AI in Practice AI's Role in the Courtroom with Appellate Lawyer Todd Smith | AI in Practice
Nov 6, 2025
Todd Smith, a board-certified appellate lawyer in Texas, discusses the transformative impact of AI on legal practices. He highlights how AI assists in analyzing trial transcripts and surfacing potential arguments, while emphasizing the necessity of human judgment in determining their persuasive power. Todd also addresses the challenges of AI adoption among lawyers, the shift towards flat fee billing, and the value of AI in marketing strategies. His insights reveal both the potential and the limitations of AI in the courtroom.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Solo With Long-Term Support
- Todd Smith runs a solo appellate practice called Texas Appellate Council with a small permanent staff supporting him.
- He focuses on high-value appellate and trial-consulting work and handles the parts only he can do.
Collaboration Depends On Shared Adoption
- AI collaboration only works when all participants use it, creating a weakest-link problem for joint workflows.
- Todd mostly uses AI internally because many lawyer clients haven't integrated it into substantive work yet.
AI Surfaces Leads; Humans Vet Them
- AI helps surface arguments and flaws in opponents' briefs, getting you farther along than starting from zero.
- Human experts must then judge which AI-suggested lines have real merit and discard rabbit trails.
