Authorized trade analyst Ari Kaplan hosted his inaugural Ari Kaplan Advisors Authorized Tech GC/CLO Roundtable to mirror on the authorized trade in 2025 and talk about key challenges, tendencies and alternatives prone to have an effect on strategic priorities in 2026.
Ari Kaplan: Welcome to the inaugural authorized tech basic counsel roundtable. For a few years, I’ve targeted on developments in authorized know-how and supplied analysis for the annual basic counsel report produced by Relativity and FTI. I assumed convening a dialogue amongst main GCs and CLOs at authorized know-how corporations may yield insights that profit our complete neighborhood.
Beth Kallet-Neuman: I’m Beth Kallet-Neuman from Relativity.
Marla Crawford: I’m Marla Crawford from Cimplifi.
Dennis Garcia: My title is Dennis Garcia. I’m a vp and basic counsel for Litera, based mostly in Chicago.
Clint Crosier: My title is Clint Crosier, the overall counsel of iManage.
JP Son: JP Son, I’m at Verbit based mostly in New York.
John Patzakis: John Patzakis, CLO at X1.
Colin Levy: Colin Levy, basic counsel of Malbek.
Jason Barnwell: Jason Barnwell, CLO at Agiloft.
Jenny Hamilton: I’m Jenny Hamilton. I’m the GC at Exterro.
Ari Kaplan: Is there one thing distinctive about being the overall counsel of a authorized know-how firm?
Colin Levy: I feel there’s as a result of if you’re the GC of a authorized tech firm, authorized turns into intertwined with so many different aspects of the corporate, from growth and product to governance and information privateness regulation. It’s a variety of completely different areas that converge. And whereas I feel this isn’t essentially remoted to authorized tech, I do suppose authorized tech is, in some methods, uniquely positioned to come across these kind of points, significantly given how briskly authorized tech tends to maneuver and the way a lot quicker it might probably transfer when issues like AI change into ever-present.
Dennis Garcia: Being a part of a authorized tech firm, I discover that my enterprise shoppers, who’re legal professionals, regulation companies and company authorized departments, have a deep appreciation for what legal professionals do and the worth we offer. I’ve additionally seen cases the place, as a authorized tech firm, our shoppers are legal professionals. They will not be practising legal professionals, however they hopefully have a wholesome respect for what legal professionals do. However by the identical token, legal professionals will not be the best shoppers, in order that’s an attention-grabbing dynamic. Being a GC at a authorized tech firm provides us an actual alternative to function ambassadors for our corporations. Our group has been utilizing Litera’s merchandise. We’re changing into energy customers of our options, and I wish to evangelize to different company, in-house authorized groups about how we’re utilizing them and hopefully interact in enterprise growth on behalf of Litera.
Jason Barnwell: It is vital for us to showcase what we make and function ambassadors however to really show the very best expression of the worth our merchandise create for our prospects. Like Dennis, I’m going to determine easy methods to run Agiloft authorized on Agiloft, and I’m going to inform tales and present the recipes. I’m going to present away as a lot as I can, and in that course of, hopefully earn a bit of consideration from the market. That focus can then affect the product roadmap, bending it nearer to the highest-value buyer situations which are on the market, in order that we are able to preserve delivering extra worth to our prospects and finally flip that into a really virtuous cycle the place we’re studying quicker the sorts of issues we are able to go after with what we make and switch that into options which are invaluable for purchasers, in order that they be ok with being our prospects.
Marla Crawford: Being a basic counsel at a authorized know-how firm is a novel expertise as a result of what number of basic counsels are as aware of the product their firm sells as customers are? I used to be one of many first e-discovery legal professionals. My profession has been in authorized know-how, and it was a pure development to change into the GC of a authorized know-how firm. It allowed me to get began quite a bit quicker.
Beth Kallet-Neuman: What’s attention-grabbing is having that distinctive perception into your buyer persona. You actually perceive how they suppose and what they need. In terms of product growth, you may rapidly establish gaps, and you may rapidly see potential for different use circumstances. You actually get into your buyer’s thoughts. At different tech corporations, you may not really feel as snug being within the thoughts of the client as a result of it’s completely different to know that authorized persona and the way we expect.
John Patzakis: The beauty of being a CLO at a authorized tech firm is that you simply additionally put on an working hat. On the product facet, I get dragged into key product growth conferences. The gross sales group, particularly on the excessive finish, desires to convey me in to talk with the legal professionals on the opposite facet who want to procure an answer, so I really feel like I’m a twin government, which is nice. The one factor on the extra stress-related facet is that I’ve seen courts maintain authorized tech corporations to the next normal for discovery. So it’s one thing to pay attention to in the event you become involved in litigation.
JP Son: As a basic counsel or chief authorized officer at any firm, you’re going to have a really extensive view of what’s happening. You’re there to attach the dots to your colleagues and administration normally. That’s heightened much more at a authorized tech firm. You find yourself being not simply the problem spotter for authorized compliance but in addition the operator’s hat, drawing in your connections within the enterprise and the trade. Even simply utilizing the authorized tech instruments and understanding the place they’re, you can provide steerage that’s distinctive to your product, your R&D, your gross sales and advertising and marketing groups, steerage they could not have by advantage of you being that subject material skilled.
Clint Crosier: On this position, it’s essential so that you can perceive the market and what your opponents and friends are doing from a product standpoint since you possible see what they’re releasing before most individuals at your organization. Jokingly, one draw back is that each one your mates prefer to name you about fixing the product.
Ari Kaplan: The place did you uncover a possibility that stood out and that you simply’re going to hold into 2026? Or is there one thing specifically that you simply felt was transformative within the authorized area?
Clint Crosier: 2025 was undoubtedly the yr when folks stopped questioning AI. It’s taking place. There’s nothing you are able to do at this level, and we must be ready on all sides to make sure it’s completed in accordance with the frameworks and insurance policies we’ve established, that are nimble sufficient to adapt.
Colin Levy: Over the past month, I’ve been concerned in a reasonably large variety of negotiations, particularly round AI, not essentially targeted on functionality, though that’s nonetheless current, however extra on reliability and accuracy, which displays rising acceptance of generative AI. Now, how will we cope with it? How will we make use of it in a approach that’s productive? There’s additionally a rising realization that it’s right here, however we shouldn’t be utilizing it for every part. But when we are able to use it, how ought to we be utilizing it? There’s a good quantity of schooling for authorized tech corporations to do, educating our prospects and potential prospects about what we are able to do and the way we may also help them. That begins with listening, having a dialog with them, and understanding what they wish to see, what they know, and what they wish to be doing sooner or later.
Marla Crawford: 2025 is the pivot second for the change in our complete authorized ecosystem, particularly, who’s doing what. We’re seeing completely different worker classes taking over new duties. We’re seeing a shift within the human side of who’s engaged on what initiatives, and that’s going to proceed to vary.
John Patzakis: I’ve been fascinated by a variety of developments in AI. One factor I’ve observed over the previous six months is that many enterprises are sluggish to undertake AI. AI is adopted the place information is already centralized. An ideal instance is e-discovery. You must accumulate information and put it upstream. As soon as it’s on the evaluate platforms, it is smart to use AI to that dataset as a result of it’s already there. However corporations are reluctant to shift massive swaths of their information, for compliance or different causes, as a result of it should go off-site and poses vital safety dangers. You don’t understand how the fashions are being skilled, and there could possibly be intermingling, which introduces safety dangers. We will handle that by retaining the AI on-prem as a lot as attainable. For authorized tech, I feel your answer a minimum of must be on-premises-capable.
Beth Kallet-Neuman: I feel on-prem options are going to be a bit of bit dated as a result of they gained’t be capable to sustain with the cloud, particularly the progress that’s been made in cloud and the safety parts, that are clearly important for legal professionals. If you happen to discover a answer that’s scalable, safe, protects privateness, retains the info the place it ought to be and raises no questions on privilege, that’s going to maneuver in a short time when it comes to progress and when it comes to getting the sort of know-how that’s going to maintain issues on the leading edge.
John Patzakis: There are two flavors of cloud. There’s multitenancy, which, to simplify, is bolted onto your Amazon setting and requires your shoppers to retailer information in your setting. It’s hard-coded there. Then there’s what’s referred to as single-tenancy cloud, which is extra versatile. You possibly can host it in your shopper’s personal cloud or on-premises. To me, it’s about single-tenancy versus multitenancy within the cloud.
Jason Barnwell: From a sensible standpoint, if we expect there will probably be machine intelligence-powered workloads, I don’t see how these will run in a traditional on-premises setting since you’re not going to have the compute infrastructure or capability there. I additionally don’t see how any subscale operator will be capable to run their very own devoted machine intelligence-focused compute, given the restricted provide. Working the infrastructure at scale may be very difficult. It’s onerous for me to see a future through which extra machine intelligence is utilized to workloads that don’t align with the long run Beth described.
JP Son: We’ve heard from shoppers and prospects that they might worth having an on-prem or on-device answer, so there could also be edge circumstances the place that issues. Normally, I agree that the cloud is healthier.
Jason Barnwell: The actual query is what prospects are literally prepared to pay for. What premium are you prepared to pay for this that we’re going to need to do particular for you? If there’s sample power within the want, then it turns into a really scalable product. However the place prospects are outliers, they need to anticipate to pay a premium for us to successfully tailor how we create our product to accommodate a really small set of consumers.
John Patzakis: In terms of compute energy, the single-tenancy cloud is the place you will have essentially the most throughput. The rationale many CTOs favor multitenant cloud is that it permits them to scale throughout many shoppers and convey them on, however their workloads are throttled. So the computing energy is finest in situations the place you will have a big firm with its personal personal, safe cloud setting and might allocate all obtainable assets to a single operation. That’s how you actually scale. Additionally, relating to AI, one factor I didn’t respect till six months in the past, once we have been entering into this, is that it’s all concerning the massive language fashions. LLMs are the digital part of AI and have change into more and more moveable. Now you can deploy and run them on-prem. That’s the place the magic occurs proper now. Coaching them is one other factor.
Jason Barnwell: There’s something value teasing aside, particularly the forms of fashions that can run and why that is vital for us to know and take into consideration. More and more, the merchandise we construct will reap the benefits of long-running machine intelligence processes. It won’t be a single immediate backwards and forwards. As a substitute, it is going to contain delegating a context window right into a compute house and having these processes do actual work.
Ari Kaplan: Is there an expectation that the overall counsel of a authorized tech firm can go toe to toe with any product salesperson within the group? That’s how granular and deep your understanding of the product ought to be.
Colin Levy: It takes a particular sort of particular person to be in authorized tech, and meaning being intellectually curious, prepared to experiment, prepared to be taught and prepared to acknowledge what you understand and what you don’t know. That doesn’t imply it’s a must to be a programmer to be the GC of a authorized tech firm and even work in authorized tech. On the similar time, it requires fluency within the language of know-how, so you may converse confidently with departments throughout your organization, whether or not it’s engineering, product or gross sales. You must be a connector and a translator as a result of, as a lawyer, you usually need to translate your authorized understanding into one thing that another person will perceive and know easy methods to act on. That always signifies that for the GC, it’s a must to be snug delegating and leveraging others’ experience, which, traditionally, could be robust for a lawyer as a result of legal professionals typically wish to be answerable for actually every part. You want a sure degree of belief. That doesn’t imply you shouldn’t have understanding; you need to, however you additionally want belief.
Marla Crawford: We must always be capable to pay attention and listen to in a different way from the opposite division heads in our firm. After we meet with our shoppers, we should always be capable to translate extra successfully, perceive what they’re saying, and make a larger impression. Greater than a GC at one other firm as a result of we should always hear these buzzwords that imply one thing particular to us.
Dennis Garcia: All GCs and in-house legal professionals want to know the enterprise in addition to attainable. If they’ll perceive the merchandise and options, that’s nice. I don’t suppose you essentially must be an skilled in these options. I can’t go toe to toe with our product groups on our merchandise and even with our gross sales groups. One factor I’ve observed is that the gross sales people undoubtedly wish to lean on me to see how they’ll leverage the relationships I’ve constructed over a protracted time frame with in-house legal professionals at our prospects or different corporations or with regulation companies or authorized enterprise decision-makers. I feel a big value-add is leveraging {our relationships} with authorized decision-makers. Our senior enterprise leaders love that, and that’s the place they need me to be when it comes to uncovering new alternatives.
Ari Kaplan: Are there issues that individuals are enthusiastic about for subsequent yr or involved about in any approach?
Beth Kallet-Neuman: I’ve spoken with regulation agency companions about this. How are we going to coach the following era of legal professionals? Everybody on this name has possible regarded by Iron Mountain containers, reviewed paperwork and printed supplies. They’re not doing a few of this as a result of they don’t need to. The AI will deal with the baseline work nobody desires to do, which could be painful at occasions. So I’m very curious to know how we are going to practice them. The coaching will look completely different. There’ll must be a shift, as skipping it isn’t the reply.
Clint Crosier: The important thing query is just not that AI’s altering regulation; it’s altering how they make cash. What’s altering is the leverage-based mannequin they’ve relied on for years, which has billed associates out for far more than they’re value and never given them the “10,000 hours” to change into specialists. We learn by paperwork in a Redweld at a kitchen desk and realized easy methods to a minimum of have a look at them. Some companies mentioned AI has helped them create real-world simulations they might not have constructed earlier than, together with the power to centralize their paperwork, examples, mock situations, responses, reverts and redlines. They couldn’t have constructed that previously with out 1000’s and 1000’s of man hours. Now, AI can construct that and consider it, and it might probably change. It’s like a conflict recreation. You reply; it modifications one other approach. Then they are often judged on that. AI is widening the hole between good and unhealthy associates as a result of the nice ones are already good, and now they’re simply getting higher. Determining easy methods to assist the opposite associates is the place they must be, however they’re falling farther behind.
Jason Barnwell: One of many issues that’s extremely highly effective about simulations and situations is that you simply’re not sure by an natural price of schooling and progress. Prior to now, you needed to have a sure variety of offers or circumstances, and people needed to organically seem, so the speed at which you could possibly purchase abilities had a elementary restrict. You have been additionally restricted by the quantity of suggestions a associate would truly present. That is what I feel underlies the divergence you’re seeing. For some folks, it’s giving them rocket packs, and so they’re simply taking off. For people who find themselves actually motivated, curious and wish to be on their progress edge, impulsively, they’ve this factor that can keep awake with them so long as they wish to go and as onerous as they wish to go. That may be very completely different. Then you will have different individuals who got here to simply grind out what was put in entrance of them. The enterprise used to function that approach very nicely for nearly all of its existence. If it immediately turns into, “I want to determine how I’m going to create worth earlier,” that doesn’t work with the previous mannequin. I recall having this dialog with somebody from our store. She actually beloved the regulation agency’s lockstep promotion for associates. So long as I stayed round, I used to be assured to maneuver up, she recalled. I mentioned the factor I actually hated concerning the regulation agency was the lockstep promotion as a result of regardless of how good a job I did, I used to be principally constrained. She noticed it as a flooring, and I noticed it as a ceiling. It’s time for us to begin fascinated about how we take the lid off, and the individuals who suppose like which are going to get superb outcomes from this stuff.
Dennis Garcia: All I would like from my regulation companies is to pay much less, and I hope they use extra AI instruments, to allow them to supply me extra fixed-fee choices. I feel we’ll see extra corporations searching for a return on their AI investments. AI is just not low-cost, and I feel bigger and midsize in-house authorized groups are asking themselves how they’ll get a return on funding. Possibly meaning having fewer workers in a authorized division. As a substitute of a 10-person follow group, in the event that they’re embracing AI instruments, they could want solely eight folks. That’s a development we’re going see extra of this yr and transferring ahead. We anticipate to see some authorized groups, yr over yr, with budgets which will stay flat and even lower. I don’t know in the event you’ll see many authorized groups with budgets that can enhance over the following yr or two.
Ari Kaplan: The place do you see the authorized market heading in 2026?
Jenny Hamilton: I hope we practice the following era to not disguise behind growing technical experience, like we would have if we labored at a agency. You must put your head down, be taught the mechanics of practising regulation and the grunt work, and construct that basis to construct on—after which fear about easy methods to advocate, easy methods to talk along with your shoppers, who are sometimes in-house counsel, and easy methods to develop a popularity as a trusted adviser, begin connecting the dots, and really add worth. I noticed a variety of regulation agency associates disguise behind the event of their authorized experience however not learn to go to courtroom, easy methods to win and argue motions, or easy methods to develop a trusted relationship with a shopper, so the shopper would name them first and more and more depend on them to assist them muddle by a few of these complexities. This is a chance for youthful associates and in-house counsel to begin growing these abilities earlier, now that a few of the heavy lifting could be completed by AI. After all, it’s essential be taught your craft, perceive the follow of regulation, be strategic, and add strategic worth to the enterprise. However that can come before it has for the earlier era. So I’m nonetheless optimistic however provided that now we have a bunch of authorized leaders like us who’re prepared to exit and message. That’s what we want. Right this moment, we want regulation agency attorneys to have the ability to present up and provides us choices which are business-friendly, that transfer us ahead—to not equivocate, to not bury us in complexity, to not ship us three-page memos by electronic mail that don’t get us to a solution. And on this position, that turns into important as a result of I can’t revert to being a second- or third-year and attempt to parse a senior affiliate’s three-page memo on this murky space we’re in and provides us steerage. That’s not the job anymore, if it ever was.
JP Son: Training is a elementary situation, however some abilities will stay foundational, whereas others gained’t be abilities in any respect for changing into an legal professional. We’re additionally seeing an increase in using ALSPs. Doc evaluate was beforehand dealt with by first-year associates. I feel it’s been separated out from the regulation agency right into a doc evaluate specialist position. The know-how will allow this type of bifurcation of duties between what’s completed in a conventional regulation agency and what’s completed in an ALSP. It’ll be attention-grabbing over the approaching years to see how the definition of what constitutes an legal professional at a regulation agency evolves and the way some abilities fade whereas new abilities and competencies emerge, shifting the definition and, in flip, the schooling paradigm.
Ari Kaplan: Thanks all so very a lot.
Hearken to the entire interview at Reinventing Professionals.
Ari Kaplan recurrently interviews leaders within the authorized trade and within the broader skilled companies neighborhood to share perspective, spotlight transformative change and introduce new know-how at his blog and on Apple Podcasts.
