Ep 286: When the Unthinkable Becomes Real: Three Legal Tech Leaders On Losing Their Homes To The Los Angeles Wildfires
Release Date: 04/08/2025
The Neuroanalytics Of Using Legal Tech: Clio’s Joshua Lenon On A First-of-its-Kind Cognitive Study
LawNext
Legal technology company Clio recently released the 10th edition of its , its annual analysis of data and survey responses on legal practice and emerging trends, and this year’s report ventured into new territory. For the first time, the report included a neuroanalytics study of legal professionals, analyzing electrical brain activity in legal professionals as they performed various work-related tasks, in order to paint a picture of their emotional strain and mental focus as they worked. For an in-depth look at this year’s Legal Trends Report, its principal author, , lawyer in...
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As SimpleDocs Acquires Law Insider, Founder Preston Clark Shares the Strategic Vision
LawNext
If content is the raw material of generative AI, it only makes sense that an AI-driven contract automation platform would want to acquire the world’s largest database of contracts and clauses. That is e when , a company with an AI contract drafting, redlining and review platform, acquired , which claims to be home to 5 million contracts and 20 million clauses spanning more than 50 languages. One aspect of this acquisition that makes it particularly interesting is that both companies were founded by the same person – and that person, , is our guest today. In that sense, you might say this...
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Clio CEO Jack Newton on Its New ‘Intelligent Legal Work Platform’ and A New Era Of AI-Driven Legal Work
LawNext
Last week brought the 13th annual ClioCon — the annual conference of legal technology company Clio — to Boston, Mass., where cofounder and CEO Jack Newton gave a keynote in which he laid out the company’s vision for a new era of AI-driven legal work. That new era is one in which Clio becomes an “intelligent legal work platform” that serves not as a system of record, but as a system of action, powering lawyers through their workdays by automating much of what they do. Many had wondered what Newton’s keynote would bring, coming on the heels of the company’s $1 billion...
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How AI Is Helping Legal Aid Serve 50% More Clients: Thomson Reuters’ AI for Justice Program One Year In
LawNext
In the United States, over 90% of civil legal needs go unrepresented – a staggering justice gap that leaves millions of people facing eviction, domestic violence, wrongful conviction and other urgent legal crises without access to an attorney. For these individuals, the difference between getting legal help or going without can literally be the difference between safety and harm, between keeping a home and losing everything. One year ago, Thomson Reuters launched its program to help address this crisis by providing legal aid organizations with access to CoCounsel, its professional-grade AI...
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From Client Experience to Client Intelligence: Case Status CEO Andy Seavers On Becoming A ‘Future Firm’
LawNext
Recently, the legal technology company held its inaugural in Charleston, S.C., a conference devoted to exploring how AI, data and ethical practices can enable law firms to deliver a better experience for their clients.In an opening keynote at the conference, , the cofounder and CEO of Case Status, unveiled several new products, including, most notably, Client Intelligence, an AI-driven platform that the company says represents a significant shift for law firms from reactive client management to predictive client engagement. Shortly after Seavers delivered that keynote, LawNext host Bob...
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An AI Arbitrator? The Latest Innovations from the American Arbitration Association, with CEO Bridget McCormack and CTO Diana Didia
LawNext
Nearly , we discussed the innovation initiatives – and specifically its embrace of generative AI – with , who became its president and CEO in 2023 after having been chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, and , its chief information and innovation officer. On today’s episode, McCormack and Didia – now executive vice president and chief technology and innovation officer – return for an update on innovation at the AAA. In that prior podcast, McCormack and Didia spoke extensively about the AAA's innovation culture and their early experiments with gen AI. At the...
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Justice Workers: Reimagining Access to Justice as Democracy Work, with Rebecca Sandefur and Matthew Burnett
LawNext
With as many as 120 million legal problems going unresolved in America each year, traditional lawyer-centered approaches to access to justice have consistently failed to meet the scale of need. But what if the solution is not just about providing more legal services — what if it lies in fundamentally rethinking who can provide legal help? In today’s episode, host Bob Ambrogi is joined by two of the nation’s leading researchers on access to justice: , professor and director of the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University and a faculty fellow at the American...
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Leading Product Transformation Amid Company Transformation: 8am’s New Chief Product Officer Leslie Witt
LawNext
As took to the stage Sept. 3 to at Kaleidoscope, inaugural customer conference, it was the culmination of a whirlwind summer. It had been just four months since she had joined the company formerly known as AffiniPay as chief product officer, responsible for leading product transformation and strategy for established legal tech brands LawPay, MyCase, CASEpeer and Docketwise. In the intervening 16 weeks, the company had and finalized details of its first major conference. Now, two weeks after the rebrand and as the conference got underway, Witt stood before the keynote audience detailing the...
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Ep 301: From Law Student Startup Founder to Global CEO: Daniel Lewis's Legal Tech Journey
LawNext
has witnessed legal technology's evolution from multiple vantage points that few others can claim. As a Stanford law student in 2012, he and classmate Nik Reed co-founded the legal research startup Ravel Law with the audacious goal of taking on LexisNexis and Westlaw using machine learning and data analytics – at a time when such challengers were few and far between. Not only was Ravel Law pioneering in its own right, but it also spearheaded and funded the Caselaw Access Project, an ambitious partnership with Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab to digitize and provide free and...
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Ep 300: Reveal’s CEO and CTO On Its Launch of Gen AI for E-Discovery Review
LawNext
The e-discovery company recently announced that it will launch its new generative AI-powered document review platform, called “aji,” in late September. Notably, the company said it is offering full access to the platform at no cost through Dec. 31, in order to enable “the entire legal community to explore and master the next era in GenAI review innovation.” To discuss the launch of aji, today’s episode features Reveal’s founder and CEO Wendell Jisa, together with the company’s chief technology officer, Matthew Brothers-McGrew. This launch, Jisa says, represents the...
info_outlineIn January, a merciless firestorm swept through the Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas of Los Angeles, becoming the most destructive wildfire in the city's history. Driven by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and fueled by record-dry conditions, the Palisades Fire destroyed over 6,800 structures, burned nearly 24,000 acres, and dramatically altered the lives of thousands of residents.
Among them were three individuals with deep ties to the legal tech community, each of whom lost their home to the fire. This week on LawNext, we speak with those three individuals:
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Valerie Chan, founder of the legal PR firm Platform PR.
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Rick Merrill, former founder of Gavalytics and current COO of Bridgeline Solutions.
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Adam Camras, co-founder of Lawgical, longtime CEO of the Legal Talk Network, and chief collaboration officer at InfoTrack.
These three legal tech leaders share their harrowing experiences as the flames approached, the devastating aftermath of losing their homes, and their ongoing journey of recovery and rebuilding.
Their stories offer a rare and intimate glimpse into how even those with resources and professional expertise face overwhelming challenges when confronted with natural disaster. From the initial evacuation decisions to battles with insurance companies and uncertain rebuilding timelines, this conversation reveals both the practical realities and profound emotional impact of sudden, catastrophic loss.
We also want to mention a related project, California Fires Legal Resources, in which the legal tech community, spearheaded by Clio, worked together to launch a website devoted to providing legal resources related to the LA fires, both for victims of the fires and legal professionals working on behalf of those victims.
Thank You To Our Sponsors
This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.
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Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.
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LEX Reception, Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers.
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Briefpoint, eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner).
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SpeakWrite: Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice
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