Big Sis Briefing: Notes From the Front Row

A Different Kind of Legal Summit

This week I flew to Sydney as a guest of Clio for their Innovate Legal Summit and something about it felt different from the very start.

I've spent my career inside the legal world. Sitting in conference rooms, giving advice and building teams. But this time, I was there as something else entirely: part lawyer, part observer, part storyteller.

I had my notebook out and tripod at the ready. I was listening more than I was talking (lol) and for the first time, I realised how much I love that role.

I've found a different way to stay close to the profession, by helping translate what's happening, connecting the dots and making sense of the change as it unfolds.

The Keynote That Shifted the Energy

Clio's founder and CEO, Jack Newton, delivered the opening keynote that had everyone buzzing.

He spoke about the convergence of the practice and business of law into something entirely new, a category they're calling the “intelligent legal work platform”.

It's a simple but powerful idea: the tools we use to do the work and the systems we use to run the work are finally becoming one.

This isn't just for small firms anymore either. Clio is looking upstream, into the enterprise and in-house world, imagining a future where corporate legal teams and their external firms operate from the same connected system.

That makes perfect sense to me.

The next big legal transformation could come from the in-house side setting the tone and saying, "If you want to work with us, you need to be on the same platform."

In-house counsel as a gateway to the bigger firms? Genius.

The View From My Community

Before the summit, I asked my community on Instagram (@theinhouselawyer) what systems they currently use in their firms. The responses came in fast and honest.

"Clio and love it, though it has a few small glitches," one person said. "Smokeball. Changed from Leap two years ago. It's growing on me." "Actionstep is very user friendly." "We use Leap and absolutely hate it." "No one's signing up to Leap now. Lots of legacy users trying to leave but can’t get their documents out without $$."

The vast mix of answers told its own story. There's progress but there's also frustration. Lawyers want tools that are easier, faster and genuinely built for how they work today. They want, and deserve, true data portability.

We're not just talking about practice management anymore. We're talking about intelligent design, integration and automation that actually respects our time and headspace.

"AI and Human" - Not One or the Other

One slide summed up the whole day for me:

"AI is not here to replace legal professionals. It's here to multiply what's possible."

That's the story we should be telling.

We get stuck in this fear narrative about replacement when the real opportunity is augmentation. AI agents, automation and intelligent systems aren't here to take over. They're here to take away the friction.

Jack talked about agentic AI too. Think virtual teammates that can reason, manage and execute on your behalf. Combine that with the data from Clio's VLex acquisition (tl;dr: over a billion-dollar global legal dataset!) and you start to see the outlines of what comes next.

Sitting Down With Jack

At the end of the summit, I got to sit down with Jack himself for a live rapid fire round of my favourite podcast segment: overrated/underrated.

Coffee? Underrated. AI agents? Underrated. The billable hour? Overrated. Reading business books? Underrated. Red-eye flights from Canada to Australia? Depends on your age…

Then the best part: the post-recording chat, the one that happens when the camera stops rolling and you get a minute to ask one last informal question.

I asked whether he thought we'd ever see a solo lawyer law firm unicorn. A single lawyer amplified by AI and with a team of AI Agents, scaling to something huge.

He hardly paused. "Yes," he said. "It'll happen sooner than people think."

I believed him.

The Room That Felt Like the Future

There's something powerful about being in a room full of lawyers, technologists and entrepreneurs who are genuinely curious about what comes next.

For years, I felt like I had to choose between being a lawyer and being creative. Sitting there, notebook in hand, scribbling quotes and reactions, I realised I didn't have to pick.

I can be both.

A lawyer who tells stories. A communicator who understands law. A bridge between the profession we were trained for and the one we're building now.

Walking Away Inspired

On the walk back to my hotel, I thought about how far the profession has come since my early years and how different my own role looks now.

Back then, I was learning to navigate contracts. Now, I'm helping people navigate change.

The tech conversation has become a part of our everyday reality (or it should be) whether you're in a firm, in-house or running your own shop.

I walked into the Clio Innovate Legal Summit as a guest. I left feeling like a correspondent for the next era of law, reporting from the front row of the future.

There's a story unfolding about where lawyerin’ evolves to next. What we take with us and what we discard, a relic of the past. What value and quality look like in this new world and who gets to the decide that. I'm going to keep telling it from the summits, the conversations from the trenches and the moments where the future becomes visible.

Onwards!

Mel

💖

ps: check out clio.com/au for more detail

pps: Clio kindly funded my flights and accommodation for this trip.