Good Counsel - How to Launch a Law Firm from Scratch
Release Date: 02/20/2026
Take the Next Step: Law Firm Growth via Software
Adventures In Legal Tech
Diana Prince's firm just hit 75 lawyers, and the infrastructure behind those lawyers didn't grow with them. Beth Thompson of Actionstep joined me to unpack how a firm of any size can grow with software, clean processes, and better numbers instead of just more headcount. If your pre-bill queue is a mess and your reports only tell you what already happened, this one's for you. Key Takeaways Write down your growth plan and map every step a matter takes, including who touches the file and how often the client hears from you, before you add people or software. Don't onboard new hires onto...
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Final Examination: What Does a Modern Investigative Platform Look Like for Law Firms?
Adventures In Legal Tech
Chance Shifflett, head of product at Rev, joins Jared to unpack how solo and small-firm criminal attorneys can get a handle on the flood of evidence, body cam footage, jail calls, depositions, and thousands of documents, that discovery throws at them. He explains what makes an investigative platform different from a generic discovery tool, why verbatim transcription and accurate speaker diarization are non-negotiable in criminal cases, and why running privileged evidence through a generic AI tool is a real risk. He also lays out how to actually pilot legal AI before you trust it with a case....
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Forward Lateral: How AI Is Impacting Legal Recruiting
Adventures In Legal Tech
Raj Selvadurai, founder of Gold Street Legal Search and Lateral IQ, has spent nearly twenty years placing lateral partners the old-fashioned way: relationships, referrals, and a lot of judgment calls about who actually fits where. On this episode, Raj explains why general AI tools like ChatGPT fall short for recruiting, how he built Lateral IQ to give partners and firms verified, self-service data, and why the real signal in lateral hiring isn't who a firm hires, it's who actually stays. If you've been wondering whether AI can touch a business this relationship-driven, this conversation has...
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Outside Providence: How to Fire Up a Growing Solo Law Firm
Adventures In Legal Tech
This week's vexing problem: solo attorney Ernie DiGregorio has no IT department and no fractional vendor to help him weigh AI tools against data security and client confidentiality. Michael Santomaro, principal of Santomaro Law in Providence, walks through how he actually uses AI across his personal injury and criminal law practice, from proofreading pleadings to finding federal court rules he'd never needed before. We also get into hallucination risk, the malpractice argument for using AI at all, and how Michael turned a deeply personal passion into a growing corner of his practice. Key...
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Inside In-House: What It's Really Like to Be In-House Counsel for a Legal Tech Vendor
Adventures In Legal Tech
Executive Summary Jared sits down with Carly Savar, general counsel at Steno, to unpack what actually happens when a law firm signs up with an AI vendor. Carly explains why reading the fine print matters more than any feature list, and what separates a vendor you can trust from one that's just telling you what you want to hear. Key Takeaways Read the actual data processing agreement yourself. Don't assume a vendor's security is handled just because they signed a service level agreement. Push for a zero-day retention agreement, and ask about the LLMs your vendor is built on, not just the...
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Immaculate Vibes - Building an AI-Literate Organization
Adventures In Legal Tech
Executive Summary On this episode of Adventures in Legal Tech, Jared Correia talks with Phillip Greer, CEO of Best Lawyers, about how AI is rewriting the rules of legal search and firm operations. Greer breaks down the real differences between SEO, AEO, and GEO, then explains how he turned his own company into a shop full of vibe coders. It's a practical look at getting found online and getting comfortable with AI at the same time. Key Takeaways SEO isn't dead. It's the foundation that feeds AEO and GEO, the practices that get law firms found inside AI search tools and chatbots. Quality,...
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Mind Map - The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence & Knowledge Management
Adventures In Legal Tech
Summary Law firms are drowning in scattered knowledge, and AI can't fix disorganized data on its own. Rachel Shields Williams, Director of AI and Knowledge Management at Bass, Berry & Sims and President of the Legal Marketing Association, joins Jared Correia to explain why structured data has to come before any AI rollout, and how firms can build the human relationships that make AI adoption safe. Key Takeaways AI can't structure your data for you. A firm's data represents its relationships and intellectual property, and only humans understand that context well enough to organize it. ...
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Grand Central Station - The Value of Case Management Software in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Adventures In Legal Tech
Summary “Attorney Matt Damon” needs to draft a demand letter, but the facts he needs are scattered across medical records, deposition transcripts, case notes, and email threads. Jared Correia brings in Claude Simpson, Vice President of Client Operations at Smart Advocate, to unpack why that scattered data problem is nearly universal in legal practice. Claude explains that documents, not buzzwords, still run the practice of law, and that AI only works well when it is pulling from a structured case management system. They cover client portals, the real costs of switching platforms, data...
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Skills Acquisition: How One Litigator Uses Claude to Build His Case Strategy
Adventures In Legal Tech
Summary Jared Correia sits down with Luis Vargas Rivera, head of litigation at Embedded Counsel, to unpack a problem most solo and small firm litigators never get to solve: a real moot before a hearing. Luis built a Claude skill called Adversarial Review that simulates a three-judge panel, each with a different mindset, to attack his motions before a judge ever does. From there, the conversation covers AI accountability and Rule 11, Luis's move from big law to a boutique firm, why marketing to referral sources beats paid ad spend, and how cross-practice litigation experience wins cases other...
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Voyage of Discovery: Why Managing ESI for Lawyers Is Easier Than Ever
Adventures In Legal Tech
Summary Law firms and legal departments sit on mountains of electronically stored information, and most have no real system for dealing with it. Warren Parrino, Regional Vice President of Solution Sales at TrustPoint.One, has a clear starting point: email threading, date filters, and search terms. From there, an early case assessment environment can cut review costs before a single document hits a reviewer's queue. Warren and Jared also cover modern attachments, audio and video redaction, and when AI actually earns its place in the workflow. The bottom line: AI only pays off after you...
info_outlineEPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Adventures in Legal Tech, host Jared Correia speaks with John Pothier, managing partner at Embedded Counsel, about one of the most common challenges lawyers face: launching a law firm without understanding technology.
Using the fictional scenario of an in-house attorney ready to go solo but overwhelmed by tech decisions, the conversation breaks down the essential systems, tools, and strategic choices lawyers actually need when starting a modern practice.
Rather than focusing on flashy software, the discussion emphasizes practical foundations — collaboration tools, workflow management, AI adoption, pricing models, marketing experimentation, and the realities of transitioning from in-house counsel to entrepreneurship.
The episode also explores:
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Why Google Workspace may outperform traditional setups for small firms
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How cloud technology has lowered the barrier to starting a law practice
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The evolving role of AI in legal workflows
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Subscription and flat-fee pricing models replacing hourly billing
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Marketing experimentation and networking as growth drivers
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Burnout risks in in-house roles and the motivation to go independent
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Building partnerships and fractional legal services practices
LINKS & RESOURCES
redcavelegal.com
embeddedcounsel.com
KEYWORDS
Legal tech for startups
Starting a law firm
Legal technology stack
Google Workspace for lawyers
Law firm technology basics
Fractional general counsel
Flat fee legal pricing
Subscription legal services
AI for lawyers
Legal research technology
Cloud law practice
Legal entrepreneurship
In-house counsel transition
Law firm marketing strategy
Legal networking
Practice management tools
Law firm automation
Legal business development
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
00:00–01:14 - Introducing a new approach to legal tech conversations
01:14–02:23 - The problem: starting a firm with zero technology knowledge
02:23–03:13 - Why Google Workspace became the foundation of a modern law firm
03:13–04:01 - Microsoft vs Google ecosystems and integration simplicity
04:01–05:11 - Project management challenges in legal practice tools
05:11–06:14 - AI tools lawyers are experimenting with today
06:14–06:57 - Guardrails and risks when using general AI platforms
06:57–07:24 - Cloud technology lowering startup costs for law firms
07:24–08:19 - The minimal tech stack needed to launch a practice
08:19–09:12 - John Pothier’s unconventional path into law
09:12–10:08 - Entrepreneurship before traditional legal careers
10:08–11:10 - The reality of working as in-house counsel
11:10–12:19 - Burnout, workload pressure, and limited time off
12:19–13:41 - Why lawyers leave stable roles to start firms
13:41–15:00 - Choosing the right business partner in legal practice
15:00–17:00 - Balancing entrepreneurship with family life and risk
17:00–19:24 - Designing pricing models without industry transparency
19:24–20:37 - Flat fee vs hourly billing and client psychology
20:37–22:30 - The rise of fractional legal services
22:30–23:26 - Marketing experiments that didn’t work
23:26–24:47 - Networking as the most reliable growth strategy
24:47–26:22 - Lessons learned from running AI-driven marketing ads
26:22–28:26 - Professional development while managing a law firm