LawNext

Winston Weinberg and Gabriel Pereyra, co-founders of Harvey, transitioned from roommates in a San Francisco apartment to leaders of an $8 billion legal AI powerhouse. They share their unique journey, including the challenges of gaining traction with law firms and the pivotal role of GPT-4 in enhancing their platform. They discuss the complexities of scaling infrastructure while ensuring data security and ethical compliance. Additionally, they highlight their ambitions to create an essential AI operating system for the legal industry and plans for future growth in corporate legal teams.

In a dynamic discussion, Reagan Attle, Clio's CMO since 2017, reveals how the landmark $1 billion vLex acquisition is reshaping marketing strategies and enhancing customer focus. She emphasizes the complexity of growth and the delicate balance between guiding and responding to client needs, especially with AI in play. Joining her is A.J. Axelrod, VP of Payments, who unveils innovative financial products like Pay Later and Clio Capital, aimed at providing law firms with fast funding and seamless client payment options, while hinting at exciting fintech expansions ahead.

The biggest deal of 2025 – in fact, the biggest deal ever in legal tech – was legal tech company Clio's acquisition of vLex for $1 billion. A global legal research company founded in Spain, vLex had, just two years earlier, merged with the U.S. legal research company Fastcase, and the union of those two companies – which also included the Docket Alarm trove of court docket data – had further accelerated the development of Vincent, vLex's generative AI technology. Now, with Clio's acquisition of vLex, comes a combustible combination that has the potential to unify the fuel of all that vLex legal research and docket data with Clio's cloud practice management technology to create an unprecedented, AI-driven platform that unifies both the business and practice of law. Against this backdrop, I sat down with Ed Walters, the founder and CEO of Fastcase, during ClioCon in October, to discuss the acquisition and its implications for the legal industry. Walters cofounded Fastcase in 1999 along with his former Covington & Burling colleague Phil Rosenthal. After Fastcase merged with vLex, he became vLex's chief strategy officer. Since the Clio acquisition, he is now Clio's vice president of legal innovation and strategy. Note: As of this recording, Clio had not yet closed its acquisition of vLex. The deal did finally close on Nov. 10. Thank You To Our Sponsors 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. Briefpoint, eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Eve, taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

For legal technology company Clio, this was a particularly significant year, marked by major announcements – including its $1 billion acquisition of vLex – that many saw as transformative for the company. This was on full display at the company's ClioCon conference in October, where CEO Jack Newton gave a keynote laying out the company's vision for a new era of AI-driven legal work in which Clio becomes an "intelligent legal work platform" that serves not as a system of record, but as a system of action, powering lawyers through their workdays by automating much of what they do. In today's episode, recorded live at ClioCon, host Bob Ambrogi sits down with the two key executives leading Clio's product and technology vision: John Foreman, who joined as chief product officer in May, bringing experience from major SaaS companies including MailChimp and Podium, and Jonathan Watson, the chief technology officer who's been with Clio for eight years. They explore the company's ambitious vision to develop AI and expand into larger law firms, discuss how vertical software creates advantages for AI implementation, and explain why understanding the complete client journey enables more powerful automation. Foreman and Watson share insights on moving beyond simple chatbots to AI that can actually take action, the challenges and opportunities of expanding into the enterprise market, and what's next as they work to "finish drawing the owl." "We've started to draw the owl for folks," Foreman says, "and we're going to finish drawing the owl, and it's going to be a beautiful owl." Note: As of this recording, Clio had not yet closed its acquisition of vLex. The deal did finally close on Nov. 10. Thank You To Our Sponsors 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. Briefpoint, eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Eve, taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Join Adam Borgman, a litigation expert at Vorys, Julie Brown, the firm's Practice Technology Director, and Joshua Schnoll, Everlaw's CMO, as they dive into how law firms are reimagining litigation through AI. They discuss the crucial step of mapping existing workflows before adopting AI tools, sharing insights on Everlaw's Deep Dive feature that uncovers hidden evidence. Expect fascinating stories, including a surprising Tums revelation, and key considerations such as trust, cost-effectiveness, and the future of legal jobs in an AI-enhanced landscape.

Joshua Lenon, lawyer in residence at Clio, dives into the groundbreaking 10th Legal Trends Report, highlighting its first neuroanalytics study of legal professionals. He reveals how the study measured brain activity to gauge emotional strain while using technology versus manual methods. They discuss the surprising rise of AI tools among lawyers, clients' mixed feelings about AI use, and the impact of tech adoption on firm growth and billing. Lenon's insights offer a fresh perspective on technology's role in modern legal practice.

Preston Clark, founder of SimpleDocs and Law Insider, dives into the strategic acquisition that merges AI contract automation with a vast database of contracts. He reveals why both companies were built separately and the unique synergy behind their union. Clark explains how workflow-specific tools can elevate contract automation accuracy. He also shares plans for integrating Law Insider’s data into SimpleDocs and his vision for expanding into new legal workflows, positioning his companies as top contenders in the competitive landscape.

Jack Newton, Co-founder and CEO of Clio, discusses a groundbreaking vision for AI in legal work following his keynote at ClioCon. He reveals that the new 'intelligent legal work platform' is more than just a dream—it's available today. Newton highlights the recent acquisition of vLex and explains how AI will transform everyday legal tasks. He illustrates how AI can streamline client intake and matter workflows, marking a significant shift in the legal industry that parallels the rise of the cloud.

In the United States, over 90% of civil legal needs go unrepresented – a staggering justice gap that leaves millions of people facing eviction, domestic violence, wrongful conviction and other urgent legal crises without access to an attorney. For these individuals, the difference between getting legal help or going without can literally be the difference between safety and harm, between keeping a home and losing everything. One year ago, Thomson Reuters launched its AI for Justice program to help address this crisis by providing legal aid organizations with access to CoCounsel, its professional-grade AI legal assistant, along with specialized training and support. The results have been significant: attorneys are saving up to 15 hours per week, organizations are serving as many as 50% more clients daily, and urgent case materials are being prepared up to 75% faster. But more importantly, these efficiency gains are translating into real-world impact – domestic violence victims receiving protection orders more quickly, wrongfully evicted tenants getting back into their homes before their possessions are destroyed, and innocent people in prison having their exoneration petitions filed years sooner. In this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi talks with two people at the forefront of this initiative: Laura Safdie is head of innovation for legal at Thomson Reuters and has been championing access to justice through technology since her days at Casetext, where she was a cofounder. Pablo Ramirez is executive director of the Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino, a small organization of 45 staff members serving over 9,000 people a year in one of California's largest counties. Together, they share powerful stories of how AI is enabling legal aid lawyers to be more efficient and more effective in doing what they came to this work to do – fighting for their clients. They discuss the three pillars of the AI for Justice program – access, support and scale – and how Thomson Reuters is working to create a blueprint that can be replicated across the legal aid community. They also tackle the challenges that remain, from overcoming fear and skepticism about AI to reaching a highly disaggregated network of small, resource-strapped organizations. And they explore the bigger question: Can AI actually help close the justice gap, or are we just nibbling at the edges of an ever-growing problem? Thank You To Our Sponsors 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. Briefpoint, eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Eve, taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Andy Seavers, Co-founder and CEO of Case Status, shares insights from his experience in legal technology and client experience. He unveils the AI-driven Client Intelligence platform, designed to shift law firms from reactive to predictive engagement. Seavers discusses the importance of communication in achieving faster, better settlements, and outlines his vision of a 'future firm' in his new book, emphasizing leadership and operational excellence. He also explores how firms can modernize to stay competitive in the evolving legal landscape.