Arnold & Porter Names Roger Maeda As First Chief AI Officer

Arnold & Porter has appointed Roger Maeda as its inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, the Washington, D.C.-based Am Law firm said on July 13, 2026. Maeda, who previously led the firm's enterprise applications and software development teams, will now oversee a dedicated AI unit tasked with building and deploying AI tools across the firm's global operations.

The appointment comes as large law firms race to formalize AI governance structures amid rapid adoption of generative AI tools for legal research, contract management, and document review. Am Law 100 firms have been steadily adding C-suite technology roles over the past two years, but few have carved out a standalone Chief AI Officer position distinct from the CIO or CTO function. Arnold & Porter, with more than 1,000 lawyers across 16 offices and over 40 practice areas, joins a small but growing cohort of global firms that treat AI strategy as a boardroom-level priority, rather than an IT sub-function.

Maeda's mandate spans the full deployment lifecycle, including building, testing, and shipping AI capabilities in partnership with senior leaders across innovation, technology, and business services. CEO Sean Howell pointed to the pace of AI evolution as justification for a permanent seat at the leadership table.

“The firm created this role because AI is reshaping how we deliver legal services, and that shift demands dedicated leadership at the highest level,” said Ellen Kaye Fleishhacker, Global Co-Chair of Arnold & Porter. “Roger brings a rare combination of deep technical knowledge and a clear understanding of how our lawyers and clients operate. He is the right person to help us put AI to work for our clients.”

Industry Implications

The move underscores a widening gap between firms that treat AI as a strategic function and those that delegate it to existing IT leadership. By elevating an internal technologist rather than recruiting externally, Arnold & Porter signals that institutional knowledge of firm workflows and client demands may matter as much as raw AI expertise, a calculation other firms will watch closely. The appointment also adds competitive pressure on peer firms in the regulatory and transactional spaces, where AI-powered tools for compliance monitoring and deal analysis are becoming table stakes. For legal operations teams evaluating outside counsel, a visible AI leadership structure may increasingly serve as a proxy for a firm's operational sophistication and technology maturity.

DreamLegal Perspective

Legal technology vendors should track whether the Chief AI Officer title becomes a standard buyer persona alongside the CIO and Director of Innovation. Firms staffing this role will likely centralize procurement decisions for AI tools, compressing sales cycles but raising the bar on demonstrable ROI. Legal operations professionals, meanwhile, should use the emergence of dedicated AI leadership at their outside firms as a conversation starter by asking pointedly what specific capabilities those teams have shipped and how AI output quality is measured and audited. The firms that move beyond governance frameworks into measurable productivity gains will define the next competitive tier in BigLaw.