The Geek In Review

Cas Laskowski, Head of Research at the University of Arizona College of Law and co-founder of the Future of Law Libraries initiative, joins Kris Niedringhaus, Associate Dean at the University of South Carolina School of Law Library. They discuss how librarians can transition from passive observers to active leaders in AI integration within legal practice. Major topics include the impact of ChatGPT, proposals for centralized AI organizations, tiered training models for librarians, and the ethics of teaching law students to use AI responsibly.

This week, the hosts dive into exciting highlights from recent legal tech conferences. Marlene shares her joy at receiving a journalism award, and Greg reveals the buzz from ClioCon, including insights from CEO Jack Newton on Clio's ambitious Big Law strategy. They discuss AI governance challenges faced by in-house lawyers at the ACC Annual Meeting. Informal hallway chats yield valuable wisdom on legal research advancements. The pressure is on to automate workflows as AI tools evolve, sparking vital discussions on ethics and oversight in the legal field.

Nam Nguyen, co-founder and COO of TruthSystems.ai, has a unique blend of linguistics, computer science, and AI research from Stanford Law. He discusses the urgent need for trust infrastructure in law to keep pace with rapid AI advancements. TruthSystems focuses on operationalizing trust through Charter, a governance platform that monitors and guides AI use in real time. Nguyen emphasizes why AI governance should oversee inputs and outputs to minimize risks, aiming to transform static policies into active, automated practices for law firms.

Catherine Krow, Managing Director of Diversity and Impact Analytics at BigHand and founder of Digitory Legal, dives into transforming the legal landscape through data. She shares her journey from trial lawyer to tech innovator, driven by a pivotal billing challenge. Krow introduces her 'plan, measure, refine' framework for better law firm budgeting and discusses the concept of 'data debt.' She emphasizes the role of clean data in revealing inequities and enhancing profitability, while also exploring the future of pricing with AI and the impact of analytics on firm culture.

Anusia Gillespie, Enterprise Lead at vLex and debut novelist, shares her insights on legal technology and the human side of law. She highlights how negative reactions to tech can be transformed into opportunities for engagement. Anusia also discusses her novel, "Soul Toll," exploring the costs of high-performance legal culture. She emphasizes the importance of reframing the billable-hour mindset for innovation and warns against burnout in the fast-paced tech landscape, suggesting practical strategies for balance and restoration.

Daniel Lewis, the Global CEO of LegalOn Technologies, has a rich background in legal tech from Ravel Law to LexisNexis. In the conversation, he emphasizes the challenges in contract review for in-house lawyers and how LegalOn’s hybrid AI approach combines large models with attorney-curated playbooks for more reliable results. Daniel discusses the barriers startups face in accessing legal data and the essential skills for modern legal leaders, highlighting the shift from review tasks to strategic roles enabled by AI.

Gabe Pereyra, President and co-founder of Harvey, shares his journey from DeepMind to revolutionizing legal workflows with AI. They dive into why language models suit lawyers' text-heavy tasks and how an ‘AI associate’ enhances productivity. Gabe discusses partnering with major law firms like Allen & Overy to minimize risks and maximize learning. He emphasizes the importance of integrating tools like Outlook and Word, and how firms can turn their expertise into valuable AI products.

Join Suzanne Konstance, Vice-President at Wolters Kluwer, as she sheds light on how they support legal professionals in highly regulated sectors. She discusses the critical importance of regulatory compliance and how it helps clients avoid litigation. Trust and accuracy in legal tech is a focal point, emphasizing AI's role in maintaining quality research. Konstance also touches on a collaboration with Harvey and the need for reliable workflows that prioritize authoritative sources. Insightful conversations around navigating the evolving legal landscape make this a must-listen!

This week we are joined by Patrick DiDomenico and Kevin Klein, two longtime builders of knowledge programs and legal tech gatherings. They walk through the evolution of KM&I for Legal, now entering year three, and the debut of its co-located counterpart, Legal Tech Connect. Both events run in New York on October 22 and 23, with a single community, two distinct agendas, and one big goal, stronger conversations across buyers, builders, and backers of legal tech.Patrick traces the roots, from the ARK KM era to the launch of KM\&I, then to twisting Kevin’s arm to join as a producer. A larger home opened the door to ambitious programming, Ease Hospitality at 3rd and 40th near Grand Central. Think bright rooms, live plants, strong AV, plenty of seating, and an adjacent tenant lounge with coffee, terrace, and breakout nooks. Lessons from last year show up in smart touches, an overflow room streaming the main stage for those who need to handle calls or email without missing core content, longer breaks for real conversations, and, yes, food worthy of repeat trips.Format matters here. KM&I holds firm on peer-to-peer sessions led by law firm professionals. Providers participate through tight five-minute spotlights between talks, plus optional demo rooms during generous coffee breaks and lunch. Legal Tech Connect flips the lens, product stories on stage, founder journeys, market forces, and regulatory themes. A crossover ticket lets attendees roam freely between both programs. Breakouts return by popular demand, a C-suite roundtable, KM 101 for newcomers, a track for KM attorneys and PSLs, and a managers and directors forum that grew from attendee feedback.Themes thread across both days. ROI from AI and KM tools appears throughout, from data strategy as a differentiator to co-development case studies. Expect a lively take on the rise of the legal engineer, with skills for scaling tools and driving adoption, plus a frank discussion about where these roles sit inside firms. Professor Michele DiStefano opens with client centricity, drawing on her research and book, with every attendee receiving a copy. She then moderates a session at Legal Tech Connect on how legal tech companies sell to law firms, bridging provider goals with buyer needs. Another panel stages the AI conversation among a partner, pricing director, client, and innovation lead, a timely look at value, billing, and collaboration.The bigger story is community. Patrick and Kevin highlight the peer network that forms in hallways and over coffee, mentors found by chance, and ideas that travel home in workable form. Legal Tech Connect brings investors and founders into the mix, which raises the quality of dialogue on funding, product focus, and adoption. Looking ahead, they predict fewer conferences, higher quality bars, and a shift toward substance over appearance. Listeners who want more details, including registration, should visit kmniforlegal.com and legaltechconnect.com. The two events sit side by side in October, and the goal is simple, leave with practical ideas, new contacts, and a clearer view of where legal innovation heads next. Listen on mobile platforms:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[Special Thanks to ⁠Legal Technology Hub⁠ for their sponsoring this episode.] Blue Sky: ⁠⁠@geeklawblog.com⁠⁠ ⁠⁠@marlgeb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.comMusic: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Transcript:

This week we are joined by Mirat Dave and Danish Butt of Swiftwater & Co. as they step into the studio to make a simple claim, investigations and legal operations should serve the business, not slow the business. Mirat traces a path across law, technology, and global risk, then explains why a team blending strategy with implementation drew him to Swiftwater. Danish shares a wry origin story from early e-discovery days and outlines Swiftwater’s north star, the seven C’s, connecting, caring, collaboration, creating, curiosity, courage, and confidence. The tone stays pragmatic, no hype, and a few laughs land along the way.Global scope often triggers the “Germany is different” objection. Mirat acknowledges regional nuances, then reframes the discussion, most of the process is common across borders. The move that matters is standardization plus smart technology, including AI, to shift from linear headcount answers to scalable capacity. The payoff is speed, consistency, and lower risk. The team urges leaders to act like business owners, align processes to growth, margin, assets, and purpose, and resist the reflex to hire without redesigning the work.Budget hurdles come next. Leaders struggle to win funds for process change or platforms, while headcount requests sail through. The fix is storytelling backed by math, present a structured plan, expected savings, and a clear ROI in the language a CFO or GC uses daily. Danish widens the lens on metrics, many teams still track counts and cycle times, while value measures like revenue protected or reputation preserved sit at the bottom of the list. The guidance is to flip that order, tie decisions to value, and approach AI as a set of pointed use cases with measurable outcomes, not a monolith.Legal ops gets a moment in the spotlight as the quiet power. Danish reminds listeners that service functions exist to help the organization win, recognition matters, yet trust erodes when tools take center stage over results. Mirat presses the enablement mindset with a memorable image, legal, risk, and investigations are the pit crew, the business is the driver. Faster pits win races. He shares examples, a government contractor lifted renewal success by turning compliance visibility into proactive reminders and playbooks. In investigations, trend analysis by region, level, and timing surfaces fixes that reduce incoming allegations, lighten workloads, and raise quality.The crystal ball stays practical. Danish advises teams to treat AI as a working style backed by a two-year plan, prepare data, pick targets, and avoid both freeze and frenzy. Mirat expects investigation platforms to evolve from reporting systems into work systems, triage, plan creation, interview guidance, and repeatable playbooks that lift speed and consistency.Listen on mobile platforms:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[Special Thanks to ⁠Legal Technology Hub⁠ for their sponsoring this episode.] Blue Sky: ⁠⁠@geeklawblog.com⁠⁠ ⁠⁠@marlgeb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.comMusic: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Transcript: