Nick Kadochnikov joins Harbor as head of artificial intelligence
Nick Kadochnikov, a former AI leader at IBM, has joined legal sector consultancy Harbor as head of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technology engineering.
Based in Harbor’s Chicago headquarters, Kadochnikov will lead development of AI solutions for the firm’s managed services.
The recently launched company – which is owned by Renovus Capital – is the combination of legal consultancies HBR Consulting, LAC Group, and Wilson Allen, as well as several smaller firms.
Harbor has 650+ people in the US, Canada, and UK providing solutions in strategy, legal technology, operations, and intelligence to law firms, corporations, and their law departments.
"We are thrilled that Nick is joining Harbor. He is a visionary who brings a wealth of data science knowledge and experience in the professional services industry," said Matt Sunderman, CEO of Harbor. "In bringing on Nick and his team, we'll be accelerating our development of innovative solutions that harness the power of GenAI and other advanced technologies. By transforming how Harbor delivers tech-enabled managed services, we will help law firms and corporate law departments take operational excellence and service delivery to the next level."
Kadochnikov brings more than 20 years of experience transforming business operations using AI, machine learning, and natural language processing.
He joins Harbor from investment bank William Blair, where he spent a year as director of AI engineering. Before that, Kadochnikov spent a year-and-a-half as head of data science at ShipBob, an ecommerce fulfilment platform, where he launched and built out the firm’s data science practice.
Earlier in his career, Kadochnikov spent 20 years at IBM, latterly serving as distinguished engineer and CTO of IBM Watson health consulting. Before that, he was principal data scientist in the IBM chief analytics office and principal consultant within IBM market intelligence. He joined IBM in 2001 as an analytic strategist in the market intelligence practice.
Kadochnikov has also been an associate clinical professor at the University of Chicago Data Science Institute since 2014.
He has a master’s degree in marketing management from the Virginia Commonwealth University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Saint Petersburg State University, Russia.
"I see a tremendous opportunity in leveraging generative AI to advance the legal industry, making legal services more efficient, accessible, and less labor-intensive," said Kadochnikov. "Our initial goal is to provide our managed services clients and internal teams with the tools and workflows that allow them to focus on higher-value activities while automating routine and mundane tasks. Ultimately this will pave the way for a more dynamic, responsive, and client-centric legal service delivery with greatly reduced burnout."
