K&L Gates creates first global AI and innovation partner role

The global law firm explained that this inaugural role centralises oversight of its worldwide AI strategy and innovation roadmap under a single practising partner, embedding clear leadership accountability for the next phase of its AI transformation.

Under this new role, Bernstein will lead the firm’s global AI strategy, overseeing platform selection, workflow development, and the management of data and knowledge assets.

Before taking on the newly created role, Bernstein served for more than five years as a partner in K&L Gates’ data protection, privacy and security practice area.

Alongside the new role, Bernstein will also co-chair K&L Gates’ AI Solutions Group with Shiau Yen Chin-Dennis, who leads firmwide AI coordination and business development, and Guillermo Christensen, who oversees global policy, cyber security, and geopolitical strategy.

K&L Gates shared that the trio will jointly lead the firm’s AI governance and deployment strategy, driving the rollout of AI tools and processes aligned with client demands and strict internal compliance standards.

Stacy Ackermann, global managing partner of K&L Gates, shared how Bernstein’s appointment places AI leadership directly in the hands of a practising partner, enabling the firm to keep pace as agentic AI moves from concept to real-world deployment in months, not years.

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“Jake’s appointment reflects a deliberate choice about how this firm leads in AI: with a practising partner, accountable for outcomes, working in close partnership with our technology and security functions,” Ackermann said.

“Agentic AI is moving from concept to deployment in months, not years. The market demands a partner driving this work who is in the practice every day, who understands what clients need, and who can move at the pace this moment requires.”

Speaking about his new role, Bernstein expressed how the firm is embedding AI into daily legal work within a governed framework, warning that as agentic systems emerge, the next 18 months will hinge on partner-level supervision – and only firms building that capability now will lead.

“The AI Forward℠ posture is straightforward: lawyers should be using these tools every day, on their own work, within governance the firm has built and certified,” Bernstein said.

“What’s coming next, agents that can plan and execute multi-step workflows on a matter, makes supervision the central partner-level question of the next 18 months. The firms that build that fluency now will lead what follows. The firms that wait will not.”