Maxwell Weiss has investigated everything from stolen historical artifacts and match fixing to counterfeit medicines, privacy violations and questionable health plans. Now, he is working at the intersection of plaintiff-side litigation and AI-powered case discovery. 

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Maxwell Weiss, a partner at Don Bivens and Litigation Counsel at Darrow AI, to unpack how lawyers can find the facts that actually matter, investigate complex wrongdoing and use technology to uncover cases that traditional methods may never reach. Maxwell explains the 80/20 rule he applies to litigation, why brevity matters in legal writing, what federal judges taught him about courtroom advocacy and why the best lawyers often sound more like they are having a conversation than delivering a performance.

The conversation also gets into Darrow AI and how technology can monitor prices, identify potential privacy violations and analyze complicated health-plan structures at a scale that would be nearly impossible for lawyers to handle manually. Maxwell explains how those findings are turned into something lawyers can actually use: a clear case theory, the relevant law, precedent and an evidentiary roadmap.


And then there is Maxwell’s biggest concern about AI: junior lawyers may become so dependent on it that they skip the foundational work that teaches them judgment in the first place.


What You’ll Learn:

• How Maxwell applies the 80/20 rule to litigation strategy and focuses time on the facts that actually drive a case
• Why investigative work often requires lawyers to bring in private investigators, technical experts and other specialists
• What Maxwell learned from his federal clerkship about brevity, courtroom advocacy and communicating with judges
• Why strong advocacy looks more like a conversation than a rehearsed courtroom performance
• How class actions can create meaningful relief by stopping harmful conduct, not just recovering money
• How AI can surface potential privacy violations, misleading pricing practices and health-plan problems at a scale that would be difficult to investigate manually 
• Why translating AI findings into clear legal analysis is still a deeply human part of the process
• How lawyers identify and recruit strong named plaintiffs for class action cases
• Why Maxwell is concerned that AI could leave junior lawyers without the foundational skills needed for good legal judgment
  
  

The big takeaway: AI can expand the scale of legal investigation, but lawyers still need the judgment to turn what they find into a real case. 


Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:25 The Stolen Artifact Investigation
03:52 Maxwell’s Unusual Path Through Big Law and Federal Court
05:05 Investigating Counterfeit HIV Medicines
08:01 The 80/20 Rule for Litigation Strategy
09:10 How Lawyers Actually Investigate Complex Cases
11:19 The Ethics of Representing Clients
14:00 Why Brevity Matters in Legal Writing
15:30 What Federal Court Taught Maxwell About Advocacy
18:04 The Real Purpose of Class Actions
21:31 How Darrow AI Finds Hidden Legal Wrongdoing
24:46 The Problem With Dominated Health Plans
27:34 AI Cases That Would Never Be Found Manually
28:59 Will Lawyers Actually Adopt Legal AI?
30:42 What Happens When Both Sides Have AI?
31:47 Maxwell’s Next Big Litigation Target
35:17 Why Purpose Drives Maxwell’s Practice
36:45 Using Targeted Advertising to Find Plaintiffs
38:42 What Makes a Good Named Plaintiff?
41:27 The Emotional Side of Plaintiff Litigation
42:28 Maxwell’s Biggest Fear About AI and Junior Lawyers
43:47 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “The 80/20 rule is just so true.”
2. “The best advocates are having a conversation with the jury or the judge.”
3. “You don’t have to be absolutely perfectly polished.”
4. “I worry that junior lawyers will grow to rely on artificial intelligence so much that they’ll never get the basic skills.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

75+ episodes. 1,200+ followers. A new look. A bottle of hot sauce. And a legal industry that is changing faster than most people can keep up with.

In this special episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea record live from ILTACON 2026 to reflect on the conversations, guests, hot takes and recurring themes that have shaped the show so far.

Join them as they revisit standout guests including Elaine Barsom, Colin Levy, Eric Friedman, Andrew Finkelstein, Matthew Pringle, Bob Simon, Katie DeBorde, and others, while also introducing the show’s new Hot Takes hot sauce.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why “go slow to go fast” keeps coming up in legal AI conversations
• Why AI is better understood as leverage, not a lawyer replacement
• How legal tech is changing firm structures, billing models, hiring, training and education
• Why law schools are still figuring out which AI skills actually matter
• Why empathy, relatability and storytelling remain major legal advantages
• How guest conversations have shaped Joe and Adrian’s view of the industry
• Why attorney-client privilege and consumer AI use are becoming urgent client-counseling issues
• Why judges and clerks keep coming back to the same advice: be brief
• How private equity, remote-first firms, and AI-driven models are shifting the business of law
• Why the rebrand marks a new chapter for Between the Briefs, not a reset

This episode is a milestone, a reintroduction and a reminder that the future of legal innovation will not be built by technology alone. It will be built by people who know how to use it well.

Quotes:

1. “We’ve hit over 75 episodes now. We’ve had some amazing guests.”
2. “It’s not about matching that pace. It’s actually about being methodical and thoughtful about how you adopt, when you adopt, how you change.”
3. “AI is there to assist, free up space, allow you to do the job that you spent a lot of time preparing to be brilliant at, which is exercise judgment.”
4. “You can use AI to optimize, change the way things are done, but you’re still working with people.”
5. “Sometimes you want to say a million things, but the best thing that you can say can live in three paragraphs or three pages instead of 10.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Personal injury law has a lot of big promises, big ads and big firms. Nicole Brenecki is more interested in what actually works.

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Nicole, Founding Partner at Jodré Brenecki LLP, for a candid conversation on personal injury litigation, boutique firm strategy, client service, New York court delays, fraud scrutiny, AI and why efficiency matters more than size.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why firm size can become a marketing gimmick when service breaks down
• Why Nicole’s firm files suit on most cases immediately after intake
• How small firms can use speed and coordination as a competitive advantage
• Why New York’s fragmented court system makes client expectation-setting so important
• How multilingual advocacy helps clients better understand the legal process
• Why hiring for intelligence and instinct can matter more than resume polish
• How Nicole uses AI for narrow tasks without giving up the personal touch
• Why judges with overloaded dockets need clear, concise arguments
• Why legal professionals need to cut through inefficiency instead of building careers around it

The crux of this episode: Building a firm with zero capital into a small but sharp personal injury practice that handles hundreds of cases with speed and intention. 

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:05 Nicole’s Media Work and Legal Commentary
01:29 Preparing for Live TV Legal Analysis
03:28 Nicole’s International Legal Background
03:53 Comparing Statutory and Precedent-Based Legal Systems
05:45 Explaining the Legal Process to Multilingual Clients
07:09 How Personal Injury Litigation Has Changed
07:18 Why Nicole Files Suit on Most Cases Right Away
08:45 Keeping Up With New York’s Court Rules
11:03 Small Firm vs. Big Firm Client Service
11:36 Why Bigger Does Not Always Mean Better
14:48 Nicole’s Hiring Philosophy
14:58 Why Intelligence Beats Resume Obsession
16:44 The Skills Nicole Believes Are Hard to Teach
17:34 Developing Litigation Instinct
20:39 How Nicole Uses Technology in Her Firm
20:51 Why AI Is Useful, But Limited
23:31 Nicole’s Intake Process and Fraud Red Flags
23:57 Why Fraud Scrutiny Is Hitting Ethical Firms Too
29:21 Multilingual Advocacy and Client Expectations
29:43 Why Language Is a Tool for Trust
31:40 Underrated Litigation Skills
31:58 Why Brevity Matters in Court
35:58 Nicole’s Work in Music and New York Tracks
38:47 What Event Production Taught Her About Business
40:28 Nicole’s Long-Term Motivation
42:39 Nicole’s Hot Take: Legal Inefficiency Hurts Everyone
43:59 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “It’s just a marketing gimmick that you get more with a greater size. Very often you get less with a greater size because there’s just so many people and the work is so compartmentalized.”
2. “If you’re intelligent, you can learn anything.”
3. “Use AI as a tool and not as a replacement of you.”
4. “Stop going in circles for your own benefit. Try cutting through the inefficiency.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Paralegals are the people attorneys rely on when deadlines are tight, documents are moving fast and the work needs to get done right.

But they’re often treated as background support.

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Christina Carter, Senior Manager of Firm-Wide Paralegal Management at Venable, for a practical conversation on paralegal leadership, legal operations, team culture, generational dynamics, AI adoption and what law firms often miss about the people who keep the work moving.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why paralegal management should be treated as strategic operations
• How Christina supports 80+ professionals across practice groups and career stages
• Why law firms need to recognize paralegal work before people burn out or leave
• How proactive staffing helps prevent retention problems before they start
• How onboarding should be shaped around the person, the practice group and the culture
• Why AI should be used as an assistant, not treated as the leader of the work
• How paralegals can use the “one step ahead” mindset to become indispensable
• Why treating people like humans is still the best management principle out there

Strong legal teams are not built only around attorneys. They are built around the people who anticipate needs, hold the work together and make everyone else look better.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:27 What Firm-Wide Paralegal Management Actually Means
01:39 Supporting 80+ Paralegal Professionals Across Venable
03:23 Why Christina Is the Gears of the Law Firm
04:26 Christina’s Path From Aspiring Attorney to Paralegal Leadership
04:51 Starting at Skadden and Learning Law Firms From the Inside
07:52 Why Paralegals Do Not Get Enough Credit
08:41 How Venable Recognizes Paralegal Contributions
11:40 When Law Firms Need a Paralegal Manager
11:55 Why Staffing Requires One-Step-Ahead Thinking
14:21 Managing Across Generations
14:51 How Community Bridges Generational Gaps
17:31 How Christina Onboards New Paralegals
17:55 Why Training Has to Be Individualized
20:38 Christina’s Management Principles
21:09 Treating People Like Humans, Not Headcount
24:17 How AI Is Changing Paralegal Work
24:39 Why Technology Should Be Your Assistant
27:38 Coaching Paralegals Through AI Anxiety
28:34 Why Human Judgment Still Matters
32:55 Advice for New Paralegals
33:25 The One-Step-Ahead Mindset
37:56 What Dance Taught Christina About Community
38:27 Why Relationships Matter in Legal Careers
40:54 Christina’s Hot Take: Legal is Having an Evolution Moment
43:35 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “My role is very much on a strategic level.”
2. “Treat every individual as an individual and see them as such.”
3. “Use that technology to be your assistant versus being the leader of the work that you do.”
4. “Not knowing about it, not learning about it, not becoming comfortable with it isn’t going to make it go away.”
5. “You really need to think about things from a one-step-ahead mindset.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Litigation does not begin when a lawsuit is filed. By then, the story has often already been written in contracts, emails, missed deadlines and the very human decision to wait because “maybe it’ll blow over.”

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Kat Mateo, Counsel of Litigation at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, for a practical, lively conversation about what clients, founders, business owners and legal teams often misunderstand about litigation.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why clients should involve attorneys before disputes escalate
• How litigators can spot risks in deals that transactional teams may miss
• Why most cases are won or lost on papers, not dramatic courtroom moments
• How emotional emails, sarcasm and jokes can become serious evidence
• Why discovery now reaches work emails, personal phones, WhatsApp, Signal, Slack and social media
• Why attorneys can manage bad facts, but not surprise facts
• How storytelling helps juries understand complex commercial disputes

Good litigation strategy is not just about fighting well. It is about preventing problems early, documenting carefully, communicating wisely and knowing when to call the lawyer before things get expensive.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:09 Kat’s Journey From the Dominican Republic to Litigation
03:44 How Culture and Community Shape Kat’s Advocacy
05:04 The Pressure and Responsibility of Being First-Gen
07:08 Staying Hungry Through a Hard Journey
08:50 Kat’s Advice for First-Gen and Immigrant Law Students
10:52 Why Litigation Starts Before the Lawsuit
11:16 The Biggest Mistake Clients Make Before Litigation
15:01 What People Misunderstand About Litigators
15:36 Why Most Cases Never Go to Trial
16:41 Why Emotional Emails Can Wreck a Case
18:06 The Courtroom Poster Test for Client Communications
21:22 Why Clients Should Never Hide Bad Facts
25:16 Why Storytelling Matters in Litigation
25:47 The Difference Between Truth and What You Can Prove
30:15 How Kat Approaches Storytelling for Juries
34:38 Kat’s Love-Hate Relationship With AI
35:33 The AI Privilege Trap Clients Need to Understand
38:51 What Kat Learned Inside a Judge’s Chambers
39:34 How Judges Really Approach Decisions
43:55 Kat’s Hot Take on Technology and Lawyers
44:48 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “Usually cases are not hard because the law is hard. They’re hard because of the decisions the clients have made before litigation even commenced.”
2. “The biggest mistake that I see clients make is that they don’t involve attorneys early enough.”
3. “Most cases are won or lost on papers.”
4. “I can deal with bad facts. I can’t deal with surprise facts.”
5. “Technology is changing what things look like, but it doesn’t mean that lawyers go away.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Leadership in law is often treated like something that comes after the promotion, after the title or after someone hands you a team and assumes you magically know what to do with them.

Nicole Lester Arrindell sees it differently. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Nicole, Head of State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs and Associate General Counsel at Equitable, for a wide-ranging conversation on servant leadership, legal education, public service, in-house counsel, mentorship, and what it actually means to lead in the legal profession.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why leadership is not about a title, but about how you show up in any role
• How Nicole’s South Side Chicago upbringing shaped her commitment to service
• Why the people closest to the issue often understand it better than anyone else
• How in-house lawyers can become business partners instead of the “department of no”
• Why “soft skills” should be treated as core legal skills
• What law schools should teach about client relationships, team management, and communication
• Why students need to practice presenting ideas, even if they never plan to litigate

This episode is a reminder that legal excellence is more about judgment, empathy, communication, influence and the ability to help people get where they are trying to go, than about sheer knowledge. 

Highlights:

00:59 Welcome to Between the Briefs
01:36 Meeting Nicole Lester Arrindell
03:04 Nicole’s Career & The Through-Line of Service
04:45 Community Service on Chicago’s South Side
07:37 Teaching the Next Generation of Lawyers
10:19 Everyday People Can Be Everyday Leaders
12:12 The Kind of Leadership That’s Actually Valuable 
12:36 Nicole’s Career GPS: Goals, Purpose and Skills
13:57 Why Self-Reflection Matters in Leadership Development
16:24 Lessons From Legal Aid and Chief of Staff Roles
16:54 Why the People Closest to the Issue Know It Best
18:45 Legal Leadership Means Figuring It Out Together
19:21 Nicole’s Role in State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs
21:48 Why “Soft Skills” Are Really Core Skills
24:29 Nicole’s Work as an Adjunct Professor
24:38 Bringing Practical Lawyering Into the Classroom
28:18 What Nicole Hopes Her Students Take With Them
30:42 Being a Partner to the Client, Not the Department of No
33:04 Leading the Metropolitan Black Bar Association
36:01 Nicole’s Journey With the MBBA
39:24 Protecting the Rule of Law
40:42 Leadership as Practice, Not Position
41:35 Nicole’s Hot Take: AI Fluency
42:32 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “Everyday people can be everyday leaders.”
2. “You don’t have to have the big title or the fancy position in order to demonstrate leadership.”
3. “The people closest to the issue understood it better than I could.”
4. “We’re not the department of no. We’re the department of “let’s figure it out.”
5. “The fact that you were a great litigator does not now mean you can manage 20 of them.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Everyone claims AI will revolutionize legal, but Kara Peterson and Richard DiBona want to fix the systemic bottlenecks that have broken the system for decades.

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Kara and Richard, cofounders of Descrybe, an AI company focused on making the law easier to find, understand, and verify. Their story began during the pandemic, when a personal legal issue pushed them into the frustrating reality of trying to understand and access the law as nonlawyers. That experience became the starting point for a platform designed to make legal information more accessible, accurate and affordable.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why the justice gap is fundamentally an operational supply-and-demand mismatch.
• How inaccurate AI outputs could trigger harsh judicial regulations.
• Why Descrybe moved from D2C pro se tools to empowering legal aid providers.
• How issue-level citation analysis outperforms traditional "good law/bad law" tools.
• Why high-quality legal tech does not require enterprise pricing tags.

This episode is a grounded look at what responsible legal AI can actually do: not replace lawyers, not magically fix the system overnight, but give under-resourced legal professionals better tools to serve more people.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:09 Kara and Richard’s Unusual Founder Story

02:21 Why Access to Justice Matters in Legal AI

02:51 AI, Legal Demand, and the Justice Gap

04:29 How AI Could Make the Gap Smaller or Bigger

05:10 Richard’s Software Engineering Background

06:58 Building From Harvard’s Case Law Access Project

07:33 Why Access to Justice Is Like a Public Health Issue

08:41 The Hallucination Problem in Legal AI

09:46 Why Descrybe Builds for Attorneys and Legal Aid Providers

13:02 Why Legal Research Is More Complex Than It Looks

13:27 The Moment They Learned About Shepardizing

14:36 Why Legal Librarians Matter So Much

16:29 Issue-Level Citation Analysis

19:03 The Four Levels of AI Accuracy in Legal Research

21:40 Why Foundation Models Will Not Eat Everything

23:47 How Descrybe’s Anthropic Collaboration Happened

25:36 What the Claude for Legal Launch Changed

27:49 Why Courts Need Better Hallucination-Checking Tools

29:31 How Descrybe’s Brief Checker Works

31:23 Scaling After the Anthropic Collaboration

33:22 Why Fair Pricing Matters in Legal Tech

36:10 Advice for AI Founders

39:03 Why the Legal AI Ecosystem Matters

40:03 Why Kara Does Not Believe in Declaring War on Incumbents

42:19 Kara and Richard’s Hot Takes on Legal AI

45:49 Final Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “We can’t “human” our way out of this problem. It’s just too labor intensive, there’s too much need, the cost structures don’t work. People can’t afford lawyers.”
2. “AI could either make the justice gap smaller or bigger.”
3. “We realized the better we could serve people serving the people who need to be served is where we could actually have the most impact.”
4. “Legal tech is really weird. You don’t have to trade really good tech for fair pricing.”
5. “Not everyone needs these gigantic end-to-end solutions.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

A few months ago, people were asking whether not using AI could ever be malpractice. Now, that question feels a lot less theoretical.
In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Shannon Boettjer, partner at Jaspan Schlesinger Narendran LLP, for a sharp, practical conversation on AI governance, legal risk, and what it means to build defensible systems before technology decisions turn into lawsuits.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why the AI conversation shifted from “should we use it?” to “how do we use it responsibly?”
• How the knife vs. kitchen analogy helps firms understand different levels of AI complexity
• Why AI governance should start with a risk-benefit analysis, not a checkbox list
• Why hallucinations are better understood as common side effects, not random surprises
• How “parallel from the start” can help firms avoid bad habits that compound at scale
• Why AI literacy is only the starting point, and AI fluency is the real goal
• Why lawyers need to understand the tools their teams, co-counsel, and vendors are using
• Why machines require a zero-trust approach, while humans require trust but verify

This episode is a clear-eyed look at legal AI adoption and the actual governance work required when lawyers start putting powerful tools into everyday practice.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:19 Is It Malpractice Not to Use AI?

02:56 AI as a Tool: The Knife vs. Kitchen Analogy

05:04 Why Basic AI Skills Are Becoming Expected

07:17 Today’s Design Decisions Become Tomorrow’s Liability Theories

07:36 The Pharmaceutical Lens for AI Governance

09:40 Why EDRM Is an Underused AI Governance Framework

10:18 Choosing the Right Tool for the Right Pain Point

13:10 Why Human Review Still Matters

14:50 AI Literacy vs. AI Fluency

16:21 Lessons From Legal Week

16:43 Common Side Effects and Rare but Serious Risks

18:36 The “Parallel From the Start” Framework

20:16 Why “Grab It and Go” AI Adoption Creates Risk

20:47 The First Question Every AI Strategy Should Ask

23:51 Why End Users Need to Be in the AI Conversation

26:02 Data Governance, Privacy and Cybersecurity in AI Use

29:48 How Firms Should Assess Their AI Maturity

33:17 Why Old Technology Problems Keep Reappearing

37:17 Applying Existing Legal Duties to AI

38:03 Trust Humans, Zero Trust Machines

41:05 Where Legal AI Is Heading Next

47:18 The Cognitive Cost of Working With Machines

49:31 Shannon’s Hot Take: Personal Knowledge Management

52:02 The Swiss Cheese Problem in AI Governance

54:03 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “AI is a tool, and I think of it in terms of something like a knife.”
2. “Every layer of AI potentially solves a problem and potentially creates risks.”
3. “Start with literacy with the end goal of being fluent.”
4. “Trust but verify your human colleagues. I would hold a different standard for working with machines: zero trust.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Everyone wants AI to make legal cheaper. But what if that’s the wrong promise?
In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Tim Fox, Chief Data and AI Officer at Ogletree Deakins, for a sharp, practical conversation on what AI adoption really looks like when you are trying to scale it across a large law firm.
What You’ll Learn:

• Why build vs. buy is rarely as simple as “building is cheaper”
• How internal tools create long-term support, maintenance and upgrade costs
• Why legal is not a rational economic actor when it comes to technology adoption
• How firms can measure adoption through actual use and attorney feedback
• Why shadow AI, hallucinations and privilege risks make governance non-negotiable
• How peer-to-peer learning moves lawyers faster than another mandatory webinar
• Why law schools need to teach AI literacy before students arrive at firms
• Why AI may increase quality, capacity and profits without reducing legal costs

This episode gets into the messy middle of legal AI: not the hype, not the doomsday predictions, but the actual work of making attorneys use tools responsibly, strategically and well.


Highlights:
00:00 Introduction

01:17 Tim’s Journey From Technology to Law

04:01 How Legal Tech Led to “Legalmation”

06:21 The Build vs. Buy Question in Legal AI

09:46 Why Legal Tech Vendors Struggle to Sell to Law Firms

10:30 Legal Is Not a Rational Economic Decision-Maker

14:41 How Vendors Should Actually Pitch Lawyers

18:50 What a Chief Data and AI Officer Really Do 

19:02 Scaling AI Strategy Across Ogletree Deakins

23:36 Why Product Demos Beat Pitch Decks

26:59 How Tim Measures AI Adoption

29:00 Balancing Leadership With Hands-On Innovation

31:28 What Law Schools Are Getting Wrong About AI

36:03 Building AI Governance at Scale

39:12 The Hallucination Risk That Keeps Firms Awake

42:52 Why Peer-to-Peer AI Education Works

46:39 Tim’s Hot Take: The Truth About Legal AI Costs

48:25 Closing Thoughts


Quotes:

1. “Building it yourself isn’t always cheaper. It’s not always easier. It’s almost never faster.”
2. “Legal is not a rational economic actor. You can have the best tool, the best solution out there, and attorneys can still say, no, we don’t want it.”
3. “Show me your product. I don’t want to just see your PowerPoint.”
4. “I don’t think anybody has cracked change management in law firms, and AI is change management.”
5. “AI doesn’t always save time. It makes the work better and it allows you to do more.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Legal AI has no shortage of promises. Now, the real challenge is figuring out which ones are worth adopting. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Colin Levy, General Counsel at Malbek, legal tech author, and educator, to discuss how lawyers can adopt AI thoughtfully without sacrificing professional judgment.
What You’ll Learn:

• Why the biggest obstacle to AI adoption is often lawyer mindset, not the technology itself
• How to distinguish meaningful AI capabilities from legal tech marketing hype
• Why testing AI with real legal workflows is more valuable than watching polished product demonstrations
• How to build realistic expectations for AI by treating it as an assistant, not an infallible expert
• Why human judgment remains the defining skill that AI cannot replace
• How junior lawyers can develop confidence in evaluating AI-generated work despite having less practical experience
• Why legal tech vendors should focus on education and partnership instead of overselling AI
• How law schools can prepare future lawyers by embedding AI literacy throughout legal education rather than treating it as a standalone subject

This episode explores how lawyers can make smarter technology decisions, and build a future where legal expertise and artificial intelligence work together, not against each other. 
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction 
02:30 Colin's Journey Into Law and Technology
06:58 Navigating AI Adoption in the Legal Industry
11:30 Why Lawyers Are Embracing AI More Cautiously
17:19 Cutting Through AI Hype With Practical Legal Tech
23:13 Teaching AI and Judgment to the Next Generation of Lawyers
29:06 Writing, Creativity, and AI as a Legal Assistant
35:46 The Human Skills AI Can't Replace
37:07 Hot Takes & Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

1. “Technology, as I've long recognized, and like you both recognize as well, doesn't hold back and doesn't wait for any industry or anyone or anything to keep up with it. It just continues to march on forward and evolve.” 
2. “AI is not self-aware, it is not thinking the way you and I think, it is not reasoning, it doesn't understand context beyond what you provide it with. And so, you can't think about it in human terms.”
3. “There is an incumbent need for AI to be part of the curriculum of legal education. Perhaps from the very first year, but I would argue that it shouldn't be taught in isolation. It should be taught as sort of a cross disciplinary type of thing.” 
4. “I think for law firms, as well as for legal departments, frankly, who are also buyers of legal tech, the most effective way to get through to them is to almost in some ways consult with them, build a relationship with them, understand their needs. Understand where they're coming from and educate them in a non-salesy way with content, with resources, and take things slow rather than foist the things upon them.”
5. “Humans being so fickle, so imperfect, flawed and emotional - these are all things that technology historically and continues to really struggle with, and I don't see that changing anytime soon or ever. So I dare say that, the humanness element is something that technology can never conquer.”

Between The Briefs is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so