You could be forgiven for tuning out AI news at this point. It has become an evergreen topic in mainstream (non-tech) journalism, and the pace of change is like nothing I’ve seen since the late 90’s when every time you turned around there was a new Google, iMac, whatever. Other than the relatively few lawyers who are kind of tech hobbyists, or maybe technology people in a prior career, most lawyers don’t spend a lot of their gray matter on tech stuff. The three main tech decisions have been made and are locked and not reconsidered on a daily, or even yearly, basis.

Those 3 main tech decisions:

• Which legal research tool?
• Which word processor? 
• Outlook or Google for my email and stuff?

And that’s it. Or at least it was.

Not only has AI ushered in a profound era of new tools, the money rushing it has reorganized the rest of the legal tech ecosystem, as well.

Earlier this month, the big news in the legal tech world was the $1B (billion with a B) acquisition by Clio of vLex. If you’re not a vLex (acquirer of Fastcase) or Clio user, it would be easy to look at this and decide that the news is irrelevant to you.

But it’s not and today I want to tell you why.

Because this acquisition (which is all tied up in AI considerations) says a whole heck of a lot about what apps are going to go on your bulleted list of 3 main tech decisions over the next several years. 

First, a word of background.

Clio, if you know it at all, you know as a practice management software. Introduced as one of the earliest native to the cloud practice management tools has become an absolute behemoth on the back of major venture capital investment. It most recently raised $900M in 2024 on a $3B valuation.

With this recent move of acquiring vLex, and critically, Fastcase, Clio is no longer just signaling its intentions. It is planting a flag, albeit a small one, alongside LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters. For context, the market capitalization of RELX (Lexis) is about $99B and the market cap of Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) is about $96B. So, while I doubt there is panic at those huge components of the legal tech hegemonic duopoly, I do imagine they are paying attention.

But for us, the end users of these products, who have little time for esoteric marketplace shenanigans and just need a durable, stable tech stack that works in our firms… why should we care about this at all?

I’m glad you asked. Otherwise this would have been a short article.

Lawyers should care for a few key reasons.

First, lawyers should care about this shift because the duopoly is under assault. Competition is good for customers, and Clio/vLex means that there is new competition in the legal research space. Fastcase, through native growth and prior acquisitions, had sewn up most of the bar association market for legal research. Clio has been the market leader for cloud-based practice management software for some time. Though reliable data is a bit hard to come by on both those statements (Clio and Fastcase/vLex user numbers) I think it’s uncontroversial to say they have dominated their respective markets. And now they are stepping into a new, bigger one.

Second, vLex has taken its considerable war chest and brain power and started rolling in an aggressive suite of AI features into its toolset of workflows and research under the name Vincent AI. Over the past couple of years when we have discussed AI, we have talked mainly about foundational models like ChatGPT and Grok and Claude. But now, we are seeing robust AI tools specifically for the legal market getting the capitalization they need to reach scale. Vincent AI is just one of several. Lexis has formed a strategic alliance with Harvey, another legal focused AI. West was even earlier with an acquisition of Casetext (CoCounsel) in 2023. The overall point here being that we have reached the tipping point where lawyers can stop focusing on foundational models and start focusing on legal centric options.

Third, these AI features/partnerships within the legal research platforms mean that your choice of tech stack is going to need rethinking. It has been an easy orientation for the last 30 years – pick the research tool you find best and run with it. But now what we think of as research is changing and fast. The secondary and tertiary materials and data tools that previously distinguished legal research providers are going to slide over to make room for AI tools and workflows as the most important purchasing decision for your research dollars. It will be like hiring a very smart law librarian and very smart first year associate at the same time – inside your research tool

All of which is to say more plainly, get ready for the tail to wag the dog. Or more accurately, get ready for the tail to be bigger than the dog and the dog start walking backwards. Okay, that metaphor got a little tortured, but you get where I am going. AI tools are going to start – soon – being the north star you organize the rest of your tech stack around.

Last, lawyers should care because with this move to legal-centric tools emerging, lawyers can stop focusing on whether foundational models hallucinate (they do) or if generative AI is just a fad (its not). Instead, purchasing from Lexis and West and yeah, Clio, means there will be a transfer of trust for these tools to be built for lawyer use. We’re putting to bed the question of whether lawyers should use AI, alongside the debate about quill pens and typewriters. That decision is done now. The question is which ones will you use and how to use them best.

Think of this way. Imagine you are at the doctor and you have had an X ray or some radiology exam. Imagine that you knew that data suggests that your very smart doctor at Duke or UNC would be even better at her job if she used AI. You don’t have to imagine it, because that data exists. Now ask yourself, would you feel better or worse if your doctor told you she was not using it because it seemed like a newfangled fad.

That’s where we are. That’s our moment. 

The time for ignoring it or hoping it will go away is quickly passing. It’s not about goofy things like making ChatGPT your girlfriend or whatever. Now it is about better and more productive lawyering being available.

So, try to tune out 90% of the mainstream non-tech press about AI. It’s overheated and non-specific. Start paying attention to what your legal research provider is offering you. Check out the tools. Try them out in a limited, safe way. Learn them now. Because in about 5 years you’re going to think of your legal research provider as your legal AI provider.