It is official: Ralph Baxter, who gained a reputation as a legal industry innovator over nearly 25 years as chairman and CEO of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and as an industry advisor since leaving the firm in 2014, is today being announced as the newest cohost of the Legal Talk Network podcast Law Technology Now.

If you listened to my Sept. 16 LawNext interview with Baxter, he talked about his plans to join the podcast. The first Law Technology Now episode welcoming him to the show came out Oct. 23. Today, the Legal Talk Network is releasing the formal announcement.

Baxter is cohosting the show with Daniel W. Linna Jr., director of law and technology initiatives and senior lecturer at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. The show explores the latest trends in legal technology and provides advice on improving the practice of law through innovative thinking.

Law Technology Now was originally founded by Monica Bay, the longtime former editor-in-chief of the ALM publication Law Technology News. I was a cohost of it along with Bay from 2017-2018.

Baxter became synonymous with innovation in legal service during his nearly quarter century as chairman and CEO of Orrick, leading the firm as it built on its California foundation to become one of the world’s premier global law firms, and adopting ground-breaking service, resource, and career models.

He now serves as an adviser to law firms, legal technology companies, and others in the legal industry on innovation and modernization. He is a fellow at CodeX, the Stanford Center for Law and Informatics and is on the board of directors of Intapp, the legal advisory board of LegalZoom, the advisory board at the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School, the advisory board of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School, and the Leaders Council of the Legal Services Corporation. He was also on the board of directors of Lex Machina prior to its sale to LexisNexis.

“It’s a real privilege to work with Ralph,” Laurence Colletti, executive producer of Legal Talk Network, says in the announcement being released today. “He brings his highest caliber of professionalism to every production. Not only is he a gifted communicator but he understands the legal profession and its challenges deeply.”

Colletti says that Law Technology Now will be released twice monthly and feature influential experts who are helping to reshape the legal landscape. In addition to the Oct. 23 episode introducing him, two others with him are currently available: 

The next scheduled episode will feature guest Judy Perry Martinez, the president of the American Bar Association. (You may also be interested in my LawNext interview with Martinez.) 

More information about Baxter can be found at ralphbaxter.com. You can also subscribe to the Law Technology Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music, and other podcast apps. 

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.