Jordan Furlong’s ABA TechShow keynote was one of the best I’ve heard. His thesis: AI will commoditize legal knowledge, mechanize legal work, and reconfigure law firms. The lawyers who suceed won’t necessarily be the ones who know the most, if that was even ever the case. Instead, they will be the ones clients want in the foxhole with them when things go bad or even hard.
I’d add one thing though: the lawyers who thrive are will also be entrepreneurs. Not in the startup sense but in a more important sense: seeing a client need and doggedly pursuing a way to satisfy it.
That’s what separated the great lawyers I’ve known from the ones who just billed hours. And it’s what will separate them in the AI era too.
My full take for Above the Law on Furlong’s keynote and what I think we still need to teach young lawyers.