What Stuck With Me at the CLA Solo & Small Firm Summit
It’s been a few days, but I have to say something about the California Lawyers Association and its Solo & Small Firm Section Summit — that was a great two days in Newport Beach. The sessions were better than I expected, and a few things have stuck with me since.
A Few Things That Stuck With Me
1. The billable-hour talk was the highlight. AI is cutting research time roughly 80% and contract review by something close to 99%, and the speaker was blunt that billing by time is on borrowed days. The real conversation was about pricing by deliverable and phase instead — aligning what you charge with the client’s outcome rather than the clock. I would have liked to see alternative models like subscriptions get more airtime, but the core point landed.
2. The AI ethics session was a wake-up call. California’s duty of competence now means understanding the tools you use — and most small firms already have staff using AI with zero written policy. Two attorneys got suspended over it. Meanwhile, a lot of attorneys are using consumer or team versions of Claude and ChatGPT without realizing that, even without training, your inputs are stored for content-moderation purposes unless you’re on a commercial plan with Zero Data Retention (ZDR) turned on.
3. Your contract attorneys may not be covered. If you use contract attorneys, your malpractice policy probably excludes them unless you’ve asked for an endorsement. Worth a quick call to your broker.
4. Privacy is sneaking up on small firms. Your website trackers alone can pull you into CCPA and wiretapping claims. It’s the kind of exposure that’s easy to ignore until it isn’t.
The Best Part Was the Hallway
Honestly, the best part wasn’t the sessions — it was the hallway conversations. So many growth-minded lawyers thinking hard about how to use AI and grow their firms. You don’t get that energy on a virtual call.
And one thing came up over and over in those hallways: people are still struggling to get genuinely good results out of AI. Not “can it write a prompt” — but how do I get reliable, usable output on my actual matters, every time? That’s exactly what we’ve been heads-down on: building the right playbooks so AI works the way you actually practice.
Thanks to the Solo & Small Firm Section of the California Lawyers Association for a great one. Already looking forward to the next events.
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