In this quarterly deep-dive, we reconnect with Peter Duffy, the brilliant mind behind the Legal Tech Trends newsletter, for our regular temperature check on what's actually happening in the legal technology landscape.
Peter's ability to cut through the hype and identify real trends, combined with his practical experience helping organisations actually adopt AI, makes this a masterclass in separating signal from noise.
Whether you're trying to understand why adoption is lagging despite the excitement, wondering about the strategic implications of billion-dollar acquisitions, or simply want to understand what Silicon Valley's sudden fascination with legal really means, this conversation hopefully delivers some insight.
The episode kicks off with a sobering look at AI adoption across the legal profession, and the numbers might surprise you. Peter walks us through recent surveys from Bain and BCG that paint a picture quite different from the hype we're all hearing about at conferences/or on LinkedIn.
The acquisition and partnership landscape is absolutely wild right now, and we break down the strategic implications of:
Clio's $1 billion acquisition of vLex
Eudia's acquisition of the Irish ALSP Johnson Hanna
Harvey's strategic alliance with LexisNexis
We end discussing some personal topics of interest, including:
Y Combinator's explicit call-out for startups to build "full stack AI companies" – using law firms as their prime example;
the implications of the recent order in the New York Times v. OpenAI case
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Best, Alex & Tom