Will Your Next Summer Associate Be a Robot? How AI Will Change Large Law Firms 2026

For over 30 years, Rhonda has been an experienced and accomplished litigator who focused her practice on complex litigation. She has spent most of her legal career at the law firm of Cozen O’Connor and is currently the Manager of Paralegals there. She manages a team of approximately 160 Paralegals and develops their training programs – including programs related to Artificial Intelligence. She also runs the College Summer Internship Program which consists of approximately 30 Interns across 11 of Cozen’s 35 offices. She was previously an Adjunct Professor at Widener University Delaware law School where she taught Legal Methods I, II and III. Rhonda is currently serving on the Board of Governors for the Philadelphia Bar Association. She is also a member of the Professional Guidance Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a member of the Professional Liability Committee and the Civil and Equal Rights Committee (“CERC”), of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She was named as the CERC DEI Ambassador in the Summer of 2024 and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She has authored numerous articles including pieces for The Bencher Magazine (November/December 2022), and The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly Magazine (January 2023). She is also a member of the Villanova Law J. Willard O’Brien American Inn of Court. She earned her B.A. from Fairfield University and her J.D. from the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law School.

Brian Paul Bozzo is a partner with K&L Gates. He is part of the firm’s IP Procurement and Portfolio Management, US National Security Law and Policy, Government Contracts and Procurement Policy, and Public Policy and Law practice groups. His patent practice includes the initial review of disclosures, counseling clients on protection, performing patentability searches, drafting claims and applications, responding to office actions, and drafting briefs in federal court, the Patent Trials and Appeals Board and Trademark Trials and Appeals Board. He is well-versed in subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Brian also has experience prosecuting and litigating patents and trademarks and has previously worked under the Honorable Judge Sleet, a former federal judge in the District of Delaware. He has counseled clients on preserving and enforcing intellectual property rights for emerging technologies, including cryptocurrencies, the internet-of-things, quantum computing, and the emerging commercial space industry, and is intimately familiar with the flowdown of intellectual property rights earned under government contracts. Prior to practicing patent law, Brian had an extensive career as an aerospace engineer, during which he participated in and led a variety of design and manufacturing projects. Highlights of his design portfolio include solar arrays, robotics, and avionics for space vehicle platforms such as the International Space Station, Curiosity Mars Rover, and Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. He was previously responsible for the regulatory compliance of software and systems associated with the aforementioned platforms, including the protection and management of sensitive data. As a result, Brian brings hands-on experience with a wide-variety of technologies to his patent practice, including semiconductors, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and engineering resource planning. He is a graduate of Drexel University College of Law, J.D., Columbia University, M.Sc., Drexel University, M.B.A., and Villanova University, B.S.

Ashanti M. Crawford, Esq. joined Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law’s Office of Career Strategy and Advancement after serving as the co-lead of Student Recruiting Initiatives and manager of Legal Talent Recruiting for the mid-Atlantic offices of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, a national law firm. She began her legal career by spending her 1L and 2L summers and the first three years following graduation from Villanova Law as a general commercial litigation associate at White and Williams LLP, a large regional law firm. She also spent time as an attorney search director, where she placed attorneys into lateral associate, partner, and in-house counsel positions, thus rounding out her extensive experience in attorney recruiting and hiring. Ashanti has also demonstrated unwavering commitment to Villanova Law through her membership and past and current leadership of the executive boards of the Villanova Law Alumni Association, the Minority Alumni Society, and the J. Willard O’Brien American Inns of Court, as well as serving as a founding member of the Villanova Law Women’s Network. Ashanti is a native of Texas and earned her BA from Duke University.

Chair and Managing Member of CODISCOVR, Nicole Marie Gill works with attorneys and clients firmwide to develop efficient and effective discovery management strategies tailored to the case at hand. Leveraging advanced technologies and analytics, she manages complex and high-profile eDiscovery projects and routinely navigates data and privacy protection laws across many jurisdictions, both domestic and foreign.
Nicole Gill participates in 26(f) conferences; negotiates agreements and stipulations establishing parties’ obligations with respect to preserving, searching, and producing electronically stored information (ESI); directs use of artificial intelligence (AI) in discovery; and negotiates technology assisted review (TAR) and predictive coding protocols. She also advises on collection methodology, search and retrieval methodology, FRE 502(d) orders, and production specifications and develops internal and external discovery guidelines addressing each phase of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). Additionally, Nicole is involved in discovery-related motion practice, including the drafting of affidavits in support of cost-shifting. She also implements quality control procedures to mitigate risk and counsels both clients and colleagues on issues related to eDiscovery, information governance, and data management.
Nicole has written the ABA’s book on eDiscovery – Best Practices for E-Discovery: A Practical Handbook – which has been featured in eDiscovery Today. She is also a regular columnist for Thomson Reuters, where she addresses and navigates novel eDiscovery issues. She is a member of the Sedona Conference and is currently part of the WG6 Drafting Committee focused on exploring data privacy issues related to the exportation of data from the People’s Republic of China. The leading think tank on eDiscovery law and practice, the Sedona Conference’s commentaries are regularly cited by judges and significantly influence the development of rules of evidence and civil procedure for federal and state courts. Nicole has written articles appearing in numerous legal publications, including The Legal Intelligencer, Bloomberg Law, andThe Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly. She has spoken on numerous eDiscovery-related panels at the country’s most reputable conferences, including Georgetown Law’s Advanced eDiscovery Institute, the International Legal Technology Association’s EVOLVE conference, the Construction Super Conference, the Sedona Conference, the Master’s Conference, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Annual Conference, and Law.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Conference. Nicole is also a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Women in eDiscovery and is on the firm’s Women’s Initiative Executive Committee.