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This week, we welcome longtime friend and legal tech veteran Ken Crutchfield, founder of Spring Forward Consulting. Ken brings his extensive experience from major legal information vendors like Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, and Wolters Kluwer into a timely and candid discussion about the current phase of artificial intelligence in the legal industry. Comparing today’s generative AI surge to the American Industrial Revolution, Ken describes this moment as the “Wild West” era—full of promise, hype, overinvestment, and, critically, few rules.

Drawing historical parallels to railroads, oil barons, and steel magnates, Ken illustrates how unchecked growth and technological innovation can outpace regulation until market forces or policy catch up. He notes the resurgence of large-scale infrastructure investment, now not in steel or steam, but in compute power and data centers. Just as J.P. Morgan helped stabilize chaotic markets in the 19th century, Ken suggests today’s AI frontier needs a similar recalibration, and possibly new rules of engagement.

The conversation shifts toward the practical realities of legal tech adoption. Ken emphasizes that law firms’ expectations of perfection often collide with startups’ resource limitations. Vendors need to rethink how they engage with firms by building credibility, focusing on integration, and delivering actual use-case wins. Firms, in turn, must move beyond the billable hour mindset and consider new metrics like Return on Experience. Adoption is no longer optional, it’s strategic, competitive, and increasingly client-driven.

Ken also unpacks the looming implications of content rights and data ownership in the age of AI. If firms aren’t investing in data hygiene now, they risk being left behind when more sophisticated AI tools demand clean, structured, and secure datasets. AI isn’t just about automating workflows, it’s about being ready to plug into a future where interoperability, metadata, and permissions will dictate who thrives and who gets leapfrogged.

Finally, Ken calls for scenario planning: not just reacting to what OpenAI or Anthropic might do next, but anticipating it. Firms and vendors alike should double down on what works, define success before launching new projects, and invest in meaningful adoption strategies. In a world moving this fast, it’s no longer about who gets there first, it’s about who gets there with a plan.

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[Special Thanks to ⁠Legal Technology Hub⁠ for their sponsoring this episode.]

Blue Sky: ⁠⁠@geeklawblog.com⁠⁠ ⁠⁠@marlgeb⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading The Wild West of AI: A Legal Tech Reckoning with Ken Crutchfield

In this episode of The Geek in Review, hosts Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert have an illuminating discussion with Christina Wojcik, the new Managing Director of Corporate for LexFusion. Christina has over 20 years of experience pioneering innovation in the legal services and technology space.

The conversation covers Christina’s diverse background and journey into legal tech, including formative experiences at companies like Pangea3, IBM, Seal Software, and Citi. She shares key lessons learned about the importance of visionary leadership, solving real client problems, and embracing a fearless, entrepreneurial spirit.

Christina provides insights into top pain points for legal departments today, especially at highly regulated organizations like major banks. She discusses the cautious approach many are taking with emergent technologies like generative AI—treating it like a “monster behind the door” to be carefully studied before fully unleashing.

Christina advocates for “failing fast” when testing innovations, allowing for rapid iteration in a safe sandbox environment. She explains her rationale for joining LexFusion and how she hopes to leverage her well-rounded expertise to drive value for legal tech providers and clients alike.

The conversation concludes with Christina’s predictions for the legal industry’s evolution in areas like AI adoption, CLM consolidation, and new service delivery models. She provides a fascinating insider perspective on the future of legal innovation.

Listen on mobile platforms:  ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ |  ⁠Spotify⁠ | YouTube (NEW!)

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Voicemail: 713-487-7821
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Unleashing the Legal Monster Behind the Door – LexFusion’s Christina Wojcik (TGIR Ep. 221)

After 25 years at Liberty Mutual, Bob Taylor began his new adventure in legal services when he joined Deloitte’s Legal Business Services (LBS) as the Managing Director a few weeks ago. His in-house experience and desire to help create innovative and creative ways of providing legal business services make him a perfect fit to join his new colleagues, Valerie Dickerson, Legal Business Services Partner at Deloitte Tax LLP in Washington, DC, and Mark Ross, Principal at Deloitte Legal Business Services in Los Angeles.
We discuss Bob’s move over to Deloitte, along with the holistic approach LBS is taking with understanding its client’s entire business, and providing multiple services where the overall service is greater than the individual sum of its parts. We also ask each of them to look into their crystal balls and project how they see the Big Four Professional Services, like Deloitte, changing the legal environment over the next decade.

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Information Inspirations
Our friend Kristin Hodgins asked a very interesting question on Twitter about how to start a start-up when you’re not wealthy or have a partner to rely upon.
You don’t have to be a young lawyer to enjoy the insights of young lawyers. The ABA Young Lawyer Division launched its new Young Lawyer Rising Podcast this week and the first two episodes cover Civility and being a young lawyer in the era of COVID.
We all know there’s some hype around big tech, AI, and ethics. Well, MIT Tech Review gives us “50-ish words you can use to show you care without incriminating yourself.”
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Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Contact us anytime by tweeting us at @gebauerm or @glambert. Or, you can call The Geek in Review hotline at 713-487-7270 and leave us a message. You can email us at geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com. As always, the great music you hear on the podcast is from Jerry David DeCicca.
Transcript

Continue Reading The Geek in Review Ep 113 – Bob Taylor, Valerie Dickerson, and Mark Ross on Deloitte Legal Business Services

In our 40th Episode, Greg and Marlene interview Erin Levine, an attorney and founder/CEO of Hello Divorce, a service that makes divorce more human and accessible by offering legal help and wellness support throughout the process of dissolving a marriage.   Offered in California, Hello Divorce offers access to resources and tools and different service levels, from basic to concierge to a la carte access to independent fixed fee attorneys.  Erin highlights that the legal process can be confusing, dis-empowering and expensive and that Hello Divorce is a necessary guide to help people navigate the system in a way that doesn’t destroy them financially and emotionally.  While divorce representation is a consistent legal need, Erin highlights that there are many other parts of the process that are also necessary which don’t require attorney skills.  She leverages various forms of process improvement including outsourcing, automation, smart contracts to make the service application scalable.

Part of what is interesting about the discussion (and there are lots of interesting parts) is that Erin stands the idea of aggressive and hostile divorce action on its head.  While Erin has critics, she maintains the benefit of taking down level of tension and fear between the parties.  In fact, 92% of divorces started with hello Divorce have concluded without having to refer out to full rep attorneys. (10:17 mark)

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Information Inspirations

According to  Aliqae Geraci from Cornell and Shannon L. Farrell from University of Minnesota wrote an article entitled “Normalize Negotiations!” we teach librarians a lot about management skills, but we’ve lacked in teaching them basic skills like salary and promotion negotiation skills. There is a place for the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) to teach their members these skills. (4:05 mark)Continue Reading Ep. 40 – Erin Levine on the Efficiency of Divorce as a Service

(This is part 4 of a 4 part series.  You can download the entire SOLP 2013 below.)

Image [CC] – Jeffness

The newer the legal pricing role, the more likely it is to be defensively motivated. By defensive, I mean the pricing role is narrowly focused on holding the line on profits. The more mature…

(This is part 3 of a 4 part series.  You can download the entire SOLP 2013 here.)

For the last fifty or sixty years, law firms have used the infamous hourly billing rate pricing model almost exclusively. More importantly, during this era they had the luxury of constantly raising prices under growing demand. This…

(This is part 2 of a 4 part series.  You can download the entire SOLP 2013 here.)

In-house legal departments are now facing the same cost savings pressures as other corporate departments. In the past “legal” was able to largely avoid this conversation with leadership. They would dodge the question by insisting that they…