B&B Chief Tech Officer, Eric Hunter, Passes
Eric Hunter, a beloved member of Bradford & Barthel’s family and significant contributor to most of the firm’s technological advances, has passed away. He was 47 years old.
Hunter was Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the firm, where he was also known as a global futurist and head of the firm’s Innovation Futures Division. His advanced understanding of disruptive technology helped promote positive change in B&B over the years, and played a key role in many projects including:
- The entire firm going “paperless” in 2019 and 2020.
- A decade before going paperless, Hunter helped the firm adapt to cloud computing for data backup before most firms.
- A complete website redesign in 2021.
- Use of integrative technology to set tasks, diaries, and reminders for the firm.
Hunter started out at the firm in 2005, and was promoted to become the firm’s Director of Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Strategies in 2009. In 2019, he became the firm’s Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. All in all, he spent more than 19 years as a key contributor to the firm.
In more recent years, Hunter helped Bradford and Barthel anticipate changes stemming from artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT for example.
To say that the family at Bradford and Barthel will miss Eric Hunter is an understatement. “We have lost an amazing talent,” founding partner Don Barthel said. “Eric didn’t only lead the international advancement of technological answers to difficulty problems. He shared his knowledge with the world via multiple books and articles, as well as his speeches around the globe. He was also a wonderful co-employee, family member and friend. Truly one in a million.”
To Barthel’s point, Hunter was also known for his many projects outside of the world of workers’ compensation, and was an international keynote speaker, author, and pianist. His warm, easygoing personality and firm understanding of technology led to work with organizations such as Google, IBM, Shapoorji Pallonji Group in India, Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, KM Asia, KM Europe, KM Congress in India, Social Now in Portugal, Global Legal Forum in The Hague, and TEDx.
Hunter published four books, including:
- Travels in Time
- Lawscape 2025: Defining the Law firm of Tomorrow
- The Sherlock Syndrome: Strategic Success through the Darwinian Disruption
- Legal Knowledge Management: Insights and Practice
In his spare time, Hunter was also an accomplished pianist and released his first music video in 2024. The video is called Reflections in Montmartre, and can be viewed here.
How will new adaptive technologies change who we are and the way we behave? And how can leaders shape their organisations while bringing out the best from our common human perspectives? In this talk, Eric shares strategies we can use to meet our aims. He’ll take us through thought leadership exercises in organisational behavior, on a voyage to Mars and the impact of family on personal perspectives. The talk uses personal photographs to illustrate the duality within the perspectives of individuals, their families, the communities to which they belong and the businesses they lead.
The world is in the midst of a technological revolution. The emergence and sophistication of machine learning, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and smart data are pushing the limits for making what was once impossible, possible. As technology is increasingly being used to automate and simplify tasks there are many questions arising – how much autonomy machines should be given, what regulations should be put in place to govern software development, what additional training should humans have to manage these new software systems, and ultimately, who is responsible when software fails and causes property damage, injury, or loss of life.
Spherical world of the future … it’s here AI, machine learning … these can seem like futuristic concepts, but they’re happening now. Furrier asked about how we can learn to deal with this spherical world, a much more fluid world, where there’s no real divide between our work lives and our personal lives. “We’re blurring lines between personal and business, all the time. I think that when we’re looking at businesses itself, as individuals, it’s important to take a look at what’s causing efficiencies within your personal life,” Hunter said. “Oftentimes, it’s the tools we use every day; whether it’s the Google searches or whether you’re logging into Facebook or Twitter feeds … that spherical aspect, that idea that each individual can be their own collaboration point is something that I think really touches on that.” Hunter went on to explain, “So when we’re talking about elements like Watson and AI and innovation, it’s really important to think of, okay, we’re actually [already] interacting with this, every day, and oftentimes, the results are subtle. Whether it’s [our] favorite sports teams [that] we watch, [or] the newscasts, or how we approach our business and the individuals in it, we’re all interacting with it. And understanding that I think helps people take the first step.”
