Want to be a Crypto Lawyer? Rule # 1: Use the Technology. Rule #2: Beware of Hyper-Specialization (Justin Wales-Head of Legal, Crypto.com & Author of Crypto Legal Handbook)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
Release Date: 10/09/2025
Beyond ChatGPT: Why In-House Counsel Need Purpose Built AI (Cecilia Ziniti, CEO - GC AI)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
This episode features a conversation with , Co-Founder and CEO of . Cecilia traces her career from early the early days of the internet to founding an AI-driven legal platform for in-house counsel. Cecilia shares her journey, starting as a paralegal at Yahoo in the early 2000s, working on nascent legal issues related to the internet. She discusses her time at Morrison & Foerster and her role at Amazon, where she was an early member of the Alexa team, gaining deep insight into AI's potential before the rise of modern large language models (LLMs). The core discussion centers on the creation...
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From 'No' to 'Go': How AI Guardrails Drive Trust, Enabling Legal to be a Business Accelerant, Not Blocker (Sabastian Niles, Salesforce President & CLO)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
In this episode, , President and Chief Legal Officer at , takes a deep dive into the intersection of corporate strategy, in-house legal careers, and the transformative power of Agentic AI. Sabastian shares his unique career path from a near two-decade tenure at a prestigious law firm before joining Salesforce. This conversation is essential for anyone interested in the evolving role of the Chief Legal Officer and the practical application of cutting-edge technology in legal operations. Things We Talk About in this Episode The In-House Career Journey: Sabastian’s path highlights an early...
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Benchmarking Legal AI: Measuring the Delta Between Man and Machine (Anna Guo Legalbenchmarks.ai)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
Is artificial intelligence custom-made for legal tasks better than general AI tools like Google Gemini and ChatGPT? That is the topic of this episode featuring Founder . Anna is a former BigLaw lawyer who left the practice to become an entrepreneur and now focuses her energies on quantifying the utility of AI in the legal industry. Anna's initial anecdotal research for colleagues quickly revealed a strong community interest in a systematic approach to evaluating legal AI tools. This led to the creation of Legalbenchmarks.AI, dedicated to finding out where the promise of humans plus AI is...
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Want to be a Crypto Lawyer? Rule # 1: Use the Technology. Rule #2: Beware of Hyper-Specialization (Justin Wales-Head of Legal, Crypto.com & Author of Crypto Legal Handbook)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
, Head of Legal for the Americas at Crypto.com, and author of visits the show to provide his unique perspective on pivoting from a career in Constitutional Law, including work on high-profile appellate cases like the Obergefell gay marriage decision, to becoming a trailblazer in crypto law and blockchain technology. He shares his serendipitous journey stemming from a law school article that launched his legal career and his subsequent deep dive into crypto, sparked by WikiLeaks accepting Bitcoin donations. The discussion covers the evolution of his practice to one of the first...
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The Business of Law: From IP Lawyer to Investor to CEO to Legal Tech Ecosystem Builder (Avaneesh Marwaha, Litera CEO)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
Avaneesh Marwaha, the CEO of , visits the show to discuss his journey from IP lawyer to becoming a legal tech CEO and investor. He discusses the motivations behind his career pivot, including his desire to be a decision-maker and his passion for the business side of law. The conversation delves into the evolution of Litera, from its origins as a document-focused migration software company to its current role as a comprehensive legal tech ecosystem. Avaneesh highlights the company's strategic shift from acquiring to building new technologies. He also emphasizes the importance of Litera’s...
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Ben Chiriboga (Nexl) on Legal Tech, Innovation, and the Future of Law
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
A conversation with Ben Chiriboga, Chief Growth Officer at legal CRM company and host of the podcast. Ben shares his journey from a litigator to a legal tech innovator. He recounts how an early e-discovery tool using natural language processing completed in six hours what had taken him six months, leading to an epiphany about the power of legal technology. The conversation delves into the legal industry's historical resistance to technology, prioritizing billable hours over efficiency, and how Ben leveraged his legal experience to transition into a new role in tech. Ben discusses the...
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Do What the Bots Cannot: How AI Is Reshaping Legal Marketing, Data Analysis and Biz Dev, But Not the Human Connection (Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
We welcome back legal marketing expert Gyi Tsakalakis, President of and host of the podcast. Five years after Gyi’s first appearance on Technically Legal, he discusses the dramatic shifts in digital marketing for law firms, driven largely by the rise of artificial intelligence. Gyi highlights how AI is changing the landscape for lawyers, from automating back-office functions and data analysis to influencing content creation and search engine optimization (SEO). He explains why law firms must diversify their marketing channels beyond just Google to adapt to the new era of conversational...
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Story Protocol: Building a Modern IP Infrastructure and Protecting Creators in the AI Age (Andrea Muttoni - President Story Foundation)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
This episode features a conversation with Andrea Muttoni, President of . The discussion explores how blockchain technology is being used as a foundational infrastructure for intellectual property (IP), aiming to simplify and modernize the process of registration, licensing, and monetization for creators and IP owners. Muttoni details his journey from a bedroom music producer to a product manager at Amazon and eventually to a leader in the blockchain industry, driven by a passion for the intersection of technology and creativity. The conversation delves into the core problems Story Protocol...
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Nelson Rosario on Decentralized AI: An Alternative to Big Tech or a Complimentary Approach?
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
returns to the show to discuss the evolving landscape of decentralized AI and his role as General Counsel for the the (formerly known as the Decentralized AI Society), an association focused on engineering best practices, advocating for policy, fostering community, and enabling capital formation for decentralized AI startups Nelson discusses the changing definition of decentralization, highlighting its origins in early crypto's focus on resilience and censorship resistance, and its current intersection with artificial intelligence. He explains the core reasons driving decentralized AI...
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The "Blueprint” for Authenticity: How Official AI Protects Image and Likeness in the Digital Age (Dave Siegfried, CEO)
Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
In this episode, Dave Siegfried discusses the company he heads, Official AI -- a company focused on helping its customers create and verify authentic AI content. Siegfried, a "recovering accountant" with a background in tech and media licensing, discusses his journey from co-founding Audiosocket, a music licensing platform, to addressing challenges in generative AI. The conversation highlights the evolution of intellectual property protection in the digital age. Siegfried explains how Official AI empowers individuals and brands to create AI-generated images and videos with consent, credit, and...
info_outlineJustin Wales, Head of Legal for the Americas at Crypto.com, and author of The Crypto Legal Handbook visits the show to provide his unique perspective on pivoting from a career in Constitutional Law, including work on high-profile appellate cases like the Obergefell gay marriage decision, to becoming a trailblazer in crypto law and blockchain technology.
He shares his serendipitous journey stemming from a law school article that launched his legal career and his subsequent deep dive into crypto, sparked by WikiLeaks accepting Bitcoin donations.
The discussion covers the evolution of his practice to one of the first successful crypto legal groups at a large law firm. Justin emphasizes the necessity for any lawyer in the space to use the technology and become a generalist to navigate the multi-jurisdictional and rapidly evolving industry.
Finally, the conversation touches on the critical distinction between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), and his outlook that crypto's infrastructure will ultimately serve as the underpinning for future advancements like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Episode Highlights:
* Justin's start in Constitutional Law, beginning with a law school paper on unconscionable cruise ship employment contracts that led to Supreme Court brief writing.
* The shift to crypto law: WikiLeaks and Bitcoin's role in it introduced Justin to blockchain technology.
* Building a pioneering crypto legal practice at a large firm in the early days (2013-2015).
* Why the best in-house lawyers, especially in a cutting-edge field like crypto, need to be generalists, not hyper-specialized.
* The inspiration and philosophy behind writing The Crypto Legal Handbook—creating an affordable, regularly updated, and candid resource for students and practitioners.
* Advice for aspiring crypto lawyers today: the field is more mature and requires blending traditional financial regulatory expertise with an industry-wide approach.
* The fundamental distinction between Centralized Finance (CeFi) and the legally complex, more innovative world of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
* Rule #1 for Crypto Lawyers: Why you must use the technology and the risks of lawyers who are frozen in time with their technical understanding.
* High-level overview of US policy efforts to regulate crypto, including the GENIUS Act (Stablecoins) and the Clarity Act (Securities vs. Commodities regulation).
* Justin's crystal ball: The long-term view that crypto infrastructure will eventually become an unseen layer beneath the rise of AI agents and IoT.
Things We Talk About in this Episode
* Book: The Crypto Legal Handbook by Justin Wales
* Book: Read Write Own by Chris Dixon
* JustinWales.com (for more information on the book and author)