Why James Wong Joined Patlytics: From Leading AI & Innovation at Latham & Watkins to Advancing the Future of IP Technology

James Wong has made a career of being at the forefront of legal technology. After leading AI & Innovation initiatives at Latham & Watkins, Wong recently made the decision to join Patlytics as general counsel. His journey from evaluating and implementing Patlytics to joining the company represents more than just a career move; it's an acknowledgement that he was witnessing the future of IP practice firsthand.

A Career Built on Legal Technology Innovation

Wong's path to Patlytics began with an early recognition of technology's transformative potential in law. His first foray into legal tech came during his time as a paralegal at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he experienced the inefficiencies plaguing legal workflows. "We had to print these massive binders to meet really tight mailing deadlines," Wong recalls. "Every single document you printed, you'd have to re-enter the client-matter number, and the computers would freeze each time. Countless hours were wasted."

That frustration led Wong to work with the IT department to create a simple script that enabled batch printing with the same client-matter number, transforming a manual and time-consuming process into an automated workflow. "That was my first encounter with what legal technology could mean," he explains. "I became friends with the IT department and asked them, 'Isn't there a better way we can do this?' Within a week, we automated the problem away."

This early experience shaped Wong's career trajectory. After law school at NYU, he moved to San Francisco to work at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, focusing on startups and corporate law. He then joined Atrium, a legal tech startup founded by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, as the company's first employee.

Later in his career, Wong served as corporate counsel at Lime, where he led the scooter company's Series D financing ($310M at a $2.4B valuation) and advised on international expansion to over 30 countries. Building on this experience, Wong went on to found Inkly, a venture-backed AI contract review startup, further cementing his role as both a lawyer and a technologist.

Taken together, these experiences reflect a career defined by building, scaling, and innovating at the forefront of legal technology.

Leading Innovation at Latham & Watkins

Wong's extensive legal tech background made him a natural fit for leading AI & Innovation at Latham & Watkins. In this role, he was responsible for evaluating and implementing cutting-edge technology solutions for one of the world's most demanding legal environments.

"Innovation at law firms is challenging because we get dozens of requests from different stakeholders every day," Wong explains. "We're constantly juggling, what do we actually prioritize?" His role involved not just procurement, but also orchestrating the strategy and complex change management required to deploy AI across a sophisticated legal practice. This included navigating security concerns, ethical considerations, and client restrictions around cloud and AI usage.

Wong also helped establish and grow internal technology capabilities at the firm, leveraging his extensive product development background from his startup experience.

Discovering Patlytics: From Skepticism to Advocacy

Wong's introduction to Patlytics came through an interesting connection. He had known co-founder Paul Lee for almost a decade, dating back to when Lee was beginning to explore legal tech opportunities.

Later, when a Latham colleague was interested in using Patlytics, the evaluation was brought to Wong. "At first, I'll be honest, I was skeptical. I’m not an IP lawyer, so I don't really know that side of the house," he admitted. However, Wong still took a methodical and user-focused evaluation approach. "I interviewed our IP litigators, discovering their top challenges and mapping out their workflows. Turns out, there’s a pretty good problem-solution fit."

Through this thorough evaluation process, Wong became convinced of Patlytics' transformative potential for IP workflows. From patent drafting, to infringement detection, and beyond, what he discovered was a platform that didn't just incrementally improve existing processes, it fundamentally reimagined how patent professionals could approach their most challenging and time-consuming work

Real-World Impact: Beyond Efficiency to Revenue Generation

Beyond efficiency gains, what impressed Wong most about Patlytics was its impact on business outcomes. “Prior art searches have always been a source of pain,” he explains. “And nowadays, budgets are tighter and timelines are shorter, yet accuracy remains paramount.”

Wong points to two use cases where technology like Patlytics can have outsized impact. First, winning on the merits. “In IP litigation, finding the most relevant prior art can be the difference between winning and losing,” he says. “When AI can surface critical patents or references in hours instead of weeks, it directly strengthens a team’s position on the merits.”

Second, winning new clients. “In an increasingly competitive market, client pitches need to come together at a moment’s notice,” Wong notes. “Law firms that can quickly produce high-quality, data-driven insights are the ones winning engagements.”

This business impact differentiated Patlytics from other legal technology solutions. "Legal tech a lot of times only helps increase efficiency," Wong notes. "For law firms, efficiency isn't always what they're looking for because of the billable hour model. But if a tool starts impacting revenue, helping you win more business, or helping you win a case on the merits, then that becomes a lot more exciting. It's not just an increase in productivity, it's like gaining a superpower."

The Future of Legal AI

Wong sees AI adoption in law as inevitable and transformative. "AI is going to become second nature to everybody in the industry," he predicts. "We’ve been using forms of artificial intelligence since the early 2000’s - generative AI has simply accelerated that evolution. In the coming years, AI will be just as fundamental to lawyers as Microsoft Word."

He anticipates this will drive fundamental changes in legal business models. "We're going to see a lot more firms offering their clients fixed fees or subscription pricing," Wong explains. "If we're doing all our work via AI, clients are going to want to see the cost savings being passed down to them, with  more predictable, upfront pricing."

This transformation is already beginning, with increased client pressure driving adoption. "Clients are already asking their law firms: what is your AI strategy? Specifically, what is your generative AI strategy?" Wong notes. Law firms are responding by implementing comprehensive AI strategies while maintaining rigorous security and ethical standards for client data protection.

Advice for Legal Professionals

For legal professionals exploring AI tools, Wong's advice is practical. He encourages lawyers to leverage purpose-built solutions like Patlytics rather than trying to build everything from scratch. "Take a look online, talk to your peers, because chances are a lot of them have already started using AI. There's a lot of great technology out there these days that have been built specifically for each of the workflows that us lawyers have to manage."

Wong sees this as an exciting inflection point for the legal industry. "We've spent decades buried in paperwork. Now that AI handles that for us, we can focus on what really matters - using our judgment, creativity, and expertise to solve complex problems. We get to do what we actually went to law school for: - to be lawyers."

Looking Ahead

As Wong transitions back from evaluating legal technology to helping to advance it, now with Patlytics, he brings a unique perspective shaped by years of hands-on experience with AI at the highest levels of legal practice. His journey from Latham to Patlytics represents more than just a career change, it's a bet on the future of IP law and the transformative power of purpose-built AI solutions.

"We're not going to replace attorneys anytime soon," Wong concludes, "but we're going to give attorneys superpowers, and I think that's pretty exciting."

Want to experience the future of IP technology that convinced James Wong to join Patlytics? See firsthand why legal professionals worldwide are choosing Patlytics to transform their patent workflows. Request a demo today to discover how AI-powered patent tooling can help your firm or in-house team reduce cycle times, increase margins, deliver winning IP outcomes, and give you the competitive edge you need.