Canadian Lawyer InHouse

23 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JANUARY 2017 customer's counsel and work collaboratively to sort through problems. It defi nitely cre- ates additional workload where you wouldn't have thought you would be spending your time. We're closer to the sales team — we need to make sure the operational needs are met as we go into the marketplace." Snell has been with IBM for 17 years and in that time his role within the business has changed dramatically. "When I think back to the work I did when I started, it was very transaction oriented. The traditional out- sourcing of large customers — traditional transactions with volumes of documents to sift through with external counsel on the other side — it was not dissimilar to large M&A transactions," he says. "Our role has evolved now to be a little closer to the business and to the solution el- ements because we're moving through this transformation into the cognitive and cloud platform space," says Snell. Key areas IBM is focused on now include strategic initiatives around the cloud, data analytics, mobile, social and security — all focused on enabling the digital enterprise and where clients want in these areas. "We are very focused on the continuing evolution of our cloud platform position — the whole cloud model is key to our trans- formation, and the other is more unique to Canada in that we've been very active in creating innovation hubs across the coun- try, which are designed to support the core innovation in our company or with part- ners and/or our clients," says Snell. Over the last 10 years, IBM has provided half a billion dollars of in-kind expertise and technologies contributed to support these in- novation hubs. It announced one in Septem- ber — an incubator at IBM's 185 Spadina lo- cation in Toronto focused on helping startups get on their feet and evolve into successful in- novation companies in Canada. Another was announced in March in Hamilton, Ont., which is an initiative with Hamilton Health Sciences Centre that is all about exploring cognitive computing and advanced analytics to support researchers and clinicians in the health fi eld. In February of 2016, IBM partnered with the province of Ontario to launch an in- cubation initiative to bring IBM's Watson technology to small and medium enterpris- es and startups to kick-start their ability to innovate. The legal team at IBM is very involved with the sales team to help facilitate transac- tions with the clients," says Snell. "One of the challenges we have in the IT industry in Canada is we've moved from be- spoke IT services, customized on premises, to this idea of a standardized cloud-based service world — lots of options but stan- dardized options. We work both internally and with external customers to try and help educate and create and craft the right con- tractual frameworks to support that model," he says. Working with the innovation hubs is a different role for Snell. "Those can often be a joint effort with government or govern- ment-like entities or commercial partners where we are working with the teams to craft often one-off arrangements, to support the creation of the hub and how it will be governed," he says. He has also been called in as a subject matter expert at external events in the in- dustry. He was involved at the University of Toronto when a computer science class was working on developing software products based on the cognitive computing Watson platform, particularly within the legal in- dustry. "That was the class that ultimately gen- erated a product called ROSS," says Snell, referring to the fi rst artifi cially intelligent attorney powered by Watson. "That is now being piloted in a number of law fi rms, ini- tially in the bankruptcy area." It's a product that can cut legal research time and make the industry more effi cient. "It's an example of how the team can get pulled in in an unusual way because we have a set of expertise relevant to the product set," says Snell. As a lawyer in IBM, Snell says he can give a "thoughtful view" as a skilled practitioner in core legal areas. "It also allows us to be good analytics people, good communicators and good readers and we are being called on to help internal and external clients move through this transformation maybe more than we were before," he says. "You really want these cloud, cognitive transactions to move forward very effi - ciently. You don't want the contracting or the mechanisms around the contracting to be on the critical path because the adoption rate of cloud is accelerating. The nimble cli- ents and businesses who can take advantage of it are getting real commercial competi- tive advantage," says Snell. "Nobody wants to slow it down and so it's all hands on deck to keep things moving. Eventually you're very effi cient with the transactions." IH ROBIN KUNISKI One of the challenges we have with the IT industry in Canada is we've moved from bespoke IT services, customized on premises to this idea of a standardized cloud-based service. Matthew Snell, IBM Canada

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