ABA TECHSHOW 2026 Highlights: AI and the Future of Legal Practice

Live from ABA TECHSHOW 2026, the Law Practice podcast shares three perspectives on Jordan Furlong’s day-one keynote. Alan Klevan calls the talk motivating and terrifying, emphasizing that AI can act like a “3L” but cannot replace courtroom advocacy or the counselor role, and he urges firm-wide AI policies plus a residency-style training model for new lawyers amid emerging privilege and work-product questions. Ruby Powers highlights Furlong’s framework of civic, proficient, and human lawyers, connecting the civic role to community work and the rule-of-law theme, and raising concerns about law school graduates’ readiness and future needed proficiencies. Julie Bayes focuses on rapid AI-driven change, debates about apprenticeships, law school relevance, and eliminating the bar exam, and notes ongoing real-world ethics problems like hallucinated citations and sanctions, while encouraging lawyers to learn practical AI use and attend TECHSHOW 2027.00:00 Keynote Recap Setup00:24 Podcast Welcome Disclaimer01:03 Alan First Reactions04:19 Residency Model Idea05:05 AI Policies And Privilege07:19 TECHSHOW Community Wrap08:00 Meet Ruby Powers09:19 Civic Human Proficient Lawyer11:05 Law School Readiness Gap12:14 Why Attend Next Year13:16 Meet Julie Bays14:11 Rethinking Law School Bar16:23 AI Adoption Ethics Reality19:36 Conference Highlights Closing20:24 Final Sign Off