A studio built to
change law firms
from the inside.

Pneumatic is a full-stack legal innovation studio based in San Francisco. We started in 2022 as a network of former lawyers and ex-IDEO innovation experts.

The Pneumatic Network

Pneumatic is powered by a network of senior builders, former lawyers, and IDEO alumni with decades of experience on the toughest legal innovation challenges. We assemble a multidisciplinary team to fit each engagement. For any particular project, an AI engineer might be working alongside a legal designer, a data scientist, and a handful of lawyers seconded in from the client’s own practice groups.

The column to the rightsection below provides more detail on the types of multidisciplinary experts we assemble for Pneumatic projects.

Founder

Pneumatic was founded in 2022 by Sean Hewens. A former white-collar litigator at WilmerHale, Sean was on the founding team of IDEO.org and built IDEO’s Legal Design and Innovation practice. Sean sets the strategy for each Pneumatic engagement and assembles the team that delivers it. Since Pneumatic is a small studio, he also gets to work directly on the most exciting projects.

Who does the work

Legal designer: Former lawyers with innovation expertise who are comfortable diving into the details of legal documents, legal services, and the mechanics of law firm operations.
AI engineer: Builds the AI tools and wires them into lawyer-centered workflows.
Data scientist: Bridges design research and engineering, building the early models and prototypes that prove what an idea can feasibly become before the full build begins.
Organizational designer: Experts in reshaping how law firms operate by aligning a firm's structure, workflows, and culture with its strategic goals.
UX designer: Designs how lawyers and legal professionals interact with digital tools so it feels as intuitive and human-centered as possible.
Design researcher: Empathetic investigators who act as a blend of anthropologist, reporter, and therapist to uncover the needs and motivations of legal professionals and the clients they serve.
Behavioral scientist: Draws on psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and neuroscience to understand lawyer behavior and craft strategies to influence or change it.
Learning designer: Builds the tools and processes that train the next generation of lawyers and AI models on tangible legal skills, industry expertise, and the intangibles of legal craft.

A studio built tochange law firmsfrom the inside.

A studio built to
change law firms
from the inside.