After back-to-back legal technology conferences, I’m sorry to say that artificial intelligence is still the dominant topic of conversation. It’s certainly getting better, with the narrative shifting from runaway TED Talks about how AI is “the future” to concrete use cases, but it’s still all about the robots these days. So it’s refreshing when there’s legal technology news focused squarely on enabling human lawyers to solve problems with more human lawyers.
Legal practice management platform Smokeball has teamed up with LAWCLERK, the go-to marketplace for hiring freelance lawyers, to provide Smokeball users with the power to seamlessly hire freelance attorneys directly within their Smokeball matters.
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When it’s late at night and a solo practitioner knows they need a couple experienced lawyers to bang out a brief over the next couple days, they can now just hit a button with Smokeball to access the LAWCLERK system.
And they don’t have to worry about ChatGPT figuring out how airline luggage conventions work.
This is the kind of quality-of-life tech feature that sounds simple but solves a real pain point. Right inside the matter management software there’s a button to temporarily scale up when your full-time associate is out sick and you really did promise that client a first draft by the end of the week. If firms are going to scale without Biglaw bloat, this is the infrastructure they’ll need to do it.
It’s like the Phone A Friend lifeline but integrated into the firm’s tech.
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As Jordan Turk, Smokeball’s Director of Education and Attorney Development, put it at ABA TECHSHOW, lawyers should “give themselves the gift of help before they burn out.” This feature basically gift wraps it.
The feature also works in both directions. If you’re the rare lawyer with bandwidth (or a few hours that could use some monetizing), the pair introduces a “Get Work” functionality for attorneys in the Smokeball Boost tier for solo and small firms. With “Get Work,” solo and small firm attorneys can pick up project work between cases, freelance while growing their practice, and stabilize cash flow while small firms work to get off the ground.
The big picture here is about accessibility and scale. For all the promise — real or imagined — of AI, technology can also empower practices to punch above their weight class with human lawyers. Scaling a practice doesn’t always require machine learning as much as matchmaking.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.