LegalTechLIVE

Nick Rishwain

LegalTechLIVE is your front-row seat to the future of law and technology. Hosted by Nick Rishwain and Hana Zumout, this show features the innovators, tools, and ideas reshaping the legal industry, from SaaS breakthroughs to the rise of AI. www.legaltechlive.com

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 155: Mike Whelan, Jr. - Lawyer Forward CEO

    “Legal Tech is the second most funded AI space behind engineering.” Kardashians, Oreos, fuel-efficient cars, and corn? Where exactly is this conversation going? Mike Whelan, Jr., of Lawyer Forward and The Redline Podcast, talks shop with Nick Rishwain about what’s working, what’s not, and what legal tech companies should be focusing on when marketing to lawyers. Mike makes his “theory of the case” that lawyers aren’t skeptical or cynical buyers; they’re just like us! Lawyers decide which products to buy based on exposure and trust, then backwards-rationalize with deep research. But most legal tech companies are stuck in the middle, aka the “dead zone.” There’s an infinite source of “pretty good” content with AI, yet not engaging enough to satisfy decision-makers and end users. And the celebrity partnerships circulating online may garner attention, but revenue is another story. The solution? It’s simple, but radical for legal tech: find your business’ “theory of the case” and run two types of content simultaneously. You’ll have to watch the episode to learn what this means, but Mike backs his theories with case studies and the realities of legal tech sales cycles. Are you a founder marketing to lawyers and want to stop putting out content that disappears into the void? Listen to Mike and Nick on Episode 155! Plus, if you liked his takes, Mike has a very special announcement at the end of the episode that’ll pique your interest! More about Mike Whelan, Jr. * Mike Whelan, Jr. on LinkedIn * Lawyer Forward on Substack * Lawyer Forward Website * The Redline Podcast on YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  2. Oct 22

    Episode 154: Hanna Steinbach - Harness.io General Counsel

    What does it take to go from a small town near Cologne, Germany to General Counsel at one of the most interesting AI companies in the Bay Area? Hanna Steinbach, General Counsel at Harness, joins LegalTechLIVE to share a wealth of information about how law differs around the world and what she values in her in-house role. After studying international business in Vienna, a contracts law class set her life’s trajectory towards starting a career in antitrust law. After working at Freshfields, Baker McKenzie, and the World Intellectual Property Organization under the United Nations as a diplomat, Hanna spent a defining 10 years at Medallia for her first in-house job. Her time at the company involved hypergrowth periods, an IPO, going private, and many different CEO changes. This experience shaped how she runs her legal department today at Harness. Hanna shares her thoughts on why she thinks engineering guardrails matter more than legal ones when agents start acting autonomously and where liability currently lands, how to sell to a GC, and the gaps nobody in legal tech is solving. Get to know Hanna by watching this episode, and tune in to her AILBA panel with Jyoti Bandal (Harness/Traceable/AppDynamics), Nidhi Agarwal (HackerOne), and others on October 28! Find the registration link below. More about Hanna: * Hanna Steinbach on LinkedIn * Harness Website * Harness on LinkedIn * AILBA Panel RSVP Webpage This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  3. Oct 14

    Episode 153: Raymond Blyd - CEO & Legalcomplex Founder

    Our industry constantly hears about healthy, steady, emerging, and failing legal tech companies, but few of us understand growth (or lack thereof) in granular detail. That’s where Legalcomplex comes in. Hailing from Suriname and the Netherlands, Raymond Blyd’s database of 31,000 legal tech companies tracks raised funding and employee retention, and the numbers speak volumes (but you’ll have to tune in to learn more). Raymond has tracked legal tech companies since 2015, so he’s coming in with all the receipts. In this 50-minute conversation, Nick and Raymond also cover whether legal tech is in an AI spending bubble, why lawyers can’t quit AI, what Anthropic understands about power that Google can’t, the nitty-gritty of token economics, and the one layer of legal practice no model will ever touch. You’ll also learn about Raymond’s journey taking a Waymo from San Francisco to Apple HQ, excitement for the upcoming Theranos documentary, and nonexistent relationship with horror movies. This conversation will certainly keep you on your toes! Get to know Raymond, hear what keeps him up at night, and listen to his legal tech hot takes in Episode 153! More about Raymond Blyd: * Raymond Blyd on LinkedIn * Legalcomplex Website * Legalcomplex on LinkedIn This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  4. Oct 7

    Episode 152: Sona Sulakian - Filevine VP, AI Product

    Joining us on LegalTechLIVE is Sona Sulakian, VP of AI Products at Filevine, co-founder of Pincites (now Lois), and, as Nick describes, a “legal-tech heavyweight.” We were all especially excited to bond over our shared Middle Eastern roots and love for legal technology. Here’s some background on this episode. Sona began her career as an M&A and patent litigation attorney at a BigLaw firm. She left her secure job to create an AI contract negotiation startup called Pincites with her sister Maryan, a former Facebook and GitHub engineer (and yes, Mom was HR). The two went through Y Combinator, built a Word add-in for AI-powered redlining and playbooks, grew a loyal customer base, and ultimately got acquired by Filevine, which happened to be one of their best customers. After the acquisition, Sona and Mariam are now both at Filevine, and Pincites was rebranded to Lois, Filevine’s approach to enterprise knowledge, orchestration, and AI agents for legal drafting. Throughout the conversation, we discovered that Sona almost didn’t leave her career, the pros and cons of working with family, what the acquisition felt like, the feedback received from trusted colleagues, and her thoughts on confidently making decisions. Get to know Sona, her founder journey, what Filevine is up to, and the Bay Area trains in Episode 152. More about Sona Sulakian * Sona Sulakian on LinkedIn * Filevine Website * Filevine on LinkedIn * Lois Website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  5. Sep 30

    Episode 151: Erin Levine - Hello Divorce CEO & Founder

    After 20,000 completed divorces in a decade, Hello Divorce has saved Americans $450 million in legal fees. Adversarial. Expensive. Exhausting. Three words that politely describe our understanding of divorce (unless you’ve been through one yourself, your adjectives might be… well, less polite). Erin Levine, CEO and Founder of Hello Divorce, has spent a decade trying to make divorce less awful, less costly, and less mentally straining for consumers. Since Nick invests in Hello Divorce, get ready for some entrepreneurial insights and witty banter. Erin’s journey to reaching her business goals wasn’t always smooth sailing. Her candidly spoken obstacles include VC rounds that “reset the clock” every time, an early subscription model that consumers found inauthentic, an AI agent that started gaslighting potential clients, and a breast cancer diagnosis that forced her to slow growth and focus on margins. Despite the hurdles, she knew her company’s value and how it legally helped spouses who are seeking a new beginning. Hello Divorce now operates in all 50 states, 3,100+ county courts, and 20,000 completed divorces. Erin developed a subsidiary real estate brokerage that stops divorcing homeowners from making financially catastrophic mistakes. Lastly, because we’re not in the business of spoiling episodes, she pivoted to employee benefits as a distribution channel serving many recognizable employers. Erin’s decisions have left 97% of customers feeling positive about the result of their finalized divorce and earned a 4.5/5 review score. Listen to Erin’s why behind Hello Divorce, her personal testimony battling breast cancer, and how her lessons became the building blocks for a better version of her company in Episode 151! More about Erin Levine: * Erin Levine on LinkedIn * Hello Divorce on LinkedIn * Hello Divorce Website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  6. Sep 23

    Episode 150: Dr. Rami Hashish - Silent Witness CEO

    Did You Know… 6 million car accidents and 2 million injury claims happen every year. Yet even the busiest expert witnesses can only cover a fraction of a percent of those cases. How does AI fit into automotive expert witness work? Can a single picture of a car dent identify the speed of impact, or whether anyone was actually injured? Musculoskeletal Biomechanics expert witness Dr. Rami Hashish built Silent Witness to solve the problem. Rami’s Doctorate in Physical Therapy and PhD in Musculoskeletal Biomechanics from USC steered him into the expert witness world and led him to a decade of being retained over a thousand times in personal injury and accident cases. Simultaneously, he founded and sold an AI medical records summarization company called Parrot. Throughout his journey, he kept asking himself why expert-level intelligence only arrives at the end of a case. With his new venture, Silent Witness, the platform uses a proprietary mathematical vision model to analyze vehicle damage photos, quantify deformation, and calculate the change in speed, all in a fraction of the time it takes to blink. It models human motion inside the vehicle and predicts expected injuries, factoring in the plaintiff’s height, weight, and pre-existing conditions. The best part? Every case is reviewed and signed off by a PhD-level scientist to ensure the final expert witness report is defensible in court. Silent Witness brings this expert-level intelligence throughout the entire case. Hear about Rami’s experience as an expert witness, how AI should be used in his industry, and detailed explanations about Silent Witness in Episode 150! More about Rami Hashish, PhD, DPT: * Rami Hashish, PhD, DPT on LinkedIn * Silent Witness on LinkedIn * Silent Witness Website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  7. Sep 16

    Episode 149: Josh Lokko - Statera CEO

    A highly recommended guest is the star of this episode! Joining Nick and Hana is Josh Lokko, CEO of Statera (That’s S-T-A-T-E-R-A, not to be confused with the US ADHD medication, Strattera. We felt the need to clarify that). ANYWAYS, Statera is an AI-powered legal tech startup catered to the capital markets practice, built by a capital markets lawyer. Since childhood, Josh knew he wanted to be a lawyer. After working at Shearman & Sterling in the capital markets practice, he grew frustrated with the manual “circle up” processes and late-night pricing supplements. Josh compared capital markets lawyers to sculptors, but instead of chiseling the marble, they spend half their day mining for it. Verifying hundreds of facts across prospectuses created unnecessary risk and consumed billable hours. The solution to this problem is Statera. Inspired by his self-built Excel VBA tool, Statera’s platform automates the grueling “circle up” process, cutting due diligence time by 80%! Rather than implementing pure agentic workflows, its self-deterministic AI foundations eliminate hallucination risks. Statera assists junior associates with tedious tasks unique to the capital markets industry, so they can focus on the work that seals the deals. Josh’s insight on the identity shifts leaving BigLaw, his goals for Statera, and his take on the legal tech industry are now available in Episode 149. More about Josh Lokko: * Josh Lokko on LinkedIn * Statera Website * Statera on LinkedIn This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

  8. Sep 9

    Episode 148: Nam Nguyen - truthsystems COO and Co-Founder

    As everyone’s racing to adopt AI tools, how do law firms govern their use before it becomes a risk? This is what Nick uncovers in his interview with Nam Nguyen, COO of truthsystems - a YC-backed company building AI governance infrastructure specifically for law firms. If you don’t know him already, here’s Nam’s story and how truthsystems came to life. After growing up in Vietnam, Nam moved to the United States to study the intersection of linguistics and computer science at UCLA. He then did NLP research, worked in Southeast Asian fintech, and studied at Stanford Law with Dr. Megan Ma, researching supervisory AI agents. Through this research, he discovered an urgent market need: truthsystems. truthsystems is a software startup that flags noncompliant AI use in regulated industries. Nam and co-founder Anh (Alex) Mac decided to target law firms first because governance in legal can’t be a generic solution. Every matter has its own rules from outside counsel, emphasizing the importance of matter-level context. Coming from a tech background with a deep understanding of AI, their goal is to show legal professionals how to leverage AI to be more efficient while mitigating risk. For example, Charter is their browser extension and desktop app that monitors every prompt sent to Harvey, Claude, and Legora. It proactively redirects attorneys before sensitive information lands in the wrong place. Nam opens up about what’s next for truthsystems (a new product perhaps?), how data infrastructure beats model selection, and the cultural differences behind building tech in Episode 148. More about Nam Nguyen: * Nam Nguyen on LinkedIn * truthsystems Website * truthsystems on LinkedIn This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.legaltechlive.com

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5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

LegalTechLIVE is your front-row seat to the future of law and technology. Hosted by Nick Rishwain and Hana Zumout, this show features the innovators, tools, and ideas reshaping the legal industry, from SaaS breakthroughs to the rise of AI. www.legaltechlive.com

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Rishwain
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    154
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Nick Rishwain
  • Show Website
    LegalTechLIVE

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