Generative AI, access to justice and law schools

Another year is nearly in the books. In many ways, 2025 was a continuation of trends present in previous years.

There was greater adoption and integration of generative artificial intelligence into legal practice and tons of money flowing into the legal tech sphere. It’s gotten to the point where plenty of experts and commentators have wondered whether we could be seeing an AI bubble—and what could happen if that bubble was to burst next year or soon thereafter.

It was also a year in which there was more loosening of the traditional bans on nonlawyer practice and ownership of law firms as Illinois took its first steps to create a program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal advice under the supervision of a certified attorney in areas such as family law and housing, while McDermott Will & Schulte made headlines when it announced that it would look at ways to secure outside funding, including from private equity.

There were also changes in bar exam and attorney admissions, as California’s new proprietary, remote exam flopped, and Nevada formally approved a new three-pronged licensure process that includes an exam, a performance test and supervised practice.

All in all, it’s shown that the legal industry, traditionally known as a staid, conservative and risk-averse profession, is undergoing a period of rapid change and transformation.

In this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, the ABA Journal’s Victor Li talks to Nicole Black, a regular columnist for the Journal and other publications, about the year that was. Black is the principal legal insight strategist at 8am, parent company of LawPay, MyCase, CasePeer and DocketWise.

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In This Podcast:

Nicole Black

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York-based attorney, author and journalist. She is the principal legal insight strategist at 8am, parent company of LawPay, MyCase, CasePeer and DocketWise. She is the nationally recognized author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers and is a co-author of Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier, both published by the American Bar Association. She writes regular columns for ABAJournal.com and Above the Law, has authored hundreds of articles for other publications, and she regularly speaks at conferences regarding the intersection of law and emerging technologies. Follow her on LinkedIn, or she can be reached at [email protected].