What’s Going to Happen When the AI Dust Settles? Ft. Kyle Poe

Lawyers are always going to be important. What makes them relevant, however, is another question altogether. And, we attempt to answer it in the latest episode of Between the Briefs by Steno. Hosts, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens, sit down with Kyle Poe, Vice President of Legal Innovation Strategy at Legora, to explore how generative AI is reshaping law firm economics, fee structures and competitive advantage. From building practical AI workflows to understanding the data moat that will differentiate tomorrow's legal leaders, Kyle shares actionable strategies for firms ready to move beyond hourly billing and compete in an AI-driven legal landscape.

Lawyers are always going to be important. What makes them relevant, however, is another question altogether. In the latest episode of Between the Briefs by Steno as hosts, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens, sit down with Kyle Poe, Vice President of Legal Innovation Strategy at Legora, to explore the balance of traditional legal skills and legal services evolution in the age of AI.

What You’ll Learn:

How to build organizational AI literacy without disrupting existing revenue streams
The data moat as the new competitive advantage
How to reprice fixed-fee work intelligently using AI
Why skepticism about AI is actually a healthy signal

The strategic practice areas to target first for AI implementation

How the legal industry will structurally reshape in the next decade

Tune in for the ultimate guide on staying relevant and staying ahead!

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:55 Kyle’s Journey from Litigation Partner to Legal AI Pioneer

07:45 How AI’s Disrupting Law Firm Billing Models

11:25 The New Kid in Town: Fixed-Fee Models

18:10 The Importance of Internal Champions for AI Adoption

19:45 Prioritize Muscle Memory Before Complex Workflow Automation

26:05 Strategic Practice Areas for AI Implementation

29:36 Learning from History: e-Discovery, AI’s Future Impact

37:00 Legal Tech's Sustainable Competitive Advantage

42:37 Kyle’s Hot Take: Why Traditional Skills Still Matter

44:55 Key Takeaways & Closing Thought

Quotes:

“At the top tier of the market, oftentimes, corporations are not picking the lowest cost provider - they're actually picking the highest quality provider, and so if you can use AI to deliver higher quality results, then you're not going to hurt yourself on the price side of the equation."
"There are two elements of learning that firms need to do. The first is what I would call muscle memory - creating AI literacy and fluency throughout your organization so AI is just another tool in the lawyer's toolkit. The second layer is building reusable workflows, where you take the knowledge and experience of attorneys and build that into applications that can be rerun over and over again."
“The total addressable market of legal is peanuts compared to the broader enterprise market, and legal carries specific risks. Those same institutional barriers to entry that are unique to legal have made it such that bigger players have not entered it, and I think those barriers will persist.”
One of the hottest takes would be that traditional skills aren't gonna matter anymore, but I actually think they will. When the dust settles, the world will be different, and some firms will leapfrog others by investing in AI and building out workflows. But the reasons you hire attorneys, the judgment, and the incentive structures around picking top tier firms aren't gonna change fundamentally."

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