I’ve tracked what the well-known document management provider, NetDocuments, is doing ever since the firm I used to be with was with was an early adopter. And I’ve always liked their “we’re not a rock band” attitude: producing apps and products in a workmanlike manner without the hype of some vendors.

So it caught my attention when it recently waded into the plaintiffs’ contingency fee legal market with three new apps. And how it got there is an interesting story. Here’s my discussion of both for Above the Law.

Last week’s announcement of the move by Wachtell’s co-chair and veteran litigator to Gibson Dunn certainly got a lot of press. Rightfully so. But I started to think about what’s contributing to or maybe causing so many partners to jump ship. Certainly money has something to do with it. But so do technology and AI. Here are my thoughts for Above the Law on why this is the case and what it could mean for law firm management.

When I ran across a recent study by the Blickstein Group of COOs in law firms I wondered if things had changed from the days when equity partners pretty much decided everything. If they had COOs, too often they ignored them or treated them as 2nd class citizens.

After reading the study, it’s clear that while the status of COOs may have grown, true decision-making and power in most law firms still rests with the equity partners. And there’s still a gap between the way businesspeople think and the way lawyers who think they are businesspeople think.

It made me think about why that problem seems so intractable which I explore in my Above the Law post. 

We’ve all been to them: presentations you think will be substantive. But when they start, you’re told the session will be interactive with table exercises. Most of us immediately start plotting the easiest path to an exit. Having recently been to one just like that, it started me thinking about the difficulties in getting lawyers to use technology. And a lot of that stems from poor training.

It also made me conclude that interactive and table exercises as a tool for training lawyers how to actually use technology, probably won’t work very well.

Why and what will? Read the full piece in my post for Above the Law.

Sometimes at legal conferences put on by organizations like AALL, I come across something new and innovative. Such was the case when I stumbled into a session put on by Courtroom View Network.  CVN says it has videoed thousands of trials and then indexed them so you can pull up exactly what you want to see such as opening, closing, direct, cross, to name just a few.

Or you can search by industry, trial subject or even by attorney. You can literally slice and dice these videos in any way you want.

So if you want to learn a trial skill or skills, you have a chance to observe good lawyers in real trials in action. 

I dont know any other platform that provides this kind of opportunity. In an age when there are so few trials to participate in or observe, this opportunity is critical. 

Here’s my take on CVN for Above the Law.

Instead of a celebrity in a white chair talking about themselves, the opening keynote at AALL 2026 featured Federal district Judge Micah Smith talking about what he called “Aloha leadership”. Leadership based on empathy and care for others that creates lasting impact. 

He also talked about why judges and lawyers with lifetime tenure or a big book of business often forget how they got there and start exercising power out of entitlement and self interest. And how hard it is for litigators to exercise this kind of leadership. 

But years of litigation taught me the lawyers who succeed the most are rarely the ones who scream the loudest. Judge Smith’s talk backed that up. He also connected it directly to two problems we talk about a lot: A2J and GenAI adoption.

Lots of good stuff to think about. My post for Above the Law