On today’s LawNext: we hand over the podcast to NotebookLM to discuss the state of law practice management technology. 

If you haven’t heard of NotebookLM, it is a generative AI tool from Google that turns your documents into engaging audio discussions. Its output sounds a whole lot like, well, a podcast, with two hosts chatting it up about your documents. 

To quote Google’s own description, “With one click, two AI hosts start up a lively “deep dive” discussion based on your sources. They summarize your material, make connections between topics, and banter back and forth.”

So we decided to give it a try.

Back in September, LawNext host Bob Ambrogi wrote a four-part series on his LawSites blog called, “The Shrinking Ownership of Law Practice Management Technology.” It was a deep dive into how ownership of law practice management software for solo and small law firms has been consolidated under just six major ownership groups. 

We loaded the four parts of that series into NotebookLM and asked it to generate its audio overview. What you’ll hear today is the discussion it generated, followed by Bob’s thoughts on what it produced. The NotebookLM audio is about 15 minutes long, and Bob’s comments will come after that plays. 

It is important to keep in mind that the audio generated by NotebookLM is not simply a summary. The two speakers do summarize key points from Bob’s articles, but they also add interpretations and perspectives that are nowhere to be found in the original source material. 

Here are the articles on which the audio is based:

• The shrinking ownership of law practice management technology (Part 1 of 4): A Market Dominated by Just Six Ownership Groups. 

• The shrinking ownership of law practice management technology (Part 2 of 4): A Scorecard of Who Owns What.

• The shrinking ownership of law practice management technology (Part 3 of 4): Future Development and Market Opportunities.

• The shrinking ownership of law practice management technology (Part 4 of 4): Wrapping It All Up.

This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.

• Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.

• Littler, local everywhere. 

• Steno, reliable court reporting with a revolutionary approach

• ShareFile, Securely send, store, and share files – plus discover document workflows designed to improve your client experience.

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