Chosen by changemakers Archives VRƵ Institute is a blog from VRƵ, the intelligence, technology and human expertise you need to find trusted answers. Thu, 02 Jul 2026 21:03:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.6 Chosen by changemakers: How 40+ years of trusted legal expertise drives innovation /en-us/posts/our-purpose/chosen-by-changemakers-how-40-years-of-trusted-legal-expertise-drives-innovation/ Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:50:27 +0000 https://blogs.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/?post_type=our_purpose_post&p=71641 This story is part of our Chosen by Changemakers series, celebrating VRƵ colleagues whose work drives real change and sharing what it’s like to build a career here.

An attorney called in with an urgent request.They needed a Westlaw citation for a court decision, and they needed it the same day.

Thiswasn’ta decision that was routinelyacquired. Itwasn’talready in the system. The clock was ticking, and there was no guarantee it could be found, processed, and published in time.

Kate MacEachern has been on the court opinion acquisition team at VRƵ for more than four decades.She’sthe person you want on the other end of that call.

In this case, they found the decision. They processed it. They got it into Westlaw within hours.

Tell us about your career at VRƵ.

I came to VRƵafter working at a law firmwhereI found my heart in providing the law for arguments, rather thanarguing forclients. My first job was writing headnotes for court decisions. Over time,I moved into handling requests, then helped with the development of graphicalKeyCite,the first visual version of citation history available commercially. I remember drawing out a complicated history chain on legalpaper,sheets pasted together, just to show how hard it was for attorneys to track the impact of interrelated decisions. Then the technology team built a way to draw those lines automatically,and that moment has always stayed with me.

I was a manager for a while, but I went back to being an individual contributor. I wanted to be“inthe work,”actively getting decisions to people faster.That’sstill what drives me.

What does “trusted expertise” actually mean at the ground level?

It means double-checking. An attorney sends us an interesting decision. We go to thecourtsource to get our own copy,not because wedon’ttrust the attorney, but because when we seek it out ourselves, we might spot a correction, a reconsideration, a later order that changes its status. We work hard to get vacated decisions flagged online,so researchersaren’trelying on lawthat’sno longer good. We add search terms, create links to cases and statutes, and provide editorial content that helps a researcher understand an area of law they may be walking into cold. Trustedexpertiseis everything from careful acquisition to the context we wrap around the content. We do more with the content, and we do more with the context.

You’vesaid the work sits at the foundation of everything else. What do you mean by that?

Everything starts with the interpretation of law, and thatincludescourt decisions. My work gets those decisions into the hands of the people who need them. If we miss a key decision, nobody can find it to cite. All the analytical works, the Practical Law content, the encyclopedic guides,everything isbuilt on that foundation.

What has been the most rewarding part of your career?

There have been so many proud moments over theyears:anattorney praisingthe work ofWestlaw, or a colleague and I celebrating after tracking down a hard-to-find decision for a customer.

How has AI changed the way you work?

AI has transformed how wesearch outand evaluate court decisions, helping us uncover relevant cases that might have been difficult to find in the past. By combining AI-powered analysis with humanexpertiseand judgment, we can review far more decisions andidentifythe ones that matter most to researchers.It’sa remarkable shiftfrom the days when opinionsarrivedin prepaid envelopesby mail.Andit’smoving faster every day.

In your own words, what doesbeinga changemaker mean to you?

Beingisbeing someone who cares. I care about my work. I care aboutourcustomers.Whenthere’san opportunityto do it better, weadapt.Change can behard:implementing a new system, learning what the new failure points are,andfinding new ways to navigate when the map has shifted.We move forward. We deliver things that were unthought of before: graphical citation history, decisions online in minutes instead of days, decisions that never would have been accessible in the past.

Thank you,Kate,for sharing your story.

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