Good morning and happy Monday.
While many firms are still in conflict about AI tools...
Or feel they don't have enough time to experiment yet...
Some lawyers built their own tools over the weekend.
And no, they're not tech people or vendors.
One PI firm owner wrote:
"I’m tinkering with AI outbound callers to set up claims and AI reception for after hours service.
I’d like an agent to pull reports for me and give me a morning briefing.
We’re trying to solve some bottlenecks in the pre-lit process.”
Another lawyer said they’re running a locally hosted AI model in-office.
Automatic file renaming.
Instant document Q&A.
Medical record red flag detection.
Slack-based AI assistant connected to email and calendars.
We also heard from Matt Margolis.
He provides outside general counsel for a few companies.
“There are so many dumb tools that no one wants to build for lawyers because there is no money in it.
Built one this weekend — an internal engagement letter generator/tracker.
Would it make money? No. Does it make my life easier? Absolutely.”
And another lawyer said that he “vibe coded a dashboard” to find empty CRM fields faster than exporting a CSV.
You may have been catching up on last week's tasks over the weekend.
But some lawyers are building dashboards in their spare time.
They're not tech nerds... but they're tired of friction in their firm.
And it brings up a few uncomfortable questions.
If a solo or 5-lawyer shop can build this in a weekend…
What excuse does a 15-lawyer firm have?
Now... before you think this means “become a programmer.”
No, that's not what we're saying.
But it does mean leverage is becoming customizable.
If you could wave a wand and have one internal tool built for your firm…
What would it do?
Flag missed follow-ups?
Auto-generate engagement letters?
Summarize medical records?
Track which files have no communication logs?
Build you a 7:30am “what matters today” briefing?
We'd like to know what's most important for you to fix in your firm right now.
And what bottlenecks you’d eliminate first.
Hit reply and tell us what tools would help you the most.
Because we're seeing more lawyers work with vendors to make custom tools for them.
Or they're simply logging on and solving their own problems.
More soon.
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Until next time,
-The Legal Brief