Best Practice

George Hannah

Best Practice delivers the world's best insights in Legal AI bestpracticeai.substack.com

Episodes

  1. 19 FEB

    How Wordsmith AI Turned In-House Legal Into A Revenue Engine

    I spoke with Ross McNairn, co-founder and CEO of Wordsmith AI, who trained as a lawyer, retrained as a software engineer, and spent over a decade scaling companies like Skyscanner and TravelPerk. When he got early access to OpenAI’s AI tool, he quit his CTO role to get building in legal AI. Wordsmith is built exclusively for in-house teams - connecting legal to the business through AI-powered workflows. We discussed: → How the relentless focus on going after "in-house" led them to build the product they have today. → The difference between building AI for law firms versus in-house teams. → Why Wordsmith aren't worried about OpenAI or Anthropic "going vertical". → What Ross looks for when hiring new employees at Wordsmith. → His vision for what the future of an in-house lawyer role will look like. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestpracticeai.substack.com

    31 min
  2. What My Time At Tinder Revealed About Legal AI

    22 JAN

    What My Time At Tinder Revealed About Legal AI

    Ruben Miessen spent years leading the product teams at Tinder and Match Group, where sitting through weekly legal committee meetings helped him develop a deep understanding of the processes that caused bottlenecks and frustrations. Rather than build another generalist legal AI tool, Ruben co-founded LegalFly in 2023 with a laser focus on in-house legal and procurement teams at enterprises in highly regulated industries. The Belgian startup now employs over 50 people across Ghent, London, and Dubai, and closed 2025 with 600% year-over-year growth - with 80% of clients coming inbound rather than through outbound sales. In this episode, I ask Ruben: * Why he built exclusively for in-house teams instead of law firms - and why that choice shaped everything from product to go-to-market. * The role European data privacy regulations played in LegalFly’s product architecture and competitive positioning. * His predictions for legal AI consolidation in 2026 - and why he thinks data quality will matter more than ever. * Plus, the roadmap for LegalFly’s Series B and US expansion plans. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestpracticeai.substack.com

    42 min

  3. 08/12/2025

    Why Legal Al's Next Phase Will Look Different: Alexander Kardos-Nyheim on Models, Markets, and 2026 predictions

    Alexander founded and led Safe Sign Technologies, a frontier AI startup specialising in Legal LLMs whilst he was training at Allen & Overy. The Cambridge- and MIT-based start-up was acquired in a blockbuster exit by Thomson Reuters in August 2024. In this first episode, I ask Alexander: How he built a successful legal AI company while managing the intense workload of a Magic Circle training contract. The critical debate for legal tech - is the future in off-the-shelf LLMs or custom-training foundational models? Why Big Tech's verticalisation (like DocuGPT) is creating a market squeeze for new legal AI startups. The potential collapse of the law firm 'pyramid' as AI handles the work of the £150k+ junior associate. Plus, predictions for the legal AI landscape in 2026 and the changing risk-reward for law students. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestpracticeai.substack.com

    1h 3m
  • 3 Episodes

About

Best Practice delivers the world's best insights in Legal AI bestpracticeai.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    George Hannah
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © George Hannah
  • Show Website
    Best Practice