Show Notes
As CEO of Briefpoint, Nathan Walter’s goal is to “eliminate discovery off the face of the earth.” Discovery is the pre-trial phase of a lawsuit in which parties exchange information about the witnesses and evidence to be presented in court. At times, discovery can turn into a long-standing battle. As a litigator, Nathan was so frustrated with opposing counsel weaponizing discovery to bleed clients dry, a.k.a. “lawfare,” that he built Briefpoint to automate the discovery document drafting process, save fellow litigators time, and bring justice to clients. In the beginning, Nathan simultaneously built Briefpoint and learned the business by selling technology to attorneys at Ironclad. He studied venture capital acronyms for investor meetings, cold-called attorneys from the California Bar website to establish his consumer base, and made vaporware programs for market research. He and his top salesman managed to close $20,000 deals hours before payroll was due to keep Briefpoint’s lights on! Now, Briefpoint serves 1,500+ law firms nationwide. Nathan’s journey is a survival story filled with quick wit, slight sarcasm, and insightful entrepreneurial advice. Watch the rest of the episode to deep dive into the four real moats of legal tech, how generic AI companies like Anthropic compete with their own legal tech consumers, and lessons learned from starting a business.
More about Nathan Walter: * Nathan Walter on LinkedIn * Briefpoint Website * Briefpoint 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
More from LegalTechLIVE
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
Our industry is constantly hearing about healthy, steady, emerging, and failing legal tech companies, but few of us understand growth (or lack thereof) on a granular level. That’s where Legalcomplex comes in. Hailing from Suriname and the Netherlands, Raymond Blyd’s database of 31,000 legal tech companies tracks raised funds and employee retention, and the numbers speak volumes (but you’ll have to tune in to find out 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
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
After 20,000 completed divorces in a decade, Hello Divorce has saved Americans $450 million in legal fees.
Did You Know… 6 million car accidents and 2 million injury claims happen every year.