Change in legal services is inevitable, but successful change is less certain. That is why the FT Innovative Lawyers awards highlight intrapreneurs, the entrepreneurial colleagues who actively shape how the future unfolds in their law firms.
A panel of judges considered a shortlist of change-makers, whose ambitions encompass such law firm transformations as overhauling the culture, improving systems and making tech innovations available to all. When it came to selecting the most innovative intrapreneur, the judges chose José Rodríguez Coching, head of legal innovation and technology at KPMG in Spain. As well as launching many and various initiatives for the firm, Rodríguez Coching stood out for viewing lawyers as potential creators of digital tools as a matter of course. The approach is reinforced by programmes such as AI Legal Ninjas, which encourage work on how new tech might be integrated, implemented and extended.
Profiles compiled by RSGI and FT editors. “Winner” indicates an Innovative Lawyers 2025 award; the rest are in alphabetical order.
WINNER: José Rodríguez Coching
Head of innovation and technology, KPMG Abogados
During 14 years at the global professional services firm’s Spanish legal arm, where he has also specialised in cross-border tax advice for multinationals, Rodríguez Coching developed tech tools for clients. He then pushed to do the same for the firm, where he has been head of innovation and tech since 2019.
He led the creation of KPMG Katalyst, a platform currently used by about 400 organisations in more than 90 jurisdictions, which hosts more than 40 tools using data analytics, automation and artificial intelligence. In 2025, he created four types of AI agent — which perform tasks autonomously — to accelerate legal work.
Rodríguez Coching has also set up AI Legal Ninjas, a scheme that uses games to create communities around AI use. Around a third of the firm’s lawyers now design, adapt and create digital tools.
Ian Bagshaw
London office managing partner, Perkins Coie
Ian Bagshaw was recruited as managing partner in London at Perkins Coie last year in order to lead the expansion of the US firm’s business into Europe. His return to the fray of Big Law, where he previously led private equity practices at White & Case and Linklaters, follows a spell of entrepreneurship now shaping his leadership at Perkins Coie.
In 2021 he stepped aside from White & Case to take on board roles supporting UK start-ups. In 2022, he became chair of Zero Gravity, an initiative to help students from less advantaged backgrounds to go to university and to pursue professional careers.
At Perkins Coie, he has set out to foster entrepreneurial spirit and widen career opportunities. For instance, the firm is now running its first “legal business analyst” trainee scheme, in which aspiring lawyers will be trained in fee-earning and in business development teams, at pay that secures financial stability.
Oliver Bethell
Chief technology officer, Travers Smith
As the potential disruption to the legal sector from generative artificial intelligence becomes ever more apparent, Oliver Bethell has become a trusted conduit between the firm’s board and the legal tech team building AI-powered tools for Travers Smith and its clients.
His team has developed products such as Jylo, an AI assistant now used daily by more than two-thirds of the firm.
Bethell also led on the 2023 launch of YCNBot, designed to offer law firms, in-house teams and others a safe way to access large language models, and the 2020 launch of Etatonna, which provided a breakthrough in automated document review.
He enabled both tools to be released as free-to-use software for in-house teams and other law firms in order to encourage safe use of large language models in the sector. Similarly, he is part of a team behind the firm’s mandatory AI training programme
Joe Cohen
Director of advanced client solutions, Charles Russell Speechlys
After legal innovation roles at Dentons and Linklaters, Joe Cohen joined Charles Russell Speechlys in late 2023 and started updating its approach to legal services with a strong emphasis on technology. His strategy includes expanding the firm’s Advanced Client Solutions team to more than 20 legal technology specialists, and introducing an AI tool that is used by 70 per cent of the firm.
He also launched Russell Up, a scheme where trainees propose ideas for automation. The initiative has resulted in more than 70 projects so far, including a process to extract information from UK corporate registry Companies House.
Cohen encourages collaboration within the law firm and in the wider legal sector. “Innovation committees” enable the firm’s lawyers to share ideas on AI, and he has founded a network, Carpe LLM, that links up heads of innovation from more than 35 City law firms.
Orlando Conetta
Head of research and development, Pinsent Masons
With degrees in law and computer science, Orlando Conetta has worked on combining law and coding for more than two decades.
After an initial manager role at Linklaters, in 2003 he became a freelance contractor.
He also took a master’s degree in AI and law, in which he explored how legal text could be “translated” into structured assertions to automate legal reasoning while remaining easy to use.
His efforts since joining Pinsent Masons in 2011 ensured the firm was well prepared for the latest breakthroughs in AI. The work included developing tools that interrogate complex documents fully and in ways that can be tailored to a client’s documentation.
An advocate of combining legal and technical expertise in law firms, Conetta has led his team in collaborating with the rest of the firm on achieving complex projects, often at speed.
Lucía Elizalde-Bulanti
Director of behavioural innovation, Dechert
After more than 20 years in legal practice, Lucía Elizalde-Bulanti will graduate this year with a master’s degree in behavioural sciences. Although technology can change organisations, she argues, its ultimate effectiveness depends on human behaviour.
In 2024, she devised a “radical thinking programme” that included asking lawyers to consider potential dystopian futures for the firm in order to generate and explore unconventional thinking.
Similarly, her “behavioural change programme” introduced this year aims to tackle unproductive work habits by identifying and mitigating root causes of obstacles to good practice, from inefficient use of time to lack of trust. After positive responses from initial participants — legal secretaries and senior managers — the programme has been rolled out to more than 200 people across the firm.
Mehreen Malik
Head of pro bono — Europe, Mayer Brown
In five years since joining Mayer Brown, Mehreen Malik has helped reshape its European pro bono culture.
The number of pro bono hours completed by the firm’s lawyers in London has risen since 2019 by nearly 70 per cent, while the number of individual lawyers undertaking pro bono work has increased by 30 per cent.
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As well as encouraging 20 annual pro bono hours at all levels across the firm, linked to bonuses and recognition, she aims to partner with charities tackling challenges that resonate with lawyers and where the pro bono efforts are likely to have the biggest impact.
Malik has led the firm’s efforts in supporting the Afghan Pro Bono Initiative, set up to support refugees, and also manages the firm’s support of the Green Tech Legal Collaborative, which provides legal support to start-ups at Imperial College London.
Joaquín Ruiz Echauri
Partner, Pérez-Llorca
Joaquín Ruiz Echauri has reshaped legal practice around insurance law in Spain, both at his firm and beyond.
After stints at a Spanish insurer, accountancy firm EY, and as an insurance specialist at law firm Hogan Lovells, he set up a pioneering practice dedicated to Spain’s insurance sector at Pérez-Llorca in 2020.
As a standalone insurance practice, it has greater breadth than other law firms serving the sector in Spain and even some international competitors. It has developed subgroups that specialise in complex areas such as medical malpractice, cyber security and AI. The new-style practice set out to collaborate actively with other parts of the firm, has acquired a number of industry-leading clients and handles complex regulatory, litigation and corporate work.
Recently, he has helped Pérez-Llorca to introduce specialised insurance practices in its new Colombia, Mexico and Lisbon offices.
Gareth Stokes
Partner, global co-chair of technology, DLA Piper
Gareth Stokes has long advocated using technology to supplement human legal expertise, while also extending his expertise in AI law and business.
Now he is co-chairing DLA Piper’s 450-strong international AI working group, which is creating frameworks to help spread use of the technology across the firm.
Stokes has also developed a two-day modular AI workshop for clients, covering subjects such as EU regulations and governance frameworks.
He worked with US colleagues to help the firm deploy a service to test whether clients’ activities powered by generative AI are trustworthy. Lawyers at the firm act as a “legal red team”, seeking out weaknesses in clients’ systems by simulating unintended or malicious threats.
Stokes is also working on a long-term project to develop a high-accuracy generative AI contract review system.
Judging panel
Harriet Arnold, assistant editor, FT Project Publishing (panel chair); Michael Kavanagh, FT Project Publishing contributing editor; Fiona Phillips, technology lawyer; Roo Patel, head of hearings business development, Emea, Opus 2; Gabriel Buigas, executive vice-president, legal and compliance solutions, Integreon; Manuel Sanchez, global product marketing manager, security and compliance, iManage; K-Ming Lee, head of customer engagement, Harvey; Neville Hawcock, editorial director, RSGI.