing together people with different perspectives and creating an environment where ideas can be tested, refined, and scaled.

Of course, responsible innovation is critical in a legal environment. Part of my role is ensuring that as we explore new opportunities, we also have the right governance, guardrails, and culture in place. Sustainable innovation only happens when people trust the systems they are using and understand both the opportunities and the risks.

Day to day, that means working closely with our legal teams, technologists, and third-party vendors to experiment, learn, and embed solutions that genuinely improve how we work and the outcomes we deliver for clients.

Outside of work, my greatest focus is my family and being the best mother I can be. It has taught me the importance of empathy, resilience, and patience, and how much thoughtful encouragement, stability, and care shape the confidence and growth of the people closest to us.

These lessons have shaped how I lead large teams, by creating an environment built on trust, support, and shared purpose, where people can do their best work and thrive together. I also have a strong focus on continuous improvement and a real thirst for knowledge. I am naturally curious and enjoy learning new things, whether that is through reading, exploring new technologies, or understanding different perspectives. That mindset carries directly into my professional life, where I am always looking for ways to innovate, improve processes, and help people adapt and grow in a changing environment.

What excites me is that we’re at a genuine inflection point. Generative AI isn’t just another tool, it’s prompting us to rethink workflows, capability, and how we train junior lawyers and our operating model. At the same time, the fundamentals still apply. Cultural change, governance, and thoughtful implementation remain critical.

Being able to help shape how G+T navigates that transition, in a way that enhances human judgement rather than replacing it, is both a privilege and a deep responsibility. There has never been a more exciting time to be in my type of role.

We were deliberate in selecting Harvey because it’s a platform built specifically for legal professionals. That matters. Legal work has particular requirements around confidentiality, accuracy, and reasoning, and any technology we adopt must align with those standards.

We approached the decision through structured pilots, working closely with our risk and technology teams to assess governance, data security, and use cases before scaling. A strong model is important, but in legal practice trust depends on the full operating model around it, including secure implementation, workflow integration, support, governance, and alignment with how lawyers actually work.

Our goal is not automation for its own sake. It’s to give our lawyers a tool that acts as a trusted partner, supporting drafting, research, and document review, while freeing them to focus on higher-value, judgement-based work.

Adoption has been strongest where teams can clearly see practical use cases, for example in large-scale document and contract review, knowledge management, and first-pass review and drafting.

What’s been encouraging is that enthusiasm hasn’t been limited by seniority. We’ve seen strong engagement from both junior lawyers looking to work more efficiently and senior lawyers and partners who see the strategic value.

The most surprising pattern has been how quickly word-of-mouth drives adoption when people find something genuinely useful. Cultural momentum can build very quickly when value is clear.

The most effective approach has been focusing on meaningful adoption rather than passive training.

We’ve prioritised hands-on, scenario-based learning so our lawyers can see how the technology applies directly to their work. For example, we recently launched Level up with Harvey: Mission Mars, an interactive Harvey training program delivered in person by our G+T Innovate team. It’s a challenge-based session that walks lawyers through use cases across summarisation, document review, extraction, analysis, and drafting, while also building familiarity with tools like Vault, the Harvey for Word Add-In, and structured workflows.

Importantly, sessions like this are not just about functionality. They build confidence. When people can test the tool in a guided environment, ask questions, and understand both the opportunity and the guardrails, adoption accelerates in a sustainable way.

We’ve also found that peer-led sharing, structured pilots, and initiatives like our AI Bounty programs create momentum. Ultimately, successful change management in this space combines practical capability-building with clear governance and strong leadership modelling.

We’ve seen strong impact in two areas. First, document review — particularly extracting key clauses or issues from large volumes of material to accelerate initial analysis.

Second, chronology building. In complex matters, Harvey can help organise large volumes of emails, contracts, and correspondence into a structured first pass chronology. That gives lawyers a clearer starting point to test, verify, and analyse the key events.

In each case, the value is not replacing judgement. It is helping lawyers get insight more efficiently, while preserving the critical role of verification, legal analysis, and strategic judgement.

Success isn’t measured by usage alone. It’s measured by whether the technology is improving quality, efficiency, and client outcomes without compromising professional standards.

We look at adoption rates, use case maturity, and qualitative feedback from teams and clients. Just as importantly, we assess whether our governance frameworks are working, ensuring outputs are reviewed, risks are mitigated, and our obligations to clients remain paramount.

One key lesson is that strategy must come before technology. You need clarity on use cases and governance before scaling adoption.

Another is that culture matters more than capability and technology. Tools evolve rapidly; mindset takes longer to shift. We have been fortunate at Gilbert + Tobin to have spent more than a decade building a culture that is genuinely curious about innovation and open to experimenting with new technologies. That foundation makes it far easier to adapt, evolve, and realise meaningful value from generative AI.

For organisations beginning their journey, my advice would be to start with safe experimentation, involve your risk teams early, and invest heavily in building digital literacy. Data quality and governance are equally critical, because the effectiveness and trustworthiness of AI systems ultimately depend on the quality, security, and integrity of the information that underpins them. The goal is not only deploy AI at pace, but also to deploy it responsibly and sustainably.

The most significant impact will likely be to rethink how legal services are delivered and structured, not just to make existing processes more efficient. We’ll see more AI-supported workflows, more multidisciplinary teams, and new ways of working with clients. This may change how matters are scoped, how teams are structured, how work is priced, and how clients engage with us.

But in many ways, generative AI amplifies the importance of judgement, ethics, and human oversight, rather than diminishing them. As work becomes more AI-enabled, the value will come from lawyers who can apply exceptional judgement to complex problems and deliver advice that is strategic, trusted, and clearly valuable to clients.