Fringe Legal Abhijat Saraswat

In this episode of the Fringe Legal podcast, host Ab interviews Stefan Ciesla, the co-founder and CEO of Ayora ai, a startup that focuses on helping law firms manage their revenues and improve the revenue management skills of fee earners such as attorneys and lawyers.
Steven discusses the problem Ayora is solving in the legal industry and the role of lawyers as revenue managers. He explains that fee earners often have to make revenue management decisions throughout a matter's lifecycle, but they may not have the necessary skills or focus on revenue management. Ayora's smart lockup assistant helps fee earners by scanning a firm's data related to matters and providing recommendations on monitoring scope, estimates, budgets, resourcing, outside counsel guidelines, and billing. The assistant pre-drafts emails and provides relevant information to make the decision-making process easier and more efficient. Steven also addresses the challenge of balancing AI and machine learning with human control and building trust in the recommendations made. He emphasizes that Ayora prioritizes transparency and user consent and never takes any action without the attorney's knowledge.
Key takeaways:
Fee earners in law firms, such as attorneys and lawyers, often need to make revenue management decisions throughout a matter's lifecycle but may not have the necessary skills or focus on revenue management.Ayora's smart lockup assistant helps fee earners monitor scope, estimates, budgets, resourcing, outside counsel guidelines, and billing, providing recommendations and pre-drafting emails to make decision-making easier and more efficient.Ayora prioritizes transparency and user consent, ensuring that attorneys have control over the recommendations made by the system.Uncommon learning The legal industry may be missing out on billions of dollars of additional value due to suboptimal revenue management decisions.
Podcast show notes
00:02 Introduction to the Fringe Legal Podcast
00:29 Guest Introduction: Stefan Ciesla, Co-founder and CEO of Ayora
00:58 Steven's Background and Ayora's Founding Team
02:07 The Unique Blend of Ayora's Founding Team
02:55 Understanding Ayora's Mission and Purpose
04:24 The Role of Lawyers as Revenue Managers
04:43 The Impact of Decision-Making on Revenue Management
08:28 Introducing Ayora's Smart Lockup Assistant
20:20 The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Decision-Making
27:05 The Impact of Fixed Fee Work on Revenue Management
30:12 Conclusion and Contact Information

In this episode of the Fringe Legal podcast, host Ab chats with Conan Hines, Director of Legal Technology at Fried Frank, about building a tech-enabled culture in law firms. Conan shares insights from his previous roles at Clifford Chance and other law firms, highlighting the importance of understanding the role of legal technology and the psychology and behavior of users when it comes to successful adoption and change management.
Conan emphasizes the need for building trust with lawyers and finding those who are curious and open to tech-enabled solutions. He suggests starting small with bite-sized engagements to build trust over time. He also discusses the value of creating a foundation for tech adoption and balancing short-term impact with long-term goals.
The conversation delves into the role of vendors in adoption, with Conan highlighting the need for a strong partnership and a transparent framework for success. He stresses the importance of vendors having a real adoption strategy and sharing learnings from what has worked in the past.
Ab and Conan also discuss the challenge of incentives and tracking adoption. They explore the idea of integrating technology training into legal training to emphasize the value and importance of tech skills for lawyers. Ultimately, the key to successful adoption and building a tech-enabled culture in law firms lies in trust, continuous communication, and demonstrating the value of technology.
Key takeaways:
Building a tech-enabled culture requires understanding the role of legal technology and the psychology and behavior of users.Trust is essential for successful adoption. Lawyers need to believe that tech solutions can help them.Adoption plans should be simplified and tailored to individual users.Integration of technology training into legal training can help emphasize the value of tech skills for lawyers.Vendors should have a strong adoption strategy and share learnings from past successes.Uncommon learning:
Tech adoption requires a partnership between law firms and vendors, with a focus on transparency and continuous communication.

While technology races ahead, improving legal training and education has lagged behind. Law schools excel at teaching students the law, but critical and practical skills development is often lacking. With the traditional law firm apprenticeship model fading, junior lawyers frequently lack opportunities to gain hands-on experience.
Abdi Shayesteh, founder and CEO of the legal training platform AltaClaro, is on a mission to close this practical skills gap. Frustrated by the inefficiencies he experienced firsthand as a junior lawyer, Abdi has reinvented legal education and training. AltaClaro leverages experiential learning techniques rooted in education science to provide associates with hands-on practice on simulated legal matters.
Show Notes
[00:01:14] Abdi's early entrepreneurial experiences managing a cafe and starting a t-shirt business in college[00:08:02] Why Abdi decided to start another company after previous exits[00:10:25] Overview of what AltaClaro does[00:17:38] Issues with the traditional law firm training model[00:23:00] Explanation of the learning science principles AltaClaro leverages[00:34:59] Training trends Abdi sees law firms requesting for 2023

As part of our series of examining Generative AI in Practice, Fringe Legal spoke with Stephanie Corey, founder of legal operations consultancy UpLevel Ops, and Brandi Pack, UpLevel’s Legal Tech Analyst & AI Consultant. They share how legal teams can thoughtfully leverage generative AI to transform workflows, augment human skills, and futureproof roles. With proper governance and training, we can keep pace with the evolution of AI and maximize its potential.
Show notes:
Show Notes:
[00:02:19] Getting early access to GPT-4
[00:08:00] How are the Uplevel Ops team grew adoption internally
[00:11:53] People don't care about AI[00:14:51] Why to document prompts[00:18:06] How are legal teams reacting to the changing landscape
[00:28:38] GenAI as a workflow tool[00:31:03] What's the future?
[00:34:16] Will my role be displaced?
[00:38:47] What one thing can organizations do to see immediate value from GenAI?

We sat down with Jeff Pfeifer, Chief Product Officer at LexisNexis during ILTACON 2023 to get his insights on legal AI progress, hype versus reality, increased law firm adoption, and the importance of demonstrating tangible benefits.
Topics covered:
Navigating the legal AI hype cycleAI’s potential to enhance legal workflowsGrowing law firm interest and hands-on explorationAvoiding the “trough of disillusionment”Real-world benefits driving adoption over hype

In this episode of Fringe Legal, host Abhijat Saraswat interviews Nnamdi Emelifeonwu and Feargus MacDaeid, co-founders of legal tech startup Definely.
Key Takeaways:
Definely creates software plugins to simplify drafting, reviewing, and analyzing legal contracts in Microsoft Word using AI/ML.The idea originated from Feargus' need as a blind lawyer to access information in documents more easily.They validated demand with a scrappy prototype and early pilots despite its flaws.After leaving law firm jobs, their mission-driven approach focuses on access, efficiency, and transparency.Their blueprint for innovation includes launching an MVP, inclusive design thinking, gathering user feedback, and carefully leveraging AI.Maintaining ethics and reputation is central, not rushing new technology to market.When solving problems for underserved groups, solutions often benefit everyone.A framework for evaluating AI: accuracy and understanding real-world impacts.
Connect with Nnamdi Emelifeonwu
Connect with Feargus MacDaeid
Learn more about Definely