His law firm’s first game-changing tech adoption was a trio of fax machines that outpaced the competition and he says AI is the next big player. But Geo Bellas – nicknamed Geo as a reference to Neo in The Matrix – hasn’t been a techie simply because of the success it’s brought his practice over the past forty years.
He says it’s also the fun of getting a “new toy.” Further proof that staying true to your passions in your legal career, and having fun, is an important aspect of long-term success.
Forty years of game-changing tech and what the future holds for the legal profession:
- The first tech in his firm and why he adapted early (01:30)
- A prediction of law firms’ futures (18:00)
- Attorneys working with purpose (32:08)
- Geo’s advice for younger attorneys looking to build storied careers (41:05)
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Legal innovation needs more than game-changing tech. It needs lawyers who change with it.
“I don’t think I ever sat there and said, ‘I got to do this, I got to go get this,’ I just wanted to get a toy. And, you know the old adage is he who dies with the most toys wins.”
“There is a movement to have a form of artificial intelligence decide small cases to eliminate the load on the courts…. The only thing is that computers haven’t learned to absorb all of the other factors…that help us make a decision. But eventually that’s going to happen and computers are going to take a lot of the work off of lawyers and lawyers are gonna have to find a way to fit into that new paradigm.”
“[Zoom] is creating the efficiency and lawyers are still adapting to it. I mean, I see lawyers, getting on…and there are still lawyers who sit there and have to have either their grandchildren, or somebody help them open up the Zoom window so they can participate in a webinar by Zoom. But that will change. There was a time where lawyers didn’t know how to use a fax machine. But they got [it], somehow they figured that out.”
GEORGE “GEO” BELLAS, An Early Adopter of Game-Changing Tech for Law Firms
Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer who has used technology in litigation for over 40 years. Geo’s firm serves as a trusted business advisor to business owners and has been promoting the use of technology in the practice for over 35 years.
www.bellas-wachowski.com
Blog: www.businessattorneychicago.com
Geo’s Social Media
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/georgebellas/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/george.s.bellas
Twitter: www.twitter.com/GeoBellas
Keep Reading About Game-Changing Tech in Law
- “Legal futurist Richard Susskind sees technology as a path to better justice” ABA, September 2020
https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2020/youraba-september-2020/futurist-susskind-sees/ - “A General Approach for Predicting the Behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States” Daniel M. Katz, Michael J. Bommarito, Josh Blackman, 16 February 2017
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2463244
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If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.
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