Welcome to our monthly newsletter, Scooped.
Each month, co-founders Tom Dreyfus and Sam Flynn curate the latest news in legaltech and AI, and share what teams are creating on Josef.
Have a read and don’t forget to subscribe!
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Legalweek 2026 is done and dusted, and we’re feeling the post-conference blues!
Did you catch our Walk & Talks series? If not, check out Josef’s feed to see us catch up with everyone from the Legaltech Hub’s Nicola (Nikki) Shaver to Twilio’s Sean Rayani. Such fun, enlightening chats.
A shout-out and big thanks to Oz Benamram, Andres Angulo Belaunzaran, Jenn McCarron, Damien Riehl, Matthew Rubbelke, Lucy Bassli and Nikole Nelson for all joining us 🙏
Here’s what caught our eye this month.
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The University of Michigan’s Vivek Sankaran made it clear in a recent Substack: while we all engage in hand-wringing over whether to use AI and how to do it safely, the people who need help aren’t waiting.
They don’t have that option. They’re researching their own legal issues, turning to AI, and pushing for faster, different solutions.
Vivek’s call? Leadership, not hesitation. Engagement, not avoidance. Because if lawyers don’t shape this shift, others will.
A fascinating development: Meta has updated its outside counsel guidelines and is now flagging and refusing to pay for work it believes could be handled with AI.
Summaries. Research. Routine drafting. If a tool can do it, they’re not paying for it.
This goes straight to the core of law firm economics – a large portion of associate billing lives here.
Meta isn’t alone. Zscaler and UBS are moving in the same direction. The market is changing, quietly but quickly.
Two stories that show both sides of the same problem.
One CEO used ChatGPT to try and void a $250M contract. He ignored his lawyers and lost in court. Meanwhile, OpenAI is being sued for allegedly practicing law without a license.
People are seeking help from AI whether the guardrails are in place or not. And they’re putting trust in tools that, on the surface, look like they know what they’re doing.
The question now isn’t whether any of this is happening. It’s who steps in to shape it and keep people safe.
If you want a clear explanation of why law firms and legaltech are often at odds, Mary O’Carroll’s recent Substack is worth a read.
She breaks down the billable hour and why it’s so hard to displace. And also the reality is, tech usage inside firms isn’t always what it’s made out to be.
There’s a growing disconnect with clients. As Mary puts it, “every GC and CLO I’ve spoken with this year is actively looking for ways to reduce their dependence on traditional law firms.”
The model and the tech just aren’t aligning.
Josef got an upgrade this month.
The new Rapid Ingestion Engine turns messy business inputs like meeting notes and email threads into structured data, so teams can generate what they need, faster.
The engine extracts key information, flags gaps, and routes work using legal-owned logic, so there’s no need for intake forms or manual data entry. Just drop in the information and get moving!
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See you next month.
Tom & Sam
