How do you build a law firm data platform that actually gets used, and know when it’s time to evolve beyond it?

In this episode, Reanna Martinez, Director of Innovation, Systems, and Data at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, shares the firm’s multi-year journey building a modern, cloud-based data lakehouse on Azure. From standardizing data at the point of entry to consolidating employee, financial, and matter data into a centralized platform, Reanna explains how Munger transformed fragmented information into a trusted enterprise asset.

She walks through why the firm initially chose to build in-house, how governance and security shaped every architectural decision, and what five years of hands-on experience taught her team about scalability, resourcing, and long-term sustainability. Reanna also breaks down the signals that indicated it was time to evolve toward a purpose-built data platform, and what other firms should understand before embarking on a similar path.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:50) Reanna Martinez’s career path into systems and data

(03:52) Establishing a firmwide data foundation at Munger

(05:09) Governance constraints that shaped innovation decisions

(06:41) Creating a centralized platform to eliminate data silos

(09:35) Why the firm chose to build its platform internally

(12:12) Key lessons learned from building a homegrown lakehouse

(21:53) How AI changes expectations for secure data platforms

(28:52) Reflections on data access, insights, and evolving delivery

Connect with our guest:

• Reanna Martinez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reannamartinez/
• Learn more about Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP: https://www.mto.com/

Connect with Tom:

• Tom Baldwin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tombaldwin/
• Learn more about Entegrata: https://www.entegrata.com