ABA Journal: Legal Rebels

What's on tap for 2026 when it comes to generative AI?

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2025, we saw greater adoption of generative artificial intelligence tools across all areas of the legal industry. Will 2026 bring more of the same...

2025 Year in Review: Generative AI, access to justice and law schools

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

All in all, it’s shown that the legal industry, traditionally known as a staid, conservative and risk-averse profession, is undergoing a period of r...

How in-house counsel are increasingly turning to generative AI

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

According to an October report from the Association of Corporate Counsel, generative AI use among in-house lawyers has more than doubled over the la...

Clio founder talks $1B acquisition of vLex and upcoming Clio Cloud Conference

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Clio announced that it had acquired global legal research platform vLex for $1 billion in June, it was the latest in a series of big moves from t...

How lawyers can use generative AI to get a leg up in communicating with clients

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Querious utilizes the power of generative AI to listen into a conversation and deliver real-time insights based on what it hears. Essentially, it’s ...

How the NCBE will move the NextGen bar exam to personal computers

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, the Uniform Bar Examination has been old school, with bar candidates using paper-and-pencil exam books. But starting with the first admin...

How agentic artificial intelligence could shake up the legal industry

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For lawyers, artificial intelligence agents could completely change the way that they do their jobs, handling things such as legal research, document...

How ethics reforms in Arizona led to LegalZoom's law firm

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Arizona changed its ethics rules in 2020 opening the door for alternative business structures and nonlawyer ownership for law firms, it sent shoc...

To buy or not to buy? For Cleary Gottlieb, acquiring an AI company was a no-brainer

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Law firms acquire or merge with one another all the time. But when it comes to technology companies, firms usually keep it in-house or enter into a pa...

Generative AI can help overworked immigration lawyers navigate these tumultuous times

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"May you live in interesting times." For immigration lawyers, that old proverb is now a reality. Ever since the start of the second Trump administrati...

This year's historic ABA Techshow will be bigger than ever

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For one thing, it marks the 40th annual iteration of the show. For another, it promises to be the biggest of all time—emanating for the first time f...

Should we expect new regulations on data privacy and consumer protection?

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a well-worn saying that the law always lags behind technology. It makes sense. We all remember the old song about how a bill becomes a law and ...

What's the forecast for generative AI in 2025?

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If last year was when generative artificial intelligence went mainstream, could this year be the one when it gets even bigger? Will we see more people...

2024 in Review: Generative AI dominated legal tech

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More money is flowing into legal tech than ever before, as several gigantic deals dominated the headlines and enlarged quite a few bank accounts. And ...

What generative AI means for the future of predictive analytics

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lawyers, especially litigators, like to say they never ask a question that they don’t already know the answer to. But there’s plenty of unknowns o...

What Filevine's new AI tool could mean for the future of depositions

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The generative artificial intelligence tool is not just designed to transcribe depositions. It looks for inconsistencies. It suggests questions to ask...

What does the future hold for licensed paraprofessionals?

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Much has been made of the gigantic access-to-justice gap in this country. One possible way to help bridge the gap is to expand the pool of people elig...

Tests into and out of law schools—what's changing and why

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The LSAT is facing competition from the JD-Next exam, and many states are reconsidering their licensing methods as the bar exam as we’ve known it su...

How generative AI can help you market your legal practice

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There has been a lot of talk and concern about generative AI tools and how they are changing the legal industry. A major worry for many lawyers is tha...

Can generative AI tools make it easier for lawyers to offer pro bono services?

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A commonly cited solution to helping bridge the access-to-justice canyon is for lawyers to provide more pro bono work. In that regard, have generative...

Will generative AI (finally) spell the end of the billable hour?

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It seems like every time that there’s a major disruption or event that threatens to upend the legal industry, it spells doom for the billable hour. ...

The future of DEI programs in the legal industry

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The lack of diversity when it comes to race, gender, sexuality, disability and social class within the legal profession is nothing new. However, the l...

Could automated transcription tools replace human court reporters?

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Transcription technology has existed for a while now, but its accuracy has never been that high. Now, artificial intelligence could make automated tra...

Fall in love with legal technology at this year's ABA Techshow

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day than with your favorite lawyers, legal professionals, technologists and thought leaders who will be on hand...

Want to clear a criminal record? This lawyer has an app for that

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The impact for people clearing their criminal records can be life-changing, leading to long-term employment and financial security. And research show...

What were the top legal tech stories of 2023?

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As 2023 draws to a close, the Legal Rebels Podcast looks at the top stories in legal technology for the year. Between the explosion in popularity of...

How this lawyer uses TikTok to skewer law firm culture

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Legal professionals are not immune to the pull of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Some are even using short-form videos to inf...

How generative AI is already changing contract review

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the areas that has already felt the effects of ChatGPT and other large language models is contracts. Users can now use these AI-enhanced tools ...

What is the future of remote working in the law firm world?

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home and communicating and collaborating via real-time communication tools has become the norm for many ...

Changing the culture at law firms to promote wellness and mental well-being

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, lawyers who worked in BigLaw could expect some version of the following: Work long hours, including nights and weekends, with minimal fre...

How GPT and other large language models could change e-discovery

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When technologically assisted review first started gaining traction in e-discovery in the 2010s, many of the same superlatives assigned to ChatGPT wer...

What could AI regulation in the US look like?

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, there has been very little movement toward establishing a regulatory framework at the federal level for artificial intelligence....

Pre/Dicta takes a radically different approach to predictive analytics than others

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are plenty of judicial analytics and litigation prediction tools on the market. They may have differences in execution and focus, but the genera...

What the Silicon Valley Bank failure means for our financial institutions

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us still get a chill running down our spines when we hear about bank failures and bailouts. After all, it was less than 15 years ago when we w...

How Casetext utilized the latest GPT technology to create an AI legal assistant

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November, when OpenAI unleashed the newest, most advanced version of its chatbot, ChatGPT, it immediately captured the imagination. So far, it’s ...

What to expect from ABA Techshow 2023

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the biggest and longest-running legal technology shows in the country, the ABA Techshow, is right around the corner. From March 1 to 4, thousan...

Should lawyers embrace or fear ChatGPT?

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For some academics, researching, writing, editing and publishing a scholarly piece of work can take months, if not years, of painstaking effort, dilig...

Why this BigLaw firm recently started a legal ops division

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Legal operations handle a lot of the business and technological stuff that many lawyers either aren’t trained to handle or don’t want to deal with...

It's a long road ahead for driverless cars, says Fastcase executive

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There hasn’t been much progress when it comes to driverless cars. Most major car manufacturers have sunk hundreds of billions into developing and te...

How lawyers can unlock the potential of the metaverse

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The metaverse is all the rage these days. Users can enter a virtual world where they can interact with people from all parts of the physical world, pl...

Legal Chatbots: What can and can't they do?

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Programmed to communicate as if they were living, breathing people, AI chatbots function by asking you a series of questions and providing you with yo...

Why this BigLaw Firm Adopted a Permanent Work-from-Anywhere Policy for its Lawyers and Staff

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to nearly two-years of COVID-19-related shutdowns and sheltering-in-place orders, working from home has become the new normal. Face-to-face int...

How technology can improve immigration policy and practice

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Immigration is an area of law that lends itself well to technological innovations. It is in that intersection in which immigration lawyer Greg Siskind...

Taking on unauthorized practice of law regulations to expand access to justice

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are you struggling with debt? Do you have collectors breathing down your neck, threatening to repossess your property and filing lawsuits against you ...

EmotionTrac analyzes facial expressions in real time to help lawyers pick juries, market themselves

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Facial recognition software is becoming a greater part of our everyday lives. But the technology is controversial and not without its critics. Questio...

TurnSignl app seeks to provide real-time legal assistance and de-escalation of tension during traffic stops

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like many Americans, Jazz Hampton and two of his friends, Andre Creighton and Mychal Frelix, watched in horror as two fellow Minnesotans, Philando Cas...

With alternative dispute rising in popularity, this platform aims to help mediators and arbitrators

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As a young personal injury litigator in Georgia, Gino Brogdon Jr. says he was accustomed to using different technology tools to manage his practice. B...

How a social justice innovation lab is developing new types of legal services

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Innovation for Justice lab launched at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law in 2018 with the goal of designing, building a...

How this contracts platform uses AI to help users manage and analyze key documents

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Evisort co-founder Jake Sussman says when the company began developing its contract management and analysis platform, its goal was to use artificial i...

How an e-discovery platform has evolved to meet the new challenges facing clients

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

AJ Shankar, the founder and CEO of e-discovery platform Everlaw, likes to say his company’s technology is designed to help clients find needles in a...

How a law prof is training paraprofessionals to represent immigrants in legal proceedings

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Law prof Michele Pistone says there aren’t enough immigration lawyers and pro bono attorneys to meet the demand of immigrants seeking legal assistan...

Why this BigLaw firm is embracing an ‘augmented automation solution’ for clients

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced last month that it had teamed up with Workiva Inc. to create an application that automates the S-1 form tha...

Why an online legal marketplace has added tech companies and other alternative providers

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Priori is an online platform known for using data and technology to connect in-house legal teams with lawyers and law firms who can assist with a wide...

This online platform aims to help pro se litigants with complex civil cases

18 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sonja Ebron and her wife, Debra Slone, saw firsthand how difficult it can be to represent yourself in civil cases through experiences they had being s...

How one bankruptcy software company had a banner year despite filings hitting a low

21 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

NextChapter’s success last year came in its first full year after being acquired by legal research company FastCase. Special thanks to our sponsor...

A new evidence management tool aims to help public defenders process video and audio

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two University of Chicago alums and technologists have developed a technology platform known as JusticeText, an AI-powered evidence management tool pr...

New AI-powered legal writing tool aims to help lawyers craft winning briefs

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A former assistant attorney general has created an AI-powered legal writing tool to help other lawyers craft case-winning briefs in an efficient manne...

How one firm is trying to convince technology clients to embrace subscription pricing

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When two women discussed starting their own law firm two years ago, the experienced in-house lawyers agreed that they should take a subscription-prici...

Experienced cloud-based law firm thrives during COVID-19, firm co-founder says

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“You make a lot more money when you come work for us than you do at a traditional firm,” says Kevin Broyles, a co-founder and managing partner of ...

Virtual onboarding has provided some unexpected benefits, firm shareholder says

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Van Amsterdam says his law firm has prioritized frequent virtual contacts with new attorneys and staff, generating particularly good feedback fro...

Law firms should not rush lateral hiring, due diligence expert says

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Ellenhorn, the founder and CEO of Decipher, says law firms would be wise not to quicken the hiring process too much.

Deloitte is monitoring regulatory reforms but is focused on growing new practice

16 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For now, Don Fancher says Deloitte is focused in the United States on growing the legal business services practice that it launched in July.

Constant communication has been key amid COVID-19, law school dean says

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

L. Song Richardson, the dean at the University of California at Irvine School of Law, discusses with the ABA Journal's Lyle Moran how to making remote...

Firms of the future: COVID-19 prompts more law firms to pursue real estate downsizing

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, a growing number of law firms reduced their brick-and-mortar office space as a way to cut costs and also better meet the changing wor...

This Louisiana judge continues to innovate during the COVID-19 crisis

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Judge Scott Schlegel talks about his initial tactics into delivering justice online and delve into how he and his court responded to COVID-19.

Bench trial by video? This lawyer says it went better than expected

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Chicago lawyer Kathy Ehrhart and her firm represented two of the three defendants in a civil case focused on alleged breach of contract concerning a r...

Legal reform advocates need to more actively engage the public

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Supporters of broad reforms to how the legal profession is regulated must do a better job drawing the public into ongoing conversations in several sta...

BigLaw firm’s legal tech subsidiary has launched a steady stream of COVID-19 tools

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When the novel coronavirus began rapidly spreading across the United States earlier this year, Kimball Dean Parker says he felt a strong desire to hel...

How hosting a national pandemic summit aided Nebraska courts with its COVID-19 response

13 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Michael G. Heavican, the chief justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court, talks about the National Pandemic Summit that he hosted in May 2019 for court le...

Online estate planning sees surge during coronavirus crisis

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The online estate-planning platform Trust & Will saw at least a 100% increase in business in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cody Barbo...

President of the Legal Services Corp. reflects on his tenure

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Asked to reflect on his nine-year tenure as president of the Legal Services Corp., Jim Sandman says he is proud of many things that he and his team ac...

How 2 Texas lawyers are marketing their practice through song

12 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to social media and the internet, it’s never been easier—or more affordable—for lawyers to advertise. On the other hand, having so many a...

Reinventing the staid field of legal academic writing

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Legal academic publishing isn't synonymous with innovation. The mere mention of it can, for some, bring up repressed memories of the most banal and st...

How one lawyer built a practice by defending a notorious accused hacker

12 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Leaving BigLaw to start his own firm in 2011, Tor Ekeland quickly learned that his legal education was insufficient for the task at hand. To Ekeland, ...

Diversity in the legal tech community

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The year 2017 was hailed as the "Year of Women in Legal Tech" based on a few high-profile acquisitions and hires. Kristen Sonday, the co-founder of Pa...

Criminal justice experts hope tech can more easily help people expunge prior convictions and arrests

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, an estimated 70 million people have a criminal record. Being tagged with this scarlet letter can affect a person’s ability to ...

Exploring new frontiers in research for the legal industry

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea talks to legal tech blogger Bob Ambrogi and Andrew Ar...

How experiential learning became the norm

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, Rodney Smolla was featured as a Legal Rebel for leading an innovative plan at Washington and Lee University School of Law to eliminate ...

What's your brand? Max Miller has some thoughts

17 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's good to be seen as a "thought leader," but don't call yourself that in marketing materials, says lawyer, professor and small business owner Max M...

Avvo founder Mark Britton unwinds as he thinks about next step

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Britton, who founded and sold the online attorney ratings site Avvo, is taking a break. This helps with creativity but does cause him some discom...

David Van Zandt has made a career out of touching third rails in higher ed

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When David Van Zandt became dean of what is now Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law in 1995, he faced a steep learning curve, he tells th...

Nonprofit law pioneer applauds 'low bono' growth

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Before they were buzzwords, Luz Herrera was a pioneer in the world of "low bono" practice, nonprofit law firms and legal incubators. In this episode o...

Jeff Carr continues his fight against billable hours

13 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jeff Carr has been on a 40-year path of improving lawyer efficiency and effectiveness. "There's an old saying that if you pay for service by the hour,...

Leading advocate for diversity in legal industry hasn't seen much progress in 10 years

13 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the 10 years since Emery K. Harlan, co-founder of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms, was featured as an ABA Journal Lega...

Beating the drum for change

16 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Ralph Baxter joined the inaugural class of Legal Rebels in 2009, he was the CEO and chairman of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. Just a year into t...

Young lawyers can be technophobes too

12 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Many lawyers are reluctant to new adopt legal technology, says Monica Goyal, who developed platforms including My Legal Briefcase, which helps parties...

Make room for chatbots at your firm, LawDroid founder says

14 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Chatbots have a place in a law office because they can handle busy work that eats up precious time in a lawyer’s day, says LawDroid founder Tom Mart...

Could 80 percent of cases be resolved through online dispute resolution?

17 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps in five to seven years, as Colin Rule sees it, half of U.S. citizens who file court cases will have access to online dispute resolution softwa...

Legal writing pro is helping teach AI to draft contracts

12 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Adams has brought his contract expertise to LegalSifter, a Pittsburgh artificial intelligence startup. The 2009 Legal Rebel and author of “A Man...

Legal services innovator moves on to app development

15 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It’s too easy for attorneys to be aware that something isn’t perfect in their practices and accept the situation instead of pushing back. So says ...

Entrepreneur Amy Porter’s theme is finding what lawyers need

18 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Amy Porter founded the online payment platform AffiniPay, she drew on her experience as a college athlete—cheerleading while majoring in mercha...

Tech is not the only answer to legal aid issues, Joyce Raby says

13 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Since the late 1990s, Joyce Raby has spent a career bringing technology to legal aid. While a booster and believer in technology’s potential to impr...

From paper to digital documents, Judge Andrew Peck traveled (and set) the discovery trail

16 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As electronic data became more prevalent in the 1990s, Judge Andrew Peck, an ABA Journal Legal Rebels Trailblazer, wrote a line that would be quoted b...

Outgoing Adobe GC witnessed changes that digitization, globalization wrought

04 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Dillon has seen a lot change over his career as general counsel to some of the nation’s largest technology companies. Working for Silver Spring...

Longtime legal tech leader Richard Granat finds a new challenge

14 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Granat–the creator of MyLawyer.com, SmartLegalForms and the People’s Law Library of Maryland–has joined Intraspexion, a new artificial-i...

Mary Juetten hopes legal software can help improve access-to-justice problems

14 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What will be a big legal trend for 2018? Mary E. Juetten is putting her hopes on legal technology improving access-to-justice problems.

Robert Litt has been out front on online threats for decades

10 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Litt has confronted cybersecurity and encryption issues for two presidential administrations. With Russian interference in the 2016 election as...

Trailblazer with a nonlawyer past brings the present and future to law firms

13 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adriana Linares considers it a badge of honor to work in the legal profession without being a lawyer. Linares co-founded LawTech Partners with Allan M...

Robert Ambrogi’s blog points lawyers to tech’s opportunities

08 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Legal journalist and blogger Bob Ambrogi recounts his unorthodox path towards legal journalism, as well as where he sees the legal industry heading –...

Bruce MacEwen diagnoses and prescribes for law practice ills

11 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Bruce MacEwen is both a doctor and an epidemiologist in the world of BigLaw firms. A Legal Rebels Trailblazer, the Adam Smith, Esq. founder can diagno...