Pneumatic is powered by IDEO alumni with decades of experience tackling some of the gnarliest innovation challenges.

Pneumatic builds cross-functional design teams for each client engagement, utilizing elite talent from the IDEO alumni network. Our ability to build just-in-time creative teams from this vetted and highly flexible global network means that we're able to deliver world-class impact for our legal industry clients, at significant cost savings.

The capabilities our designers possess enable Pneumatic clients to achieve innovation impact that almost no law firm could do on its own. Yes the future is about amazing technology. But it's also about smart lawyers collaborating side-by-side with non-lawyer experts who can unleash the creative impact of these new tools.

Here are some of the core capabilities our Pneumatic designers possess:

Legal Designers: Experts in innovation and creativity, but with a depth of substantive legal experience that enables them to understand how to make change happen in law firm environments.
Innovation Strategists: Experts in helping law firm leaders create and execute detailed plans for achieving innovation success.
Data Scientists: Experts who both understand how AI actually works AND how to make it tangible for a legal audience.
User Experiencer (UX) Designers: Experts in how humans interact with technology tools. Our UX designers can help your firm create tech products that your people and your clients will actually love.
Creative Coders: Experts not just as developers (which they are), but also in collaborating closely with legal professionals to expertly translate what makes logical sense to a lawyer into lines of code that make sense to a computer.
Design Researchers: Experts in conducting in-depth interviews and crafting insightful quantitative surveys that deliver deep insights into what makes your employees and your clients tick.
Learning Designers: Experts in creating learning experiences that teach core innovation skills (such as design thinking, organizational design, and behavior science) to legal audiences.

OUR
PNEUMATIC
NETWORK

CORE TEAM

Founder & Chief Legal Design Officer
Originally trained as a lawyer, Sean spent five years conducting white collar securities enforcement investigations before pivoting into the world of design. During more than a decade at IDEO, Sean co-founded IDEO’s Design & Legal Innovation practice, where he led engagements with law firms, in-house legal departments, and government clients.
Since founding Pneumatic in 2021, Sean has built relationships with major law firm clients that include Dechert, O'Melveny & Myers, Simpson Thacher, and K&L Gates.
Sean holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University, a law degree from Georgetown, and attended Massachusetts College of Art & Design. For fun, he writes long books that no one reads and designs fake maps.
Sean lives in San Francisco with his family.

Design Director & Talent Whisperer
Virginia is a blend of right and left brain, with a passion to help organizations and individuals unlock their potential. At IDEO, Virginia partnered with organizations to introduce, practice, and scale new mindsets and capabilities. She was also a Talent Director at IDEO working on a number of organizational design and development projects ranging from DEI initiatives to the overhaul of the performance management process to align with shifting business objectives.
Prior to IDEO, Virginia was with the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, where she developed and delivered training curriculum for MBAs, Executives, and clients on topics such as Innovation, Design, and Leadership. Earlier in her career, she led University and Campus Recruiting efforts at BCG in both the Boston and San Francisco office.

OUR TALENT NETWORK

Alice Kogan

Innovation Strategist & Business Designer
Alice is a lecturer at Princeton University, where she teaches coursework on Creativity, Innovation & Design. She also helps clients on projects related to design strategy and innovation. Previously, Alice was a business designer at IDEO’s New York studio.
Alice has joined Pneumatic projects that have included helping a law firm formulate its innovation strategy, helping an innovation team craft quantifiable KPI’s, and teaching several large classrooms of lawyers and legal professionals the basics of business design.
Aaron Abentheuer

Software Designer & Strategist
Aaron is the co-founder of New Material, a team of designers, engineers, and researchers building AI-native products. Previously, Aaron was an interaction designer at IDEO studios in Munich, Palo Alto, and London.
Aaron has joined Pneumatic projects that include creating AI tools that automate complex legal documents and a project innovating deal management processes and tools used by lawyers to organize complex legal transactions.
Joe Gambino

Data Scientist & Product Designer
Joe has a depth of experience using both his data science and product design skills to build cool things, then testing and iterating whatever he’s built based upon human-centered feedback. Previously, Joe was a data scientist at IDEO's Chicago studio.
Joe has joined a Pneumatic project in which he collaborated closely with a team of innovative lawyers using data science and AI tools to automate complex legal documents.
Milly Derbyshire

Design Researcher & Strategist
Milly is an independent design consultant based in London. She helps organizations rapidly and resourcefully understand people’s needs, then leads teams designing new products, services, and strategies based upon these insights. Previously, Milly was a design researcher at IDEO's London studio.
Milly has joined a Pneumatic project in which she built an analogous inspiration panel delivering strategic insight on the future of the legal client service model, via inspiration from data science and other service professionals like dental surgeons.
Rich Cahill

Interaction Designer & AI Prototyper
Rich runs a boutique design studio in London where his practice focuses on designing and prototyping humanity-centric products and interactions for emerging technologies. Previously, Rich was an interaction designer at IDEO’s London studio.
Rich has joined Pneumatic projects that have included building an AI prototyping tool for a large law firm and teaching the basics of visual design for lawyers and legal professionals.
Stacy Barnes

Graphic Designer & Design Strategist
Stacy is an independent design consultant working across profit and nonprofit to bring new brands, businesses and strategic offerings to life. Previously, Stacy worked as graphic designer at IDEO’s New York studio and IDEO.org’s San Francisco studio.
Stacy has joined Pneumatic projects that have included creating the brand identity and absolutely stunning communication assets for multiple internal and external initiatives with large law firms.
Ryan Cranfill

Data Scientist & Creative Coder
Ryan is the founder of Scholastic Rodent, which is using data science, creative coding, and human-centered design to solve complicated challenges for clients. Previously, Ryan was a data scientist at IDEO’s Chicago studio.
Ryan joined a Pneumatic project in which he collaborated closely with litigation attorneys to build a data science tool which could help predict future litigation hotspots.
Tiffany Yuan

Graphic Designer & Brand Strategist
Tiffany is an independent design consultant based in Singapore. She specializes in projects that sit at the intersection of brand, product, and strategy. Previously, Tiffany was a graphic designer at IDEO’s San Francisco studio.
Tiffany has joined Pneumatic projects to help create beautiful things that catch and hold the attention of lawyers and legal professionals amidst the email deluge.