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Lawyers Weekly is pleased to welcome Sam Nickless, chief executive of BigLaw firm Gilbert + Tobin, for a session on how AI is transforming the commodification of time in legal practice.
The Partner Summit will be held on Thursday, 12 June 2025, at The Star in Sydney for a day of unmatched insights surrounding the trends and practices emerging in legal leadership.
The summit will unite speakers, including Australian Olympic legend Ian Thorpe, AM; Norton Rose Fulbright Australia’s chief executive partner, Alison Deitz; and the managing director of Thomson Reuters, Vishal Bali, for a day of jam-packed insights.
Nickless will be joined by Catherine Roberts of Thomson Reuters and Chris McLean of Law Partners to explore how AI is revolutionising the legal field.
The widespread adoption of AI has profound implications for today’s partners and their clients. While AI still has significant limitations, legal professionals cannot compete with the speed and scale of artificial information retrieval – and client expectations have forever been altered.
In his session, Nickless will examine the widespread adoption of AI in a legal setting, including its impact on client-centric relationships, explore how AI-empowered firms are operating, and debate time-based versus fixed-pricing methods.
He will weigh the revolutionary impact of AI against longstanding perceptions of legal value to understand how service delivery can evolve in line with technology.
The session will explore how client-centric relationships are evolving due to widespread AI adoption and consider how AI-empowered firms are challenging the norm and driving client expectations.
Additionally, the panellist will debate the efficacy of time-based versus fixed-pricing methods in the context of AI-augmented work, raise questions of transparency on how and when AI is being used, and examine if traditional models hinder innovation.
As partner and CEO of Gilbert + Tobin, Nickless leads G+T’s operational functions and drives the firm’s strategic direction.
His role focuses heavily on technology and innovation to enhance both the delivery of legal services and the efficiency of supporting business functions.
In addition to his role as CEO, Nickless is on the board of LegalVision, a pioneering technology-driven legal start-up partially owned by Gilbert + Tobin. He is also a director of CEDA.
Prior to G+T, Nickless was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients across financial services, retail, agribusiness, and telecommunications with a focus on strategy and organisational effectiveness.
He has also held executive roles at National Australia Bank, Aristocrat Leisure, and GPT Group.
To hear Nickless discuss the impact of evolving AI in the legal profession, come along to the Partner Summit 2025.
Run in partnership with principal partner Thomson Reuters, the summit will take place on Thursday, 12 June 2025, at The Star, Sydney. Click here to buy tickets.
To learn more about the summit, including the speakers and agenda, click here.
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