Roman Barbera’s career reads like a grueling round of two truths and a lie: having his evidence accepted by an Australian Court in a discovery-related hearing, attaining his Relativity Master certification, being named a 2025 AI Visionary.
But no lies here! Roman is a real-life, multi-talented e-discovery consulting and technology expert at KordaMentha, where he and his team work with a range of clients on litigation discovery processes, regulatory responses, data governance issues, and investigations, assisting stakeholders in finding efficiencies and managing risk in increasingly complex areas. He also happens to be one of our 2025 AI Visionaries—a title that's earned through innovative AI exploration and leadership.
We got the chance to pick our AI Visionary’s brain and to hear his fascination with, and passion for, this technology.
Onions Have Layers and So Do AI Tools
As a known lover of all things technology, we asked Roman to share his unique perspective on generative AI and its newfound popularity.
“AI’s emergence as a widely discussed but less commonly understood technology is both exciting and concerning.”
For Roman, the AI transformation is well underway—and it’s thrilling! New opportunities, new insights, new utilities, new paces of analysis that legal professionals can provide clients. This technology is already changing how we work.
But with a hefty serving of enthusiasm, Roman offers a side of caution: “AI is constantly evolving, and caution and restraint must be judiciously exercised to avoid overreach or missteps that may impact corporate willingness to continue to innovate in this space. As a result, the early solutions with greatest utility will be those which are easy to explain, and have clear and demonstrable benefits.”
Another way in which Roman combats the unknowns and risks of emerging tech is by splitting his typical workday into three parts: time with the team, time with clients, and time immersed in discovery projects. Why devote a third of his day to getting his hands dirty? Roman understands the value of keeping up to date with things on the technical front. He knows there’s power in actually using tools like generative AI and he’s fighting the good fight to get others on board.
More Exposure, More Engagement, Bigger Wins
Roman knows legal data and technology to be a dynamic industry, but artificial intelligence—and the associated upskilling required for it to be deployed purposefully and responsibly—promises to significantly transform the space.
So, what’s going to happen next? As we see more exposure to AI in the industry, Roman predicts a chain effect: exposure is a catalyst for greater engagement, with greater engagement comes a more discerning client, which means heightened competition, standards, and innovation from e-discovery providers and law firms.
And the stakes remain high. Roman notes that with a notoriously demanding industry—the proliferation of data, the sheer volume of litigation, the expectations of clients—stagnant technology is quickly becoming unfit for purpose.
“Many see deference to AI in such high-stakes situations as problematic, which presents a variety of structural and perception-based barriers to adoption,” he tells us.
But Roman believes AI is capable of amplifying the impact of subject matter experts and maintaining—or even improving—standards against an increasingly complex backdrop: “My interest in AI is the same as it has been with any legal technology application—how can we address existing problems in the best way possible? AI is just one tool we’re using to meet the growing challenges associated with data governance, litigation, regulatory compliance, and investigations.”
AI—There’s Something in it for All of Us
Roman predicts that what discovery is, will be fundamentally changed by the soon-to-be-tapped potential of AI. And it starts in the nitty gritty of our everyday work. The tasks we previously deemed unfeasible, costly—impossible, even—are now within reach. With AI, lawyers can assess their client’s evidence more thoroughly; corporations can deploy more proactive fraud detection processes; small firms can take on big clients. Hopefully, in-house legal teams will continue to take greater ownership of their data.
Roman expresses a lot of excitement for what’s possible with AI.
For the tool itself, he sees potential to lengthen the list of use cases, increase opportunities for differentiation and diversification, and alter how we evaluate cost benefit analysis.
For the user, Roman’s giddy about professionalization. Those that embrace the tech dip a toe in a pool of tremendous learning opportunities—plus, there’s something to be gained just from enduring this unprecedented era of adoption. "The skill set diversification, through both training and recruitment, required to accommodate this transition is also exciting, invariably leading to more creative and ambitious solutions for clients.”
As a data and technology thought leader, Roman doesn’t take the responsibility of forging the AI path lightly.
“I think leading people through change towards a more AI-enabled way of working comes down to patience, trust, and really taking your time with trying to implement these workflows,” Roman says. “It can be quite difficult to impose a new way of working without being able to demonstrate how and why the solution works and why the underlying principles of discovery that we've worked with for so long still remain very entrenched in the way we go about things.”
There’s Healthy Tension in APAC
As a resident of Australia, Roman knows that APAC’s excellent reputation for legal tech innovation and consulting makes it a prime region for future globally relevant applications—but that also means that AI solutions must be informed and tailored. Roman underscores that the judicial posture in APAC has been (and will be) decisive, pointing to the evolutions of the New South Wales Supreme Court’s SC Gen 23 ‘Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence’ as evidence. This document brought a sentiment of skepticism, concern, and caution; however, amendments to the initial drafting of the guidance show the potential for regulations to change as confidence in solutions grows and risks are shown to be manageable.
Looking ahead in APAC, Roman stresses that integrating AI into legal, requires the right expertise to meet both judicial obligations and stakeholder expectations without eroding the efficiencies that justify AI in the first place.
“For the foreseeable future, there will be what I consider to be a healthy tension between responsibility and ambition, innovation and caution.”
Embrace Change Now and Reap the Benefits Later
As Harry Styles so eloquently belted, “Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times”—and as Roman puts it: hesitancy is healthy, so long as it doesn’t become blind objection. He suggests that, just like any change to business operations, AI should be evaluated with risks, benefits, governance, and costs and carefully considered by the relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts.
Roman adds, “Those looking to introduce AI into an otherwise hesitant organization also need to ensure that their project is well-researched and serves a clear purpose, as a suboptimal outcome carries a foreseeable risk of stifling future innovation.” In other words: do your homework.
There’s plenty to navigate in this new technological terrain—but Roman does so with both eagerness and care. We’ll leave you with a word of wisdom from our AIV himself: “My advice to people in the legal tech industry currently would be to really embrace the fact that it's such an exciting time and such a time that's full of change and to really embrace the opportunities that come with that at the moment.”
Graphics for this article were created by Sarah Vachlon.
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