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56 COREY THOMAS Corey has spent almost two decades building systems that do not just keep up with change; they drive it. As Chief Technology Officer at Lightfoot, he leads a firmwide transformation that combines innovation, artificial intelligence, and cloud technology into a single, secure ecosystem. His focus is on velocity and accountability. He moves innovation forward while keeping risk in check. He designed and implemented Lightfoot's cloud-first, AI-ready environment using Microsoft 365, Azure AD, and Purview, tightly integrated with Apple macOS and MDM frameworks. He pioneered Lightfoot's Innovation Committee to turn AI from a concept into a capability. He guides AI deployment and automated workflows that increase attorney efficiency, accuracy, and client responsiveness. He also wrote and enforces the firm's AI governance and security playbooks, ensuring compliance and ethical use of data. His work bridges emerging technology with measurable outcomes in cybersecurity, compliance, and productivity. GUARDRAILS THAT KEEP THE WORK SOUND The essentials do not change. Lawyers must verify outputs against source materials and ensure that preparation ma- terials reflect the record accu- rately. That means checking key excerpts, confirming page and line citations, and reading surrounding context to avoid misleading impressions. Con- clusions belong to the lawyer. Confidentiality and privilege remain paramount. Teams should apply firm standards to how materials are uploaded, processed, and shared, follow- ing any protective orders in place. Current AI systems also carry known limitations that practitioners must account for. Language models can produce outputs that appear authoritative but contain errors, sometimes called hallucinations, requiring ver- ification of every citation and factual claim against source material. Transcript parsing accuracy depends on the quality of the underlying files; poorly scanned or handwrit- ten materials may intro- duce errors. And no system fully replaces the contextual judgment a lawyer brings to assessing witness credibility or narrative weight. Acknowl- edging these boundaries is not a weakness. It is part of competent adoption. Process discipline keeps benefits high and risks low. An- chor preparation in actual transcripts and exhibits. Treat summaries as navigation tools, not as substitutes for the record. Maintain a clear chain of custody for data. Keep humans in the loop for every step that involves judgment. Good adoption also improves teamwork. Associates and paralegals spend more time on analysis. Partners spend preparation time where it matters, with witnesses and strategy. AI AND THE EVOLUTION OF TRIAL AI does not change what deposition preparation is. It changes how much of it can be realistically accom- plished. More testimony can be reviewed, and more inconsistencies caught. More thorough preparation for the examiner's style can be undertaken, and the thematic picture can be better sustained during trial. The tech- nology handles the volume so attorneys can handle the judgment.

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