Adopting AI – Lessons from the Trenches
Tracks
Concurrent Stream 1
| Wednesday, September 9, 2026 |
| 4:35 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Wala Mirr Theatre |
Overview
Most panels on AI and the future of law promise answers. This one does not. Facilitated by Joel Barolsky, this panel brings together senior law firm leaders from across Australia and New Zealand for an in-the-trenches conversation about what they are actually doing, and what they do not yet know.
What does a graduate program look like when AI does much of the junior work? How do you price hybrid AI and human services when clients have seen the speed? What does strategy mean when the planning horizon keeps shortening? What does the partnership model look like through a transition no one has been through before?
The Summit theme asks what wisdom from the past should accelerate us into the future. This session asks the harder companion question: what are firms doing right now, what are they still working out, and what have they quietly stopped believing in? This will be a session that values honest questions over tidy answers.
Speaker
Mr Joel Barolsky
Principal
Edge International
Adopting AI: Lessons from the Trenches
Biography
Joel Barolsky is a specialist adviser to managing partners, executive teams and practice group leaders on issues of strategy, culture, governance, partner remuneration, succession, pricing and capability
development. He has advised over 100 leading law, accounting and advisory firms. Around 70% of his clients are repeat clients or come directly from referrals from existing relationships.
Joel is a Principal of Edge International, Managing Director of Barolsky Advisors, and a Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne Law School. He has written over 40 opinion pieces for the Australian Financial Review Legal Affairs section. Previously Joel was head of the strategy practice of Beaton Research & Consulting.
