Jordan Furlong’s ABA TechShow keynote was one of the best I’ve heard. His thesis: AI will commoditize legal knowledge, mechanize legal work, and reconfigure law firms. The lawyers who suceed won’t necessarily be the ones who know the most, if that was even ever the case. Instead, they will be the ones clients want in
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TECHSHOW 2026: Where The Legal Tech Family Gathers
ABA TechShow 2026 kicks off this Wednesday in Chicago and it’s a little different from every other legal tech conference on the calendar.
Two strong keynotes (Jordan Furlong and Nilay Patel), a genuinely important Saturday session on the rule of law with three ABA presidents, 47 educational sessions, 120+ exhibitors, and the traditional startup pitch…
Law Firm AI Adoption: So Many Choices
When it comes to AI, all to often law firm management freeze up from too many choices and do nothing, or overcorrect and buy everything in sight. 8am’s Legal Industry Report, for example, shows nearly 75% of legal professionals are already using general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for work, while 71% say their…
It’s Not Legalweek Unless It Snows. Here’s My 2026 Recap
Here’s my 2026 Legalweek recap for Above the Law: good show and good new venue (Javits instead of the Hilton). And the complaints were predictable, especially from the crowd that usually champions change. The exhibit space was a genuine improvement. The judges keynote was outstanding. The commercialization of sessions a little less so.
And btw…
Lawyers and Cybersecurity: Talk to An Experts. Before It’s Too Late
At Legalweek, while everyone else was talking about AI features, I sat down with Michel Sahyoun of NopalCyber to talk about something the legal profession isn’t paying nearly enough attention to: cybersecurity in the age of GenAI.
Some facts: the average time to exploit a breach is 29 minutes. AI tools can automatically and repeatedly…
Legalweek Final Keynote: An Industry Still Whistling Past the Graveyard?
The final Legalweek keynote made the argument that law firms need to do what Apple and Netflix did in the early 2000s: blow up a their existing business model for a better one. Hard to argue with that. But it’s hard to see that it’s happening in legal.
Here’s the data: only 19% of firms…
Legalweek’s Annual Judicial Panel: A Clear And Present Danger To Our Judges — And The Rule Of Law
I attended Legalweek’s annual judicial panel expecting the usual e-discovery update. What I heard instead was a sobering account of murder, death threats, swatting, and doxing directed at sitting federal judges and a stark warning about what it means for the rule of law and our profession. Four sitting federal judges spoke with remarkable candor…
GenAI: A Slippery Slope Of Too Much Kool-Aid?
8am’s Smart Spend Enhancement: Analogue Thinking In A GenAI World
8am’s Smart Spend enhancement: solving real practice management problems with real solutions. Here is my post for Above the Law.
The Heppner And Warner Rulings: Hobgoblin Consistency Or An Application Of Principle?
Two federal judges with seemingly opposite rulings on whether using GenAI tools waives the work product privilege. But the cases present facts that differ in important ways.
Here’s what reading them together can tell us about discovery risk, waiver, and pro se status. The bottom line is that privilege issues can still be minefield, and neither…