Newly created role places global AI strategy under a practicing partner’s leadership ahead of agentic AI deployment
Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has appointed Jake Bernstein to the newly created role of Global AI and Innovation Partner, effective immediately. In this role, Bernstein will lead the firm’s global artificial intelligence strategy, governance, and innovation operations, including AI platform selection, workflow development, and data and knowledge management, working in coordination with the firm’s technology and security functions. The role formalizes global responsibility for the firm’s AI strategy and innovation roadmap under a single practicing partner leader.
Bernstein will also serve as co-chair of the firm’s AI Solutions Group, alongside Shiau Yen Chin-Dennis, who leads firmwide leadership coordination and AI-driven revenue growth, and Guillermo Christensen, who is responsible for global policy, cybersecurity, and geopolitical considerations. Together, they will guide the firm’s AI vision, governance, and implementation, ensuring alignment across practices, regions, and client needs.
“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 earned ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification in March, making it among the first law firms globally to do so, and has deployed its primary AI platform, Legora, across all practices and offices. The firm’s broader stack includes Vincent, Westlaw Advance, Relativity Analytics, CoCounsel, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The firm’s AI Forward℠ framework establishes the expectation that lawyers reach for AI first on their own work, within firm policy.
“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 is a partner in the firm’s Technology Transactions and Sourcing and Data Protection, Privacy, and Security practice groups, where his work spans data privacy and cybersecurity compliance, SaaS agreements, AI/ML addenda and responsible AI frameworks, technology licensing, and IT outsourcing. He holds CISSP and CIPP/US certifications, serves on the firm’s General Counsel team advising on AI and technology matters, and is an active user of the firm’s AI platforms in his own practice.
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