The AI Sidebar

De-hyping legal tech

AI isn’t coming for the legal profession. It’s already changing it. The AI Sidebar podcast cuts through the noise around legal AI and legal technology. Hosted by Phillip Vaden, each episode explores how lawyers and litigation teams are using artificial intelligence through honest conversations, real workflows, and practical takeaways you can apply immediately.

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Watch the latest episodes

Episode 6

Why Off-the-Shelf AI Tools Aren't Enough for Litigation Teams — Live from ILTACON 2026

with Sam Oh and Ke Ma

This conversation with the founders of Concorda digs into the gap they saw in legal AI tools that were built mostly for transactional work, while litigation teams were left without platforms that understood local court rules, judges' standing orders, and the formatting requirements tied to filing and service. Oh and Ma, both licensed attorneys, walk through mapping the technology to a firm's actual workflows.

Episode 5

Firms Are Growing Revenue With AI, Not Just Cutting Hours — Live from ILTACON 2026

with Thomas Bueler-Faudre

This conversation with the founder of August tackles the question he says he hears most from law firms: does adopting AI mean undercutting your own billable hours? Bueler-Faudree argues that legal work is inelastic, so firms that lower costs with AI tend to win more work rather than less, pointing to case studies of firms doubling revenue and scaling from 100 to 400 lawyers after adopting AI systems.

Episode 4

How AI Is Quietly Transforming the Courts

with Matt Davis

Most conversations about AI and the law focus on attorneys, but the courts themselves are moving fast in ways that get far less attention. Matt Davis, Vice President of Product Development at Tyler Technologies with over 20 years of experience in public sector courts and justice software, breaks down the three major categories where courts are actually deploying AI today.

Episode 3

Why Legal AI Needs an External Referee — Live from ILTACON 2026

with Dino Eliopulos

Recorded live at ILTACON 2026, this conversation with Dino Eliopulos, SVP of Innovation at Fulcrum GT, digs into why AI shouldn't be trusted to grade its own work. Eliopulos explains the case for building external systems that audit AI outputs rather than letting the AI evaluate itself, and how that traceability matters when a firm has to defend a disputed bill or explain how an AI-corrected time entry came to be.

Episode 2

How Paralegals Are Becoming the AI Power Users of the Legal Industry

with Kristine Custodio Suero & Kelli Radnothy

Paralegals have been prompt engineers long before the term existed, and that background is shaping how they're approaching generative AI today. Paralegal educators Kristine Custodio Suero and Kelli Radnothy join the show to talk through how they're using AI tools in practice and in the classroom. They walk through their advice for paralegals just starting out, why starting low stakes and low risk matters before touching client data, and how they trained their own LLMs, nicknames included, to build confidence with the technology.

Episode 1

AI Adoption in Law Firms: What's Really Happening Behind the Numbers

with Nicole Black

Generative AI usage among attorneys jumped from 31% to 69% in a single year, but most law firms still haven't caught up with formal policies or training. Attorney and legal tech columnist Nicole Black, who has covered the intersection of law and technology for two decades, joins Phillip to break down what's driving that gap and what it means for firms trying to keep pace.

Trailer

The AI Sidebar: De-hyping legal tech

with Phillip Vaden

Phillip Vaden gets past the AI hype to explore how attorneys and legal teams are actually using artificial intelligence in their work. You'll hear directly from legal professionals who are ahead of the AI curve and come away with real-world strategies for navigating the tech-enabled future of law.

Phillip Vaden

Phillip Vaden is a licensed Texas attorney turned legal tech insider — specializing in the intersection of law and emerging technology, and bringing a rare combination of legal practice, government technology, and legal tech industry experience to every conversation. As Partner Manager for API and MCP Ecosystems at InfoTrack, he works daily at the forefront of how technology is reshaping legal services. After starting his career as a litigator, he spent a decade in govtech before landing his current role. Based in Texas and Southern Indiana, Phillip offers a practitioner’s perspective on the future of law and legal tech.

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