Between the Briefs

Legal AI has no shortage of promises. Now, the real challenge is figuring out which ones are worth adopting. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Colin Levy, General Counsel at Malbek, legal tech author, and educator, to discuss how lawyers can adopt AI thoughtfully without sacrificing professional judgment. Colin explains why AI should be viewe...

Legal AI is having its gold rush moment. But what if you went against the grain and took it slow in order to succeed? In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Elaine Barsoom, AI and innovation leader and Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry, to talk about why AI transformation fails when companies rush into tools before understanding the work. This conve...

Once upon a time, George Socha was told to lose the computer because “real attorneys do not type.” Safe to say, he did not listen. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with George Socha, Senior Vice President of Brand Awareness at Reveal and co-founder of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), to talk about the early chaos of eDiscovery, the f...

Legal loves innovation…said no one ever. Which is why so many law firms still have one foot firmly planted in 1998. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Umair Muhajir, Vice President and Global Head of Managed Review at DISCO, to unpack how GenAI is changing discovery, document review, associate training, law firm adoption and the future economics...

Paralegals have long been boxed into the role of “document reviewers” but their true value goes far beyond that. And with AI in the mix, their place in law firms is being rewritten entirely. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome Michelle Pendleton, Certified Paralegal and eDiscovery specialist at Allen Matkins and President of the San Diego Paralegal Asso...

The impact of AI on law has been studied through the narrow lens of productivity and profitability. But the reality is much broader than that. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome back Daniel Schwarcz, Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School to discuss groundbreaking empirical research on how AI impacts lawyer performance, legal reasoning...

For all intents and purposes, lawyers can be the superheroes society needs them to be but the legal system simply doesn’t allow it. With a broken system, flawed legal aid and crumbling structures, justice gets the short end of the stick - but can AI be part of the solution? In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome Sateesh Nori, Chief Legal Futurist at LawDro...

If you can’t convince your team that AI is the better choice for work today, you might as well pause all efforts now. Because the only thing more important than AI transformation for legal teams today is being able to communicate the change and manage it. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Mike Russell, Head of Global Legal Operations at...

Applying AI to an already bad process is just automating a bad process,” says Myah Bowermaster, Head of Legal Operations at Cvent, in this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno. Tune in as hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Myah to explore how legal ops functions as the connective tissue between legal strategy and business objectives, the measured approach to AI adoption and why deli...

What if legal professionals have been missing the key to responsible AI implementation this whole time? In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome Matthew Krengel, eDiscovery Counsel and Director of Information Retention Counseling at Cooley LLP, to explore the real solution. Tune in as they explore how legal teams can navigate AI's role in discovery and data...

In a time of unprecedented change for the legal profession, how do the world’s most influential law firms stay ahead of the curve?, In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea sit down with Eric Friedman, former Chairman and CEO of Skadden, to discuss his transition from leading a global legal giant to advising the next generation of legal tech pioneers., Eric offers a...

In the world of catastrophic injury law, the stakes are as high as they get. For Brian Shapiro, this calling is a family legacy. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea sit down with Brian Shapiro, a Southern California trial attorney specializing in life-altering injuries and wrongful death. Brian shares how his early experience clerking for Judge James DeCeaser s...

In these volatile and uncertain times, what does it really take to uphold peace? Someone like Judge Paul Raleeh, it would seem. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea sit down with Judge Paul Raleeh, Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1 in Collin County, Texas, to explore the critical yet often misunderstood role of justice courts in modernizing local litigation. D...

What if the legal AI revolution is actually a good thing? In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, we unpack how said revolution is transforming appellate law - a field of law that demands precision, deep legal research and compelling written advocacy - without replacing human judgment. Tune in as hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome David Coale, partner and leader of the appellate pra...

Corporate greed and care cannot exist together. The only way to win is if you play a different game altogether. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Victoria Schall, New Jersey Supreme Court certified civil trial attorney and Founder of Schall at Law, reveals her rule book for advocating against nursing home abuse and winning neglect litigation. Drawing from her journey as a teenage fac...

Law firm operations are undergoing a massive overhaul - as they should, in the age of AI. And, while in-house legal teams are making the change through AI-first capabilities and deliberate cultural transformation, the implications for enterprise compliance are profound. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Bill Ryan, Senior Vice President and Chief...

Can legal technology be a catalyst for access to justice while preserving what makes legal work meaningful in the first place? That depends on how you use it. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with David Cowen, Founder of the Solid Legal Summit and President of the Cowen Group, to explore why the legal industry stands at an unprecedented inf...

Everyone’s worried that AI will take their job. But what they should be worried about is AI exposing how bad some people have been at their jobs. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens welcome Nicole Black, Principal Legal Insight Strategist at 8AM, for an eye-opening discussion on the accelerating adoption of AI in law firms, the critical hallucination problem th...

Three sisters, Lauren, Erica and Gianna Kelly, switch sides, from being defense lawyers to giving a voice to plaintiffs. The result? The creation of The Kelly Firm, LLC and a transformation of the medical malpractice space. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, the trio joins hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens to explore how they transitioned from defending healthcare providers to advocat...

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...

AI has taken over legal in a way lawyers didn’t expect. But what if lawyers and AI could evolve alongside each other? In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea sit down with Steve Embry of embryLaw LLC, national litigator and renowned legal tech writer, to explore the collision between artificial intelligence and traditional legal practice. Drawing from deca...

The fabric of American law is changing - courts are in crisis, judges are under threat - and something needs to change. This episode of Between the Briefs by Steno reveals the ‘what’. Tune in as hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Eric Weitz, Founder of the Weitz Law Firm and President of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, to explore why finding your authentic voice in the court...

Change is always uncomfortable. But in today’s tech-driven world, it is necessary. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Joe Stephens and Adrian Cea welcome Carolyn Humpherys, Senior Consultant at Traveling Coaches, to explore the critical gap between implementing new technology and achieving genuine organizational adoption. And, most importantly - how law firms can bridge that div...

Retaining top legal talent often feels like an uphill climb. Unless you have Karen Mesmer’s playbook. In this episode of Between the Briefs, Karen, Legal Services Manager at Shook, Hardy and Bacon, joins hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens to explore how premier litigation firms are evolving their operations in the face of technological disruption. Drawing on nearly four decades of experience - from...

What’s it going to take for legal companies to wholeheartedly embrace legal technology? Social proof, as Ted Theodoropoulos, CEO of Infodash, puts it. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens, pick Ted’s brain about why law firms have historically resisted technological innovation, how generative AI is forcing a fundamental reckoning with firm economics and...