LawNext
LawNext is a weekly podcast hosted by Bob Ambrogi, who is internationally known for his writing and speaking on legal technology and innovation. Each week, Bob interviews the innovators and entrepreneurs who are driving what’s next in the legal industry. From legal technology startups to new law firm business models to enhancing access to justice, Bob and his guests explore the future of law and legal practice.
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The Neuroanalytics Of Using Legal Tech: Clio’s Joshua Lenon On A First-of-its-Kind Cognitive Study
11/11/2025
The Neuroanalytics Of Using Legal Tech: Clio’s Joshua Lenon On A First-of-its-Kind Cognitive Study
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 residence at Clio, sits down with LawNext host Bob Ambrogi for a conversation recorded live at the 13th annual ClioCon, Clio’s annual conference, which was held this year in Boston. They discuss the results of this first-ever cognitive study, as well as the report’s other key findings, including what it shows about: AI adoption and its relationship to law firm growth. Clients’ expectations around lawyers’ use of AI. How potential clients find lawyers. The correlation between technology adoption and long-term success. With Clio since 2012, Lenon is an attorney admitted to practice in New York who has focused much of his career on helping lawyers understand the benefits and risks of technology adoption within their practices. At Clio, he leads the development of the Legal Trends Report and contributes to legal scholarship and advancement, often speaking on law firm modernization, technology adoption, legal ethics and access to justice. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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As SimpleDocs Acquires Law Insider, Founder Preston Clark Shares the Strategic Vision
11/05/2025
As SimpleDocs Acquires Law Insider, Founder Preston Clark Shares the Strategic Vision
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 isn't a typical acquisition story, but more the deliberate convergence of two complementary businesses that were built separately over more than a decade, each with its own DNA, but always with an eye toward this eventual combination. In an AI market increasingly criticized for being "just GPT wrappers," Clark and his team are betting that workflow-specific tools powered by real contract data will deliver the precision and ROI that legal departments and law firms are demanding. In our conversation, Clark walks us through the strategic thinking behind this acquisition and how this combined entity plans to differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded legal AI market. He also shares his vision for the future – one that extends beyond contract drafting and review into adjacent workflows that could reshape how legal teams interact with contracts altogether. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Clio CEO Jack Newton on Its New ‘Intelligent Legal Work Platform’ and A New Era Of AI-Driven Legal Work
10/28/2025
Clio CEO Jack Newton on Its New ‘Intelligent Legal Work Platform’ and A New Era Of AI-Driven Legal Work
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 acquisition of legal research and AI company vLex, the largest deal ever in legal tech. Newton did not disappoint, announcing a slew of new products and features, ambitious plans to integrate AI throughout Clio’s products, and formal expansion into the enterprise legal market with a new division and a new platform. It was a keynote that left some people thrilled, others shell-shocked. Perhaps most striking was that so much of what he outlined was not off in the future, but here today. The next day, LawNext host Bob Ambrogi sat down live with Newton for this interview in which they recapped much of what Newton covered in his keynote and discussed what lies ahead for the company and its leader. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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How AI Is Helping Legal Aid Serve 50% More Clients: Thomson Reuters’ AI for Justice Program One Year In
10/15/2025
How AI Is Helping Legal Aid Serve 50% More Clients: Thomson Reuters’ AI for Justice Program One Year In
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 legal assistant, along with specialized training and support. The results have been significant: attorneys are saving up to 15 hours per week, organizations are serving as many as 50% more clients daily, and urgent case materials are being prepared up to 75% faster. But more importantly, these efficiency gains are translating into real-world impact – domestic violence victims receiving protection orders more quickly, wrongfully evicted tenants getting back into their homes before their possessions are destroyed, and innocent people in prison having their exoneration petitions filed years sooner. In this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi talks with two people at the forefront of this initiative: is head of innovation for legal at Thomson Reuters and has been championing access to justice through technology since her days at Casetext, where she was a cofounder. is executive director of the , a small organization of 45 staff members serving over 9,000 people a year in one of California's largest counties. Together, they share powerful stories of how AI is enabling legal aid lawyers to be more efficient and more effective in doing what they came to this work to do – fighting for their clients. They discuss the three pillars of the AI for Justice program – access, support and scale – and how Thomson Reuters is working to create a blueprint that can be replicated across the legal aid community. They also tackle the challenges that remain, from overcoming fear and skepticism about AI to reaching a highly disaggregated network of small, resource-strapped organizations. And they explore the bigger question: Can AI actually help close the justice gap, or are we just nibbling at the edges of an ever-growing problem? 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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From Client Experience to Client Intelligence: Case Status CEO Andy Seavers On Becoming A ‘Future Firm’
10/08/2025
From Client Experience to Client Intelligence: Case Status CEO Andy Seavers On Becoming A ‘Future Firm’
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 Ambrogi, who attended the conference, sat down with him for this interview to learn more about the company and its latest announcements. When Case Status first launched, it was often described as the Dominos pizza tracker for law, insofar as it enabled clients to easily keep track of the status of their case. As you’ll hear from Seavers in today’s interview, it has expanded significantly since then, into a full client experience and client intelligence platform. Also in today’s interview, Seavers discusses his just-published a book, Future Firm, Fossil Firm, in which he lays out a blueprint for how law firms can evolve. He discusses his vision of a “future firm,” and why he believes that leadership posture, operational systems, and client experience are now the defining factors of firm success. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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An AI Arbitrator? The Latest Innovations from the American Arbitration Association, with CEO Bridget McCormack and CTO Diana Didia
09/30/2025
An AI Arbitrator? The Latest Innovations from the American Arbitration Association, with CEO Bridget McCormack and CTO Diana Didia
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 time, McCormack said that anyone who thinks they know where gen AI is going, even next week, is fooling themselves. While that may still be true, the AAA has certainly made some bold moves in that direction. Most notably, just a few days before we recorded this episode, the AAA announced something unprecedented in the dispute resolution world – that it is launching in November. This is not just another AI tool to assist lawyers or arbitrators. This is an AI system that will evaluate case merits, generate recommendations, and prepare draft awards — with human arbitrators validating and signing off on final decisions before they are issued. In today’s conversation with host Bob Ambrogi, McCormack and Didia dive deep into how this AI arbitrator works, what it means for the future of dispute resolution, and how it fits into the AAA's broader innovation strategy as the organization approaches its 100th anniversary next year. They also explore the cultural transformation within the AAA that has enabled these technological advances and what is coming next in their AI-native vision for dispute resolution. Related episodes: . . . 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Justice Workers: Reimagining Access to Justice as Democracy Work, with Rebecca Sandefur and Matthew Burnett
09/22/2025
Justice Workers: Reimagining Access to Justice as Democracy Work, with Rebecca Sandefur and Matthew Burnett
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 Bar Foundation, and , director of research and programs for the Access to Justice Research Initiative at the American Bar Foundation and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. They argue that the access to justice crisis is actually a crisis of democracy. As cofounders of , they have been pioneering research on "justice workers" — community members trained to help their neighbors navigate legal issues. Their recent article in the South Carolina Law Review, “,” makes a provocative case: When people cannot access their own law, democracy itself fails. They present compelling evidence from Alaska, where nearly 200 community justice workers now serve over 40 rural communities, achieving a 1-to-25 return on investment while dramatically expanding legal aid's reach. In today’s conversation, Sandefur and Burnett discuss the mounting evidence for justice worker effectiveness, including research from the U.K. demonstrating that trained non-lawyers often outperform attorneys on specialized tasks. They also discuss recent breakthroughs — including unprecedented support from both the Conference of Chief Justices and the American Bar Association — and examine what obstacles remain. Sandefur and Burnett challenge the legal profession's monopoly on law, arguing that regulatory capture has estranged Americans from their own justice system. They envision justice workers as agents of democratization, expanding not just who can access legal help, but who can participate meaningfully in working democracy. Related episodes: . . . 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Leading Product Transformation Amid Company Transformation: 8am’s New Chief Product Officer Leslie Witt
09/16/2025
Leading Product Transformation Amid Company Transformation: 8am’s New Chief Product Officer Leslie Witt
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 company’s newest product initiatives, including its upcoming launch of its generative AI-driven 8AM IQ. Not long after Witt wrapped up her keynote, LawNext host Bob Ambrogi sat down with her live for this extended conversation. They spoke at the Kaleidoscope venue in Austin in a recording studio provided by 8am, where they discussed her background and career, her reasons for joining 8am, and the product announcements she had made earlier that day. Those announcements included the beta launch of an AI “Chat with Cases” feature that allows lawyers to ask questions of and search their case files, the integration of three core 8am products — LawPay, MyCase and SmartSpend — on a single technology platform, and more. Before joining 8am in May, Witt had more than two decades of experience in leading product teams. Most recently, she had served as the chief product and design officer at the mental health and wellness technology company Headspace. She previously held senior positions at Intuit, where she led global design, research and innovation initiatives focused on small businesses. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to 8AM and Leslie Witt 01:43 Leslie Witt's Background and Experience 09:53 Brand Transformation from Affinipay to 8AM 15:44 Product Design Philosophy and Customer Engagement 20:22 Platform Integration and New Features 24:57 Future Directions and Industry Impact
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Ep 301: From Law Student Startup Founder to Global CEO: Daniel Lewis's Legal Tech Journey
09/08/2025
Ep 301: From Law Student Startup Founder to Global CEO: Daniel Lewis's Legal Tech Journey
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 open access to every official court decision ever published in the United States. After Ravel's , Lewis spent the next five years leading product teams within the legal research giant, including as vice president and general manager of its Practical Guidance and analytics products. This dual perspective – startup founder turned corporate executive – helped shape his understanding of what works and what doesn't when building technology for lawyers. Today, as CEO and global chief executive of , Lewis leads a 600-person company that is tackling contract review with a fundamentally different approach. Rather than relying solely on tech-enabled services or raw AI that can hallucinate legal advice, LegalOn combines large language models with attorney-developed playbooks to help in-house legal teams achieve up to 85% time savings on contract review. The company just raised $50 million, for a total raise of $200 million across multiple funding rounds – which Lewis says makes it the most well-funded AI company focused on in-house contract review – and announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to develop AI agents for legal workflows. In this wide-ranging conversation, Lewis shares hard-won insights about the realities of legal tech entrepreneurship, from the "deranged" confidence required to challenge industry giants as a law student to the leadership lessons learned managing teams through multiple business transformations. He discusses why the current moment represents the most significant opportunity for legal tech innovation in decades, how AI agents will reshape routine legal work, and what he's learned about building technology that lawyers don't just try once but actually integrate into their daily practices. Related episodes: . . 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 300: Reveal’s CEO and CTO On Its Launch of Gen AI for E-Discovery Review
08/19/2025
Ep 300: Reveal’s CEO and CTO On Its Launch of Gen AI for E-Discovery Review
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 culmination of a deeply personal 30-year journey in legal tech from delivering photocopies in Chicago during blizzards to leading what he believes is one of the most significant technology companies in the legal industry. In their conversation with host Bob Ambrogi, Jisa and Brothers-McGrew make the case that generative AI presents the legal profession with the opportunity to become technology trailblazers rather than laggards. Their goal, they say, is to support the profession by democratizing access to AI across firms of all sizes and types. They also discuss Reveal’s recent launch of Reveal Private Deployment, an initiative to support customers in whatever way they want to deploy Reveal’s software, whether in the cloud, on-premises, or hybrid. At a time when other companies are pushing their customers away from on-premises deployments and into the cloud, Jisa and Brothers-McGrew say this is yet another way in which Reveal is seeking to democratize access by accommodating the interests of all its customers. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 299: Harbor Global CEO Matt Sunderman On Driving Digital Transformation in Legal
08/06/2025
Ep 299: Harbor Global CEO Matt Sunderman On Driving Digital Transformation in Legal
This year’s ILTACON, which starts later this week, marks the second anniversary of , a global expert services company formed through the merger of three long-established legal consulting firms: HBR Consulting, LAC Group, and Wilson Allen, and that formally launched at ILTACON in 2023. The company, which counts among its clients some 80% of the 200 largest global law firms and 50% of the Fortune 500, has been making waves ever since, further expanding its services, making additional acquisitions, and scoring some notable hires to its executive team, all culminating in the news in June that it had received a majority investment from BayPine LP, a private investment firm devoted to driving digital transformation in market-leading businesses. Part of what makes Harbor particularly interesting is that it sits at the intersection of corporate law departments, law firms, and technology providers – helping all three get more value from their partnerships. A key focus of the company’s consulting services has been artificial intelligence and on helping organizations prepare their data and infrastructures to support the use of AI. Our guest today is the CEO of Harbor, , who before the merger was CEO of HBR Consulting and, earlier, president of its advisory services. In their conversation, Matt and host Bob Ambrogi explore Harbor's mission to provide legal departments with end-to-end solutions that span strategy, legal technology, operations, and intelligence. They also discuss the current state of digital transformation in legal – from the opportunities and obstacles around generative AI adoption to the surprising reality that many firms are still only 10 to 40 percent cloud-enabled, and Sunderman offers his perspective on what law firms and corporate legal departments should be doing today to prepare for the next decade. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 298: SpotDraft’s Shashank Bijapur: From Late-Night Due Diligence to Legal Tech Innovation
07/29/2025
Ep 298: SpotDraft’s Shashank Bijapur: From Late-Night Due Diligence to Legal Tech Innovation
What happens when a Harvard-trained corporate lawyer, tired of copying and pasting contract language, starts reading about self-driving cars? In case, it sparked the creation of , a contract lifecycle management company that just raised $54 million in Series B funding and that counts major companies such as Airbnb among its customers. In this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi sits down with Bijapur, CEO and cofounder of SpotDraft, to explore his journey from White & Case associate to legal tech entrepreneur. It all began with that pivotal New Year's Eve moment – working on due diligence while eating Chinese food and reading about Elon Musk's self-driving cars – that made him realize something fundamental: Cars were driving themselves but lawyers were still stuck copying and pasting contract language. The conversation traces SpotDraft's evolution from its original version as an AI redlining platform to becoming a comprehensive CLM solution. Bijapur shares the hard-won lessons of pivoting when their initial AI approach proved only as accurate as a coin toss, and how co-building with early customers who believed in their vision helped shape the product into what it is today. They also dive deep into how generative AI is transforming contract management, get a preview of SpotDraft's new AI assistant called Sidebar, launching to the public next month, and discuss practical implementation challenges based on insights from SpotDraft's recent survey on AI adoption in legal departments. Looking ahead, they discuss where the CLM market is heading in the age of generative AI. Throughout the discussion, Bijapur reflects on the entrepreneurial journey itself – learning to sell when trained to be demure, developing an appetite for risk after being taught to be risk-averse, and discovering that every startup milestone brings new challenges that require completely different approaches. It's a candid look at both the technical and human sides of building a legal tech company. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today? If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 297: CoCounsel’s Next Generation: Emily Colbert and Rawia Ashraf on Agentic AI for Lawyers
07/21/2025
Ep 297: CoCounsel’s Next Generation: Emily Colbert and Rawia Ashraf on Agentic AI for Lawyers
If generative AI was the biggest story in legal tech in 2023 and 2024, agentic AI is proving to be the most talked-about topic of 2025. Spurring this, at least in part, has been of its forthcoming release of a new agentic version of CoCounsel, its AI legal assistant, that will be able to plan, reason and execute complex multi-step workflows for legal professionals. On this episode of LawNext, we will dive deep into this next generation of AI legal assistants with two guests who are at the forefront of this field, leading the development of CoCounsel’s next generation: and . Both joined Thomson Reuters back in 2013 through its acquisition of Practical Law, where they cut their teeth building practice-focused products for lawyers. Now, they are leading the charge on the evolution of CoCounsel into a new generation of agentic workflows, with Colbert overseeing CoCounsel’s litigation portfolio, while Rawia heading up product development for the transactional and corporate side. In today’s conversation, we'll explore how AI is moving beyond simple question-and-answer chatbots to become something more like a smart associate that can chain together multiple tasks, research cases, draft documents, and walk through complex legal workflows step by step. We'll also talk about the challenges of bringing cutting-edge technology to a profession that values precision and trust, learn more about what's coming this summer in CoCounsel’s next major release for legal professionals, and get Colbert’s and Ashraf’s thoughts on how all of this will reshape the practice of law. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today?, If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 296: How LexisNexis and Harvey Are Partnering to Reshape Legal AI, with LexisNexis CEO Sean Fitzpatrick
06/30/2025
Ep 296: How LexisNexis and Harvey Are Partnering to Reshape Legal AI, with LexisNexis CEO Sean Fitzpatrick
When legal research giant LexisNexis and legal AI giant Harvey , legal tech commentator “possibly the most important legal tech move in a decade.” On today’s episode of LawNext, we go deep into the partnership and its implications with , CEO of LexisNexis North America, UK & Ireland. Through the partnership, LexisNexis will integrate its primary law content, Shepard's citations, and AI technology directly into Harvey's platform, and the two companies will jointly develop agentic AI workflows. The partnership comes on the heels of Harvey's remarkable Series E funding round, raising $300 million at a $5 billion valuation, in which RELX, LexisNexis's parent company, was a participating investor. So what drove this alliance? In his interview with host Bob Ambrogi, Fitzpatrick reveals it wasn't a boardroom strategy session that sparked this partnership, but rather customer demand from large law firms seeking the combined power of LexisNexis's authoritative legal content and Harvey's AI capabilities. Fitzpatrick talks about what this means for the future of legal AI, how it addresses the persistent challenge of hallucinations in AI-generated legal content, and whether we're witnessing the emergence of a new model for legal tech partnerships. He also shares insights from recent ROI studies showing dramatic productivity gains for both law firms and corporate legal departments using AI tools. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice , Rapidly conduct research, accelerate drafting, and analyze documents with Paxton. What do you need to get done today?, If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 295: How One Mass Tort Firm Uses Supio, the AI Platform for PI Lawyers
06/25/2025
Ep 295: How One Mass Tort Firm Uses Supio, the AI Platform for PI Lawyers
, an AI-driven platform developed specifically for personal injury lawyers, has been generating a lot of buzz. On the heels of reporting record growth last year and raising $25 million in Series A funding in October, last month in a Series B round. But what do the lawyers who use the platform think of it? On today’s LawNext, we hear from one of those lawyers, as well as from the company’s cofounder and CEO. Our guests today are: , managing partner of the personal injury law firm . Schneider was an early adopter of Supio. He and his firm used it to help obtain a $495 million verdict against Abbott Labs in a case involving allegations that cow’s milk-based infant formula caused intestinal inflammation in premature babies. J, the CEO of Supio who cofounded it in 2021 together with his childhood friend and coworker Kyle Lam after having held product management and engineering roles at Microsoft and Avalara. In their conversation with host Bob Ambrogi, Zhou and Schneider talk about the development of Supio, its real-world impact on plaintiffs’ lawyers, and their wish lists for further development of the product. They also share their thoughts on how AI is likely to reshape PI practice more broadly. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 294: A Special Interview with Aderant CEO Chris Cartrett Recorded Live at Its Momentum Global Conference
06/18/2025
Ep 294: A Special Interview with Aderant CEO Chris Cartrett Recorded Live at Its Momentum Global Conference
When was named CEO of legal technology company in 2022, he did so with the mission of aggressively advancing a cloud-first strategy throughout the company’s suite of business and financial software for law firms. Given that Aderant is a nearly 50-year-old company with many customers who still use the on-premises version of its software, that was not an easy mission to fulfill. So three years later, what grade does he give himself in delivering on that mission? That is one of the questions I put to him during a special live LawNext interview. We recorded the interview at Aderant’s user conference in Dallas last month, where Aderant graciously allowed me to use its Studio A recording equipment it had set up at the conference for its own podcast. In a wide-ranging interview, Cartrett talks about his focus on the cloud, generative AI, and customer service, and why he believes all three are so important right now. He also talks about the company’s growth, reflected in the fact that 2024 was a record-breaking year for Aderant and 2025 is on track to be even stronger. We talk about the future of Aderant, the future of law practice, and the likely impact of generative AI, and I ask him how he uses gen AI in his own daily work. Cartrett first came to Aderant in 2014 from Thomson Reuters as senior vice president of strategy and growth and was promoted to executive vice president in 2017 before becoming president in 2021 and CEO in 2022.. A big thanks to Aderant for letting me use its recording studio and for providing me with the final recording. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 293: Litera’s Avaneesh Marwaha: The CEO Who Left Before AI and Returned to Lead Through It
06/04/2025
Ep 293: Litera’s Avaneesh Marwaha: The CEO Who Left Before AI and Returned to Lead Through It
What happens when a CEO steps away from a legal tech company just before the generative AI revolution explodes, then returns two years later amid a landscape that is being dramatically transformed? For Litera’s , that is exactly what happened. As the CEO of Litera from 2016 to 2022, Marwaha led the legal tech company through a remarkable period of expansion and diversification, including growing its global customer base by over 1,500% and its annual revenues by 1200%, and overseeing some 14 acquisitions that transformed the company’s focus from document productivity to a broad range of legal workflows, ranging from transaction management and due diligence to litigation, firm intelligence, and more. Marwaha to become Litera’s chairman, just before the tidal wave of gen AI swept over legal technology, and then, in a surprising move last October, . On today’s LawNext, Marwaha shares how he was drawn to return as the company’s leader by the “perfect storm” of forces reshaping the legal industry of AI adoption, unprecedented legal tech investment, and evolving client expectations. In today’s conversation, Marwaha reveals how AI has fundamentally rewired Litera's internal operations – enabling his 1,000-person company to complete quarters' worth of development work in mere weeks and transforming everything from code generation to meeting management. He also shares his personal AI workflow, including how he uses Microsoft Copilot to review up to 20 meeting transcripts nightly, and explains why he requires every Litera employee to be using AI every day – and why he believes this mandate is reshaping the company's competitive edge. In addition, Marwaha unpacks Litera's strategic shift from acquiring dozens of companies during his first tenure to now favoring internal development – a change driven largely by AI's ability to rapidly accelerate innovation cycle, and he discusses Litera's evolution into what he calls "the experience company" for law firms, and how this transformation reflects broader shifts in legal technology, where success increasingly depends on workflow integration rather than standalone solutions. Marwaha was formerly on this podcast in 2020: . 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 292: AALL President Cornell Winston on Why Law Librarians Should ‘Be Bold’
05/28/2025
Ep 292: AALL President Cornell Winston on Why Law Librarians Should ‘Be Bold’
, president of the , brings a unique perspective to law librarianship, having spent 45 years in libraries across diverse settings — from a hospital library where he started as a student worker; to the former Whittier Law School; to prominent law firms Munger, Tolles & Olson and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and, for the last 24 years, as law librarian in the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles. Winston joined host Bob Ambrogi to record this interview just weeks before AALL's annual meeting in Portland, Ore., July 19-22, with the theme "Be Bold." It's a fitting theme for a profession that's undergone dramatic transformation, evolving from traditional book-focused roles to becoming essential gatekeepers and evaluators of legal technology and information. In their conversation, Winston discusses the evolving challenges facing law librarians — from safeguarding disappearing government information to testing AI-driven legal research tools. They explore why he considers it critical for law librarians to have "a seat at the table" in their organizations, the opportunities for newcomers to the profession, and why Winston believes the profession’s future remains bright despite predictions of its demise. Winston also shares insights on AI adoption, the importance of law librarians as strategic partners rather than just support staff, and how the profession continues to prove that while Google may find you a million answers, a librarian will find you the best one. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 291: Serial Legal Entrepreneur Monica Zent on Building the Future of Legal Services
05/22/2025
Ep 291: Serial Legal Entrepreneur Monica Zent on Building the Future of Legal Services
Monica Zent is a true pioneer in legal innovation and entrepreneurship. She is the founder of ZentLaw, an award-winning alternative legal services provider that broke the traditional law firm mold when she founded it in 2002. ZentLaw has since grown into a nationwide legal services provider, serving global brands and major corporations with a unique subscription-based model and flexible talent approach. But Monica's entrepreneurial journey extends well beyond ZentLaw. She's a serial entrepreneur who has founded multiple companies, including early internet startups in the 1990s. She's a patented inventor, legal tech founder, angel investor, and advisor to numerous startups. In fact, Monica describes herself as having a "career portfolio" – she's an entrepreneur who has carved her own path through the legal industry and beyond. Her latest venture is the Law Innovation Agency, a collective that brings together a think tank component, consulting services, and investment connections to help organizations navigate the rapidly changing landscape of legal technology and AI. Throughout her career, Zent has been a strong advocate for innovation, efficiency, and diversity in the legal profession. Her articles on legal innovation, women in technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership have appeared in publications like Inc. Magazine, Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Huffington Post, and she has won numerous awards, including Corporate Counsel’s Women, Influence & Power in the Law Award in the Innovative Leadership category On today’s show, Monica joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss her entrepreneurial journey and her vision for the future of legal services and legal innovation. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 290: Turning Legal Spend Into Performance: PERSUIT Founder Jim Delkousis On His Acquisition of Apperio
05/15/2025
Ep 290: Turning Legal Spend Into Performance: PERSUIT Founder Jim Delkousis On His Acquisition of Apperio
On May 5, 2025, , a technology company that specializes in helping corporate legal departments select and manage outside counsel, announced that it had acquired , a spend-management platform for corporate legal, in a move designed to create an end-to-end workflow solution spanning everything from matter intake to invoice payment. “This acquisition accelerates our ability to connect every point in the outside counsel workflow with intelligence,” , cofounder and CEO of PERSUIT, said at the time. “We’re not just managing spend — we’re turning it into performance.” This week on LawNext, Delkousis joins host Bob Ambrogi to share his vision for PERSUIT and why he believes the Apperio acquisition brings “superpowers” that will help propel the company further forward in realizing that vision. The episode was recorded on the day PERSUIT announced the acquisition. Before founding PERSUIT nearly nine years ago, Delkousis had an accomplished career as a litigation attorney, serving as a partner at King & Wood Mallesons in Australia and later helping establish DLA Piper's Middle East practice in Dubai. In the conversation, he will discuss how his experience on the law firm side informed his mission to shift the legal industry from time-based to value-based fee arrangements. He will also talk about the strategic vision behind the Apperio acquisition and how generative AI is accelerating the evolution of legal service delivery. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 289: Navigating 'Unruliness': Hence Cofounder Sean West on How Politics, AI and Law are Rewriting Business Rules
05/06/2025
Ep 289: Navigating 'Unruliness': Hence Cofounder Sean West on How Politics, AI and Law are Rewriting Business Rules
"Everybody understands the world is volatile, but they don't necessarily understand why it's volatile or how to deal with it," says Sean West, cofounder of and author of the new book, . "Unruly is a play on words. ... The world is kind of ‘unruling.’ The rules and norms that were developed during globalization are falling away." On this week’s LawNext, West joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss how the collision of geopolitics, technology, and legal shifts is creating unprecedented challenges for businesses of all sizes – and their legal advisors. Their conversation explores how businesses can turn volatility into opportunity, the importance of strategic legal counsel in this environment, and why companies of all sizes need access to geopolitical intelligence. They also discuss of , an AI-powered platform designed to help businesses and their legal counsel manage geopolitical uncertainties by providing customized, real-time risk analysis and insights tailored to specific business roles and needs. West explains how the platform delivers personalized, role-specific intelligence that enables legal teams to better serve their clients and organizations in an increasingly uncertain world. Before cofounding Hence in 2020, West was global deputy CEO of Eurasia Group, a global affairs advisory firm, where he advised CEOs, general counsel and investors on geopolitical and legal risk. He is also a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 288: LawDroid Founder Tom Martin on Building, Teaching and Advising About AI for Legal
05/01/2025
Ep 288: LawDroid Founder Tom Martin on Building, Teaching and Advising About AI for Legal
LawDroid Founder Tom Martin on Building, Teaching and Advising About AI for Legal If you follow legal tech at all, you would be justified in suspecting that has figured out how to use artificial intelligence to clone himself. While running , his legal tech company, the Vancouver-based Martin also still manages a law practice in California, oversees an annual legal tech awards program, teaches a law school course on generative AI, runs an annual AI conference, hosts a podcast, and recently launched a legal tech consultancy. In January 2023, less than two months after ChatGPT first launched, Martin’s company was one of the first to launch a gen AI assistant specifically for lawyers, called LawDroid Copilot. He has since also launched LawDroid Builder, a no-code platform for creating custom AI agents. Beyond his work at LawDroid, Martin is an adjunct professor at Suffolk Law School, teaching "Generative AI and the Delivery of Legal Services," and is a co-founder of the , which will be holding its sixth annual ceremony this October in Boston. In today's conversation, LawNext host Bob Ambrogi speaks with Martin about his journey from practicing lawyer to legal tech founder, his perspective on how gen AI is transforming the legal profession, and his insights on implementing AI in law firms and legal aid organizations. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 287: From Ravel Cofounder to Knowable CEO, Nik Reed Has Learned that Building Quality AI for Legal Takes A Lot of Hard Work
04/15/2025
Ep 287: From Ravel Cofounder to Knowable CEO, Nik Reed Has Learned that Building Quality AI for Legal Takes A Lot of Hard Work
In the gold rush of generative AI, it seems that every legal tech vendor wants to be a one-stop shop for legal technology. But after 15 years of developing legal tech, , CEO of , a legal technology company devoted to helping enterprises bring order and organization to their executed agreements, believes that lawyers should be wary of the hype. Often, the most successful AI solutions are those that focus on solving specific problems exceptionally well rather than attempting to be all things to all lawyers. On today’s LawNext, Reed joins host Bob Ambrogi for a conversation that explores what makes legal AI actually work well in practice. It is a topic he has been thinking about, in one form or another, since he was still a student at Stanford Law School, where he co-founded the legal research startup Ravel with classmate Daniel Lewis in 2012. After LexisNexis acquired Ravel in 2017, Reed moved into strategic product management there, and then joined Knowable in 2019 to lead its product research and development. He became the company’s CEO last November, just as the company launched Ask Knowable, its generative AI suite. In a conversation that explores what makes legal AI actually work in practice, Reed emphasizes the critical importance of pristine data environments, high-quality metadata, and clearly defined use cases. “It's still hard to build really good products, especially for lawyers, and it takes a lot of hard work,” Reed says. “ And anyone that's telling you that that's not the truth is probably already a product that you shouldn't be using.” But ultimately, he believes, AI has the potential to restore balance to legal practice by handling the rote work lawyers never wanted to do, allowing them to return to what they went to law school for – critical reasoning and solving complex problems. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 286: When the Unthinkable Becomes Real: Three Legal Tech Leaders On Losing Their Homes To The Los Angeles Wildfires
04/08/2025
Ep 286: When the Unthinkable Becomes Real: Three Legal Tech Leaders On Losing Their Homes To The Los Angeles Wildfires
In 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: Valerie Chan, founder of the legal PR firm Platform PR. Rick Merrill, former founder of Gavalytics and current COO of Bridgeline Solutions. 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, , 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 285: Mark Cohen and Dierk Schindler On The Union Of the Digital Legal Exchange and the Liquid Legal Institute
04/01/2025
Ep 285: Mark Cohen and Dierk Schindler On The Union Of the Digital Legal Exchange and the Liquid Legal Institute
As reported yesterday in an exclusive at LawSites blog, two leading international legal transformation organizations, the (DLEx) and the (LLI), have joined forces in a strategic union that brings together more than 1,500 members representing more than 140 multinational corporations, organizations, institutions and agencies across more than 20 countries. On today’s LawNext, two of the principles of that union — Mark Cohen, chairman emeritus of DLEx, and Dr. Dierk Schindler, cofounder of LLI — join host Bob Ambrogi to discuss their vision of creating the world’s leading think tank for legal transformation. Among the topics they discuss: The origins and evolution of both organizations. How their complementary approaches — LLI's grassroots community spanning all levels of organizations and DLEx's executive-level focus — will create greater impact together. What "legal transformation" means in today's rapidly evolving environment. How businesses are driving change in the legal function. The importance of mindset in transformation. Plans for future collaboration, including joint projects and events. Listen to gain unique insights into how these organizations aim to shape the future of legal through collective effort and a truly global perspective. About the Guests Mark Cohen is the chairman emeritus of DLEx and founder of Legal Mosaic. With nearly 50 years in the legal industry, Mark has been a prosecutor, partner at a major law firm, founder of his own firm, and head of an international aviation parts business. He writes for Forbes and teaches at law and business schools around the world. Dr. Dierk Schindler is a co-founder of the Liquid Legal Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in European law and has extensive experience in private practice and in-house legal departments. Schindler has been a driving force in legal innovation and process-driven legal operations. Related Resources (book publication) Upcoming events: Legal Tech Talk 2025 (London, June 26-27, 2025) and LLI's 2025 Summit (Düsseldorf, July 7-8, 2025) 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). : Save time with fast, human-powered legal transcription—so you can focus on your practice If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 284: Relativity CEO Phil Saunders on the Future of Legal Data, Gen AI, and the Shifting Landscape of Law
03/25/2025
Ep 284: Relativity CEO Phil Saunders on the Future of Legal Data, Gen AI, and the Shifting Landscape of Law
“The landscape we all stand on is shifting, and massive amounts of change are upon us,” , the chief executive officer of e-discovery and legal technology giant , recently wrote in . Driving that change are three transformative forces, he wrote: new legal data challenges, advancing generative AI, and legal’s journey to the cloud. On this episode of LawNext, Saunders – who joined Relativity as CEO in 2022 after three decades in the technology sector – joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss why he believes that both Relativity and the legal industry at large are at a pivotal moment, and to outline his company’s vision for navigating these three forces reshaping the legal technology landscape. Within Saunders’ blog post was a notable announcement: Starting in 2028, Relativity will require that all new matters be hosted on its cloud platform, RelativityOne – a significant milestone for a company that built its success on its on-premises Relativity Server product. The conversation starts there, with what might be considered the last mile in the company’s transition to the cloud. Saunders also discusses what attracted him to join Relativity, how the company is approaching the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI, its work with the Legal Data Intelligence initiative, and his longer-term strategic vision for Relativity. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. Legalweek, March 24-27, New York Hilton Midtown. Register today at . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 283: SurePoint CEO Eric Thurston on Acquiring ZenCase and His Vision for Mid-Market Practice Management
03/19/2025
Ep 283: SurePoint CEO Eric Thurston on Acquiring ZenCase and His Vision for Mid-Market Practice Management
Recently, legal technology company acquired the legal practice management company in a strategic move aimed at enhancing SurePoint’s practice management offerings for mid-sized law firms. In this episode of LawNext, , who recently marked his two-year anniversary as CEO of SurePoint Technologies, joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss the acquisition and share his perspective on the mid-market landscape in law. Originally founded in 1982 as Rippe & Kingston, SurePoint has established itself as a leading provider of financial and practice management software for mid-sized law firms, currently serving nearly 1,000 customers. As Thurston explains in the interview, the acquisition of ZenCase strengthens its front-end capabilities with features tailored specifically for lawyers. The acquisition helps SurePoint "leapfrog innovation by about three years," he says, while addressing customer demands for more lawyer-friendly interfaces. The conversation also explores SurePoint's earlier acquisition of Leopard Solutions, a business intelligence platform that provides comprehensive data on attorneys and law firms across the country, enabling everything from strategic recruiting to competitor analysis. Thurston explains how they've already integrated Leopard's analytics into ZenCase, allowing lawyers to quickly access valuable industry data. Looking at the mid-market practice management landscape, Thurston acknowledges that it is currently fragmented, but he believes SurePoint is positioned to become "the Clio of the mid-market." He outlines the company's vision to help firms not just manage their practices but accelerate growth through better technology, data analytics, and business intelligence. With a philosophy that "you're either growing or dying," Thurston shares how he believes SurePoint continues to evolve while helping law firms do the same. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. Legalweek, March 24-27, New York Hilton Midtown. Register today at . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 282: How A New Documentary Aims To Raise Public Awareness Of The Access To Justice Crisis
03/11/2025
Ep 282: How A New Documentary Aims To Raise Public Awareness Of The Access To Justice Crisis
On this week’s show: LawNext takes you to the movies. Well, to a specific movie, anyway – a documentary being made to raise public awareness and understanding of the access to justice crisis in this country. Today’s guests are the film’s director, documentary filmmaker , who previously directed The Tent Mender, about homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles, and , a legal innovation leader – and two-time previous guest on this show ( and ) – who is serving as a producer and advisor to the documentary. You may know Markovich as executive director of the Justice Technology Association and for as vice president of the American Arbitration Association’s thought leadership and research arm. The documentary, called Justice: Just A Promise?, has been given unprecedented access to film inside the courthouses of the Los Angeles County court system – the largest court system in the world and one where litigants unable to get a lawyer present enormous challenges to the civil justice system. As this episode airs, the filmmakers have just launched an to raise the money they need to complete and distribute the film. During today’s conversation, you’ll hear about that campaign, including Hand’s surprising explanation of why she went that route to raise funds. You will also learn all about the making of the film and how the filmmakers aim to raise awareness about a nationwide crisis that far too few are even aware of, let alone understand. Check out . 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. Legalweek, March 24-27, New York Hilton Midtown. Register today at . If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 281: Eve CEO Jay Madheswaran on Building AI-Native Law Firms for the Plaintiffs’ Bar
03/03/2025
Ep 281: Eve CEO Jay Madheswaran on Building AI-Native Law Firms for the Plaintiffs’ Bar
After building his career as an engineer at Facebook and as a venture capitalist at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and his cofounders spotted an opportunity to deploy cutting-edge AI to transform what they saw as an underserved segment of the legal market, launching , an AI platform purpose-built for plaintiffs’ law firms. Eve has quickly gained traction, recently securing a $47 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and boasting 800% year-over-year growth. But what makes Eve’s story particularly interesting is its mission to transform traditional plaintiffs’ firms into what Madheswaran calls "AI-native law firms" – where technology does not just automate tasks but fundamentally changes how legal services are delivered, in part by encoding firms’ unique knowledge and processes into intelligent systems. In today’s episode, Madheswaran joins host Bob Ambrogi to explain his concept of AI-native law firms and describe how Eve's technology can help firms double or triple their caseloads by automating everything from case-intake analysis to document drafting, all while learning to work in each firm's unique voice and style. He also discusses the challenges of building trust with lawyers around AI and his vision for increasingly specialized legal services in an AI-powered future. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. Legalweek, March 24-27, New York Hilton Midtown. Register today at . If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Ep 280: Is Arbitrus.ai the Future of Dispute Resolution?
02/24/2025
Ep 280: Is Arbitrus.ai the Future of Dispute Resolution?
Earlier this month, a legal tech startup called Fortuna Arbitration launched what it says is – an automated arbitration system called that the company claims can fully replace human arbitrators in resolving legal disputes. The system promises to cut the cost of arbitration from an average of $100,000 to just $10,000, while delivering consistent, unbiased decisions within 72 hours. On this week’s LawNext, our guests are two of the founders behind this ambitious project. is a partner at Husch Blackwell and an experienced commercial litigator. He is also the inventor of the , a computer keyboard designed for lawyers that was . And is the CEO of Fortuna Arbitration and a current third-year Harvard Law student who, along with third co-founder Kenny McLaren, has been working on AI legal prediction systems since well before he went to law school. They've , showing zero hallucinations across 100 test cases. They believe their system will not only make arbitration faster and cheaper, but could eventually evolve into what they call an 'Arbitration State' – a private legal system that could handle a significant portion of disputes that currently clog our courts. Is this AI judge the future of dispute resolution? Or are there fundamental aspects of legal decision-making that require human judgment? In today’s episode, we'll explore these questions and more. 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. , home to the practice management platforms , , and ; the e-payments platform ; and the legal accounting software . , eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Never miss a call, with expert answering service for Lawyers. Legalweek, March 24-27, New York Hilton Midtown. Register today at . If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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