Nicole Black. Survey after survey shows that the majority of legal professionals now have artificial intelligence tools available in their workplaces. Most recently, according to data from the 2026 ILTA Technology Survey, 94% of law firms now use or are exploring generative AI tools, up from 80% last year. As…
The coverage of a televised, livestreamed trial like the Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy occupies the post-Depp v. Heard, post-Karen Read world where viewers no longer watch a trial from an objective perspective. They spend countless hours overanalyzing cross-examinations; they diagnose witnesses between TikTok advertisements; and they render nonunanimous verdicts in comment sections long before the actual jury has even been sequestered.
Never did I imagine that a murder case I prosecuted with many twists and turns—including a death threat against me—would lead to the use of a novel legal theory.
If I had to choose a word to describe the past year in legal technology, it would be “exponential.” We’ve seen exponential increases across the profession. From technology advancement, legal technology investment, legal AI company growth and constant change across the profession, so much has happened. And with so much money pouring into the legal technology industry in such a short time, it’s been hard to keep up.
Artificial intelligence is making legal writing cheaper, faster and less embarrassing. Its first achievement won’t be a flowering of legal thought. It’ll be the elimination of drudgery: typos, ghostly cross-references, inconsistent uses of supposedly mandatory "shalls" and defined terms that mutate from section to section.
The terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, had a profound lasting effect on our legal system and our society. As the first major foreign attack on American soil since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it caused a fundamental shift in law enforcement.
True-crime media often comes in one of two flavors: defendant-centric or victim-centric. When the focus is on those accused of a crime, procedural aspects of the case are spotlighted. Was evidence illegally obtained? Was there bias among witnesses? Was the defense attorney ineffective? There’s usually a tried-and-tested menu of legal processes and pitfalls to choose from.
Every conversation about artificial intelligence in law eventually arrives at the same destination: efficiency. Faster drafting, faster research, faster turnaround. To be clear, this productivity narrative is real, but a concerning story is emerging that firm leaders are not yet taking seriously enough.
