UpLevel View

Samridhi Jain, staff writer at Legal Tech Hub, joins Brandi Pack to talk about change fatigue, the part of AI adoption nobody wants to plan for. They dig into why access to a tool is only the first step, how leaders can tell the difference between healthy AI use and burnout, and why going back to the basics matters more than chasing the newest agent. Key Takeaways Look internally before looking outward. Before adopting a new process or buying a new tool, map your current workflows and find out where the real friction lives. Not everyone needs to be a super user, and that's fine. A bell curve of AI adoption, roughly eighty percent base users, ten percent app users, ten percent power users, is a healthy and common pattern. Protect the people who move slower instead of turning adoption into a competition. Efficiency gains can become a trap. Automating tasks just to fill the freed-up time with more work leads to burnout even among the most enthusiastic users. Ask where the saved time is actually going. AI readiness starts with data and process hygiene, not agents. Teams that skip playbooks and clean data to jump straight to agentic tools are codifying bad process at a faster speed. ROI measurement needs a human column. Track adoption and efficiency, but also track how people feel about the tools. A dashboard that shows satisfaction dropping as automation rises is telling you something important. Links and Resources Legal Operations Consulting | UpLevel Ops: uplevelops.com (http://uplevelops.com/) Legaltech Hub: legaltechnologyhub.com (http://legaltechnologyhub.com/) Samridhi Jain on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samridhi-jain-samridhi-writes-legally (http://linkedin.com/in/samridhi-jain-samridhi-writes-legally/) "Change Fatigue in Corporate Legal: Introducing AI Without Losing Your Team," Legal Tech Hub: legaltechnologyhub.com/contents/change-fatigue-in-corporate-legal-introducing-ai-without-losing-your-team (http://legaltechnologyhub.com/contents/change-fatigue-in-corporate-legal-introducing-ai-without-losing-your-team/) Keywords change fatigue, AI adoption legal, legal ops mental health, AI burnout, legal tech adoption, in-house AI strategy, bell curve AI adoption, AI ROI legal, legal ops leadership, AI readiness, data governance legal, legal ops innovation, human-first AI, AI token costs, super users AI, legal AI policy, change management legal, legal tech hub, legal operations AI, AI adoption strategy Episode Highlights [00:01:15 - 00:02:10] Samridhi's advice to look internally before adopting any new process or tool [00:03:47 - 00:04:38] Brandi on why it's fine for ten percent of a team to use AI less [00:05:10 - 00:06:05] Samridhi on the real burnout risk for people who are pro-AI by default [00:07:04 - 00:08:41] The bell curve of AI adoption, and how UpLevel Ops uses it with clients [00:09:20 - 00:10:10] Samridhi on why leaders must look inward before setting AI policy [00:10:50 - 00:11:40] Brandi on why the fear of data inside AI has already left the barn [00:11:41 - 00:12:25] Brandi on why skipping the basic phase for agents is more dangerous, not less [00:18:12 - 00:19:05] Brandi on the case for a four-day work week as AI takes over admin tasks [00:21:04 - 00:22:00] Brandi on building an AI ROI dashboard that tracks employee sentiment  

To mark UpLevel Ops' tenth anniversary, Stephanie Corey sits down with longtime friend Reese Arrowsmith, Executive Vice President of Legal Operations and Administration at Fox, to look back at how far legal ops has come and ahead at what's next. The conversation moves from the earliest days of the profession to document management as the unglamorous foundation for AI, and closes with concrete advice on the skills legal ops leaders need to stay indispensable. KEY TAKEAWAYS Legal ops has already proven its ROI. The job now isn't proving value, it's telling that story loudly enough to change the mind of every GC still on the fence about hiring for the function. AI is only as useful as the body of knowledge behind it. Document management, version control, and basic data hygiene are the unsexy prerequisites that have to happen before any AI layer adds real value. Adoption is harder than rollout. The key to getting a legal team to actually use a new system is finding the trigger moment, a departure, a lost document, a leadership scare, and striking while it's fresh. AI won't replace legal ops, it will expand it. Legal ops is the only function that sits across people, process, tech, and spend, which puts it in position to lead enterprise AI strategy instead of just adopting whatever comes down from the business. Career growth in legal ops now runs through network, quick wins, and information security. Build relationships early, bank small wins for your GC, and get comfortable partnering closely with your CISO. LINKS AND RESOURCES UpLevel Ops: uplevelops.com "AI Doesn't Need Your Data, It Needs Your Workflow" by Brandi Pack, Above the Law: abovethelaw.com/2026/08/ai-doesnt-need-your-data-it-needs-your-workflow KEYWORDS legal ops evolution, legal operations profession, document management legal, knowledge management legal, AI in legal departments, legal ops and AI, legal ops career skills, legal ops adoption strategy, ACC benchmarking legal ops, legal ops value proposition, information security legal ops, legal engineer role, legal ops network building, employee engagement survey legal, legal department strategic plan, legal ops leadership advice, in-house legal AI strategy, version control document management, legal ops hiring trends, Fox legal operations EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:02:00 - 00:04:00] Reese traces legal ops back to 1999 and the ACC data that first quantified its value [00:05:40 - 00:06:30] Reese lays out the two paths ahead: foundational build-out and the AI-driven next wave [00:09:40 - 00:10:30] Stephanie tells Reese she's the only person she's seen roll out document management successfully [00:11:20 - 00:12:30] Reese explains the real secret to adoption: waiting for the trigger moment and striking fast [00:13:40 - 00:14:30] Stephanie walks through how a body of knowledge turns into a usable AI workflow [00:17:20 - 00:19:00] Reese explains why legal ops, not AI, is the only function that can connect spend to outcomes [00:20:00 - 00:21:10] Reese previews a structured proof of concept testing two tools across ten practice areas [00:24:00 - 00:26:30] Reese on the choice between building your own AI skills and hiring a legal engineer [00:29:36 - 00:30:30] Reese's top career advice: build a network before you need one [00:31:00 - 00:32:30] Why employee engagement surveys are one of the best diagnostic tools in legal ops  

Summary Nikki Rahimzadeh joined Analog Devices as the legal department was working through a "big T" transformation, triggered by an acquisition that doubled the company's size overnight. She walks Stephanie through what she found (a lot of vision, not much infrastructure) and what she built since: new people, new processes, and a technology stack rebuilt around project management rigor and clean data. The two dig into how Legal Ops professionals without a budget-holding champion can still make the case for investment, and why "fail fast" has become a legitimate strategy for building leadership buy-in. From there, the conversation turns to AI. Nikki argues that no legal team can use AI well without first doing the unglamorous work of data governance, since most legal departments have no idea how much data they actually generate. She also describes how ADI went from a department that had never led on tech to the most active enterprise-AI-tool users in the company, and how proactive communication (use AI, but bring the judgment call to legal) is helping the department stay the trusted advisor even as self-service AI use grows. Key Takeaways A "big T" transformation needs a vision and a budget, but you can build the case without either. Nikki recommends showing incremental, imperfect proof of what's possible before asking for the big investment. Fail fast is now a legitimate Legal Ops strategy. Build something that's a quarter good, use it to show leadership the art of the possible, and leave breadcrumbs toward the bigger ask. AI adoption starts with data governance, not tools. You can't connect anything until you know what data exists, where it lives, and how reliable it is, and legal teams routinely underestimate how much data they generate. Legal Ops has an opening to own AI strategy for the whole enterprise, not just adopt whatever the business hands down, a flip from Legal's historical position as the last department to get new tech. Scalability today is a ways-of-working question, not a headcount question. When someone leaves, the first question is whether the work can be redeployed through better tools before backfilling the role. Links and Resources Operating Readiness Engagement led by UpLevel Ops: UpLevelOps.com/ULO_ADI_OperatingReadiness General Legal: generallegal.com UpLevel Ops: uplevelops.com Ken Callander's Above the Law article series, "Why You Should Choose Legal Ops Tools You Can Build On" (Parts 1 and 2) Keywords Legal Ops scalability, legal ops transformation, Analog Devices legal, in-house AI adoption, data governance legal, legal ops strategy, AI strategy legal department, legal ops budget, fail fast legal ops, legal ops org design, headcount redeployment, responsible AI legal, legal ops leadership, ACC Value Champion, legal department scale, enterprise AI adoption, legal ops resource model, in-house legal innovation, legal ops case for resources, AI guardrails legal Episode Highlights [00:00:47 - 00:01:27] Nikki describes ADI's "big T" transformation following a major acquisition [00:05:40 - 00:06:23] Stephanie names the real problem: making the case for resources without a budget-holding vision [00:07:04 - 00:08:41] Nikki's blueprint for buy-in: fail fast, use what you have, leave breadcrumbs [00:09:20 - 00:10:31] Stephanie's Copilot vs. ChatGPT story: failing fast to justify a non-standard tool [00:11:25 - 00:12:25] Why readiness work still can't be skipped, even as implementation speeds up [00:12:31 - 00:14:26] Data governance as a blind spot: legal teams don't realize how much data they generate [00:16:01 - 00:17:20] Legal Ops as the strategic bridge between legal and enterprise data and AI initiatives [00:20:25 - 00:20:48] ADI's CLO tells the organization: use AI, but bring judgment calls to legal [00:23:56 - 00:24:38] Redefining scalability: it's about ways of working, not headcount [00:29:36 - 00:31:39] Advice for resource-constrained Legal Ops leaders: get creative, use IT pilots and vendors  

Summary Leadership looks very different when an entire profession is evolving. Oyango Snell, CEO of CLOC, joins Stephanie Corey to trace how Legal Ops has moved from fighting for recognition to owning strategic decisions inside the enterprise. They talk through why mismatched expectations, and job descriptions written for a COO but budgeted for a paralegal, still trip up departments trying to build the function right. The conversation turns to AI, where Oyango argues the technology only exposes problems that were already there if a department lacks governance and a clear read on its own data. He closes with a challenge to the field itself: professionals have to invest in their own development, not just wait for a title or a GC to hand them the mandate, and maybe it's time to ask whether "Legal Ops" is even still the right name for what this work has become. Key Takeaways Legal Ops has moved past its identity crisis. The industry spent years arguing for a seat at the table. Now, per Oyango, people are stepping into decision-making roles and simply owning that this is their business, not something "other." A great job description doesn't fix a broken framework. Hiring one person to be a five-page miracle worker on a paralegal budget sets Legal Ops up to fail, and then the framework gets blamed on the discipline. One hire is never the whole fix. Legal Ops success depends on budget, executive support, and being woven into the organization's strategic goals, the same way a new CEO needs a strong team underneath them. AI adoption starts with data governance, not tools. Oyango's advice: understand the business problem first. Buying a CLM or an AI tool because it's trendy, without knowing what you're solving for, is how organizations waste money and stall out. The profession still runs on peer-to-peer sharing. From twelve people comparing notes in a conference room to a global community today, the willingness to share templates and hard-won lessons is what Oyango says makes Legal Ops different from other professions. Links and Resources CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium): cloc.org UpLevel Ops: uplevelops.com Ken Callander's Above the Law article, "Why You Should Choose Legal Ops Tools You Can Build On" Keywords Legal Ops leadership, CLOC, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, legal ops evolution, legal ops hiring, legal ops job description, legal ops resourcing, AI strategy legal, legal ops AI adoption, legal engineering, legal ops community, legal ops mentorship, GC decision making, CLO legal ops, legal ops title, legal ops budget, legal ops governance, in-house legal innovation, legal ops professional development, CLOC Global Institute Episode Highlights [00:01:27 - 00:02:33] Oyango describes the shift from clamoring for a seat at the table to owning it [00:04:33 - 00:05:44] Stephanie names the mismatch between what GCs think Legal Ops is and what it requires [00:06:20 - 00:07:17] Oyango on how efficiency alone can work a Legal Ops professional out of a job [00:09:55 - 00:10:45] Stephanie and Oyango compare notes on the wide range of Legal Ops salaries [00:11:37 - 00:12:37] Oyango: hiring one person isn't a savior if the framework isn't set up to support them [00:15:04 - 00:15:54] The emergence of new titles like "legal engineering" as a bridge to IT [00:17:10 - 00:17:58] Stephanie shares Susan Hackett's framing: one great Legal Ops hire vs. ten lawyers [00:20:53 - 00:22:34] Oyango on CLOC's growth strategy: strategic partnerships over competition [00:26:20 - 00:27:24] Oyango: AI is not the solution to all your problems, understand the business case first [00:31:40 - 00:32:32] Oyango raises the question of whether "Legal Operations" is still the right term for the field

Episode Summary In this episode of The Uplevel View Podcast, Stephanie Corey and Brandi Pack sit down with Ryan Walker, CEO and co-founder of General Legal, to explore how AI is transforming the legal industry. Ryan shares his journey from mathematics and early NLP work to building some of the first AI-powered legal tools at Casetext. The conversation dives into a persistent issue: despite massive advancements in AI, legal services remain expensive, inefficient, and largely unchanged for clients. General Legal is tackling this problem head-on with a new model—combining AI-native workflows, embedded legal services, and flat-fee pricing. The result: faster turnaround times, lower costs, and a more integrated client experience. The episode also explores the limitations of current AI models, the importance of human lawyers in the loop, and the emerging power of agent-based systems that can unlock insights from unstructured legal data without requiring heavy infrastructure like traditional CLMs. Ultimately, this episode paints a compelling picture of a future where legal services are more accessible, efficient, and aligned with client needs. Links & Resources General Legal - General Legal | AI native law firm for growing companies UpLevel Ops - Home Page Keywords Legal AI legal tech AI in law billable hour disruption flat fee legal services contract review AI legal operations CLM alternatives legal automation AI agents legal innovation access to justice in-house counsel legal data analytics NLP law firms future of legal services Episode Highlights 00:00–01:00 – Introduction to Ryan Walker and his background in AI and legal tech 01:00–02:30 – How Ryan entered legal tech and why the space fascinated him 02:30–04:20 – The persistent adoption problem in legal technology 04:20–06:05 – Why AI hasn't yet changed the client experience in legal services 06:05–07:30 – Launching General Legal and early traction (0 to 100+ clients) 07:30–09:00 – Embedding lawyers into client workflows (Slack, CLMs) 09:00–10:30 – The access-to-justice gap and unaffordable legal services 10:30–12:10 – The inefficiencies of the billable hour model 12:10–14:00 – AI limitations: high issue detection, low contextual judgment 14:00–16:00 – Why human lawyers are still essential in AI workflows 16:00–18:00 – Flat-fee model: $500 per contract and full lifecycle coverage 18:00–20:30 – Building client context through past contracts and interactions 20:30–23:30 – AI agents and the future of legal data analysis 23:30–26:00 – Replacing heavy CLMs with flexible AI-driven systems 26:00–End – The future: freeing lawyers from rote work to focus on high-value tasks