Podcast Transcript:
Opening teaser — 0:00
Rob Stote: You can’t measure what you can’t see.
And so, for me, bringing visibility into metrics that have traditionally been hidden — your billings, your WIP, things like that — a lot of that is hidden. It’s certainly opaque to management: what are our back-office staff doing? How are they operating? How’s the actual firm running?
And for us, bringing that data up front and allowing them to see it allows firm management to get a real holistic view of the firm operation.
Introduction — 0:25
Will Ayers: Behind every great law firm are bold leaders and powerful solutions that help them run a better business. Welcome to Studio A, the home of legal tech innovation.
Welcome to Studio A, powered by Aderant, your podcast for the latest conversations shaping legal tech. I’m your host Will Ayers. We are at Momentum Global 2026, and we are talking all things innovation.
I have Chief Product Officer from BigHand, Rob Stote, on the show today. How are you doing?
Rob: I’m doing very well. Thank you for having me.
Will: It’s good to see you, Rob. Last time I saw you, I think we were at ILTACON Nashville. You did a short, brief interview, but now you are on the big stage.
Rob: I am on the hot seat.
Will: And you’re about to do a full episode on Studio A. So, are you ready to go?
Rob: I’m ready to go.
Building a connected operational ecosystem — 1:15
Will: First question. BigHand and Aderant have both talked about building a more connected operational ecosystem for law firms around the world.
Given the highly specialized operational needs and complex technology environments within large law firms, are you seeing firms prioritize flexibility, or connecting best-fit solutions across workflows?
Rob: If we look at our clients, our shared clients and law firms in general, I think they’ve been asking over the last few years for more flexibility, more openness.
Chris said it on the main stage here: Aderant wants to be a more open system, as do we.
Our clients are expecting the vendors to work well together, and they’re expecting us to offer solutions that offer flexibility and meet the needs of the individual product that they’re buying, as well as being able to operate an ecosystem where you have a multitude of products and a multitude of different solutions you’re trying to solve.
The ability to have those tools talk to each other is pretty much top of the list. When we go and talk to clients, that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for vendors to be able to work together and offer a complete solution.
We may have something that they’re looking for. Aderant may have something they’re looking for. But the reality is, working together is in the best interest of our clients.
Why operational visibility has become a defining issue — 2:25
Will: I was in the weeds reading some of the client case studies for BigHand. One of the themes that comes through repeatedly in your client case studies is visibility.
Why has operational visibility become such a defining issue for law firms right now?
Rob: Well, I think it’s a couple of things.
There’s that classic line: you can’t manage what you can’t measure. I would add to that: you can’t measure what you can’t see.
And so, for me, bringing visibility into metrics that have traditionally been hidden — your billings, your WIP, things like that.
If we take the second half of how the law firm runs, a lot of that is hidden. It’s certainly opaque to management. What are our back-office staff doing? How are they operating? How’s the actual firm running?
For us, bringing that to the front and allowing them to see it allows firm management to get a real holistic view of the firm operation. Not only from my finance, my billings, my WIP, etc., but also how the firm is running.
Making sure that you have that allows them to make better, more strategic decisions. For me, that’s paramount.
I’ve been preaching about data visibility for years now, and I think firms have always realized it’s important, but getting access to it has traditionally been a little bit more difficult.
Now that you have these systems that can surface that information, I think that, for firms, is the next step into where they want to go and how they want to evolve as a business.
What successful firms do differently — 3:40
Will: Now, speaking of your clients, BigHand has a very impressive portfolio. BigHand works with a share of the Am Law 200 and UK Top 200 firms.
Across those firms, what are the most common operational habits and leadership behaviors for those law firms that are successful during these times?
Rob: Yeah, I think there are a couple of things.
One of the common traits we see in those firms that are taking the next step, or taking it to the next level, is they have a clear, defined strategy of where they want to go and what they want to be — not next year, but three to five years from now.
When we go in and talk to firms — and I’m sure it’s the same when the folks at Aderant go and talk to firms — those firms that have a management structure that has a clear eye towards where we’re going to be in three or five years, that’s the mark of a successful firm.
If they do have a clear view of where they’re going, they’re in a better position to put in technology and use technology to greater effect to achieve that strategy or achieve that vision.
Where firms can realize measurable AI value today — 4:41
Will: Let’s talk about the partnership that BigHand has with Aderant.
Where do you think firms can actually realize measurable AI value today? Because I feel like 2026 and beyond is really about that ROI. So where is that value?
Rob: Chris had mentioned some stuff around where Aderant is heading, and we’re on a very similar path.
In my mind, there are a couple of things when we talk about AI. AI can really be busted up into a few categories.
You have what I think we share as organizations, what’s called applied AI. So that’s AI that’s embedded in your software, and it’s extremely important for that AI to actually provide value — meaningful value.
So I see a tangible increase or a tangible benefit of AI being embedded in this product.
You have your foundational models, so your Claudes, your Anthropics, etc. And your AI natives are people like Harvey, etc.
There’s different ROI for those different kinds of applications of AI. But when we talk about applied AI within the products, it has to be measurable in improving the existing ROI that the product you’re offering is already giving the client.
I think that’s extremely important.
It’s not just tacking “AI” on the end of your URL and saying, “I’m an AI company.” If you can actually embed it and show true value, that’s when firms will come on board. That’s when firms will actually start to embrace the technology.
Speed versus informed decision-making — 5:58
Will: How important is operational decision-making speed specifically becoming in areas like staffing, pricing and just operations overall?
Rob: It’s interesting, the word “speed” there. I would substitute speed for accuracy, or “informed.”
What firms want to be able to do is make informed decisions. They want to be able to be confident in the decision they’re making, and they want to make sure that they have the information and the data flowing through to make that decision.
That can be something as simple as growing an office, right? Using proper budgeting and forecasting to understand: what does it look like to add an office to my firm, or do a merger?
Or, from a staffing perspective, understand: what is my associate class looking like? Who’s at risk of potentially leaving? Who’s doing well? Who’s thriving? Who’s struggling? Who’s being overutilized? Who’s underutilized?
This idea of running the firm like a business and having that information in front of you to make those informed decisions will ultimately lead to speed, I’m assuming.
But speed, to me — you can make really bad decisions quickly.
For me, it’s about making sure that you’re making the right decision with the right information.
AI and the shift in legal pricing — 7:03
Will: You talked about the right decision with the right information, and the innovation and acceleration around AI enables people to make faster, smarter decisions.
Why do you think the industry is struggling to align pricing strategy with the realities of AI-enabled work?
Rob: That’s a whole other hour conversation.
I think, look, let’s take a step back.
AI has been around in various flavors for 25 years, but large language models, etc. burst on the scene a couple of years ago. Then last December, we got agentic AI and everybody talked about how law firms are going to implode. This is going to be the death of these businesses. I can just get a machine to go try my case for me. It’s going to be amazing.
But law firms are built on an apprenticeship model, which is built on the billable hour.
What AI does is it takes work that a human being might take five hours to do and reduces it down to 20 minutes.
What I think law firms have to do, and I think where we’re heading, is that the billable hour is not going away. It is still going to be the measure in which firms grade or promote and get that apprenticeship model. They’re still going to have to put the hours in.
What’s going to shift is: how do I bill my client for that? How do I actually create a pricing model?
Law firms are going to have to actually offer up products to say, “I’m going to do this for you at this price because it’s based on the outcome that you’re looking for.”
Now, whether or not I use AI under the hood to do that, or I use an army of human beings to do it, is irrelevant. It is relevant to the bottom line, but at the end of the day, firms are going to have to adjust how they go out to their clients and say, “Here’s the value that I’m providing you.”
I was talking to a person the other day here at the booth where they said, “Look, I’m paying law firm X for that person’s brain, right? And I’m paying for their judgment.”
The large language models and AI are going to get better over time, but at the end of the day, you’re still paying the law firm for that judgment.
They may use tools under the hood to put the parameters in place for that person to make that decision, but at the end of the day, you’re paying for that and you’re paying for the value that provides you as a client.
It’s brand new if you think about it, right? This is a sea change for law firms.
Law firms have traditionally been companies that move slow. If you think about going back six or seven years ago, cloud was like, “Oh my God, we can’t put anything in the cloud. This is crazy,” right?
Then, unfortunately, the pandemic hits and everyone’s like, “Oh my God, we’ve got to be in the cloud.”
AI even ramped that up.
If you think about technology adoption in law firms in my lifetime — and I’ve been doing this for 25 years in law firms — it’s the fastest-adopted technology I’ve seen in 25 years.
What firms are talking about at Momentum Global — 9:30
Will: Wow, that’s incredible.
We are at Momentum Global 2026, and I know that you are talking to many law firms that are here at the conference. What are some things you have heard that have been common themes this week?
Rob: Change is the common one that I’ve seen.
I’ll pivot the question a little bit, but one of the things I want to do when I come to conferences like this is I want to talk to firms about where they’re going.
That theme of change — everyone understands things are changing at law firms, and they’re changing for the better, I believe. But how that change impacts the firm, how they operate, how they grade themselves, how they measure themselves.
What I’m really fascinated by in my role, trying to steer our products where we want to be, is: where do you see your problems three years from now? What’s the thing that you think will keep you up in three years? Where does the firm want to be in five years?
That’s really strategic vision. Looking out that three-to-five-year window.
That, for me, has really been the crux of a lot of the conversations I’ve had today with some of the financial leaders that are here. That’s really been the focus: where do you want to go?
I bring that back to our group and say, “Hey, here’s what the market is telling us. Here’s what the law firms are telling us about where they’re going to be.”
That’s what I’ve been looking most forward to: having these conversations.
Why change management can make or break technology adoption — 10:42
Will: From your perspective as a leader in the industry, why is change management so important when implementing new tech?
Rob: That’s the million-dollar question, right?
Change management falls into two categories, in my opinion, at law firms.
When you’re putting in software that may be more back-office oriented, change management is a little easier to deal with, right?
If you think of a corporation, they put in software and typically there’s that sort of top-down, dictatorial, “Hey, this is what we’re doing now. This is the software we’re using. We switched to this practice management system, or we switched to this expense system.”
But when it involves the lawyers, it’s a different beast, right?
You really need to couple the technology — you could have the greatest technology in the world, it could be life-changing for these lawyers — but if you don’t marry that up with a proper change management process where you get the buy-in from them, you’re going to fail.
I think we approach it hand in glove with our delivery people, with that change management in mind.
We can describe to folks, “This is the change you’re going to go through. Here’s how behavior is going to change.”
But when you explain that, and here’s the benefit to that change, you really have to couple this idea that the change is going to be to your benefit and it’s going to offer you these things.
When we talk about putting AI in our products, we just launched something in one of our products around email ingestion and routing tasks.
That’s a change in behavior.
But what we say to the lawyer in that case is, “It’s going to save you two to three hours a week. We’re going to take time back and give it back to you if you change slightly what you do.”
I think if you can couple those two together — the value and the change with the tech — you’re in good shape.
If you can’t articulate the value, it becomes dicey.
What successful law firms will need over the next three to five years — 12:18
Will: Before we close, Rob, things are moving fast.
Rob: Yes.
Will: And there are many law firms and listeners that want to know: what do they need to do to put themselves in the best position to be successful?
If you can fast-forward three to five years from now, what does it take to be a successful law firm and navigate this rapid time of change?
Rob: That’s a good question. It’s a fantastic question.
It goes back to what I was saying a moment ago around firms that have a clear eye to where they’re going.
To be successful in this very rapidly changing landscape, there are a couple of things they have to do.
I think they have to be open-minded. That’s the biggest key to change.
We were talking about change management a moment ago, but the biggest thing around that is, if you’re open to change, that sets the table, right? At least you can be flexible and understand what’s happening in front of you.
If you’re open to change, I think that’s the key.
The second is: have a very clear view of where you want to be.
Chris got up on stage and talked about Aderant 2030, right? We’re in the same position at BigHand. We’re laying out the vision for our products for the next three to five years.
Firms have to do the same thing.
They have to understand: where do I want to be in three to five years? And be open to the change, because no one two years ago anticipated the explosion of GPT and AI and large language models and the impact it would have.
But those firms that embraced that change and were open-minded to it were ahead of the game. Those that are catching up now are getting there, but they’re still behind.
In order to be successful three to five years from now, you have to be open-minded. You have to embrace change. You have to embrace technology.
We know this industry, at times, can be a little bit laggard when it comes to adopting tech. Not all the time, but some can be a little bit more cautious, and that’s okay.
But you do have to move forward.
Closing — 14:00
Will: Love it. Love it. Moving forward.
Rob, truly an honor and a pleasure to have you on today’s episode. I need you back on the show, Rob. We’ve got to do this more often.
Thank you so much for joining us. I love everything that you guys are doing, and I know that you’re always going to deliver great conversation.
Rob: Appreciate it. Thank you.
Will: Thank you.
That was Rob Stote from BigHand, Chief Product Officer.
If you enjoyed that conversation, you can check us out on Aderant’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe. You can also check out the podcast on all major streaming platforms.
I’m Will Ayers, and you’ve been tuned in to Studio A, powered by Aderant.
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