🎙️ TSL.P Ep. #135: Ethical AI, Paperless Practice, and Smart Hardware Choices with ABA LTRC Chair Alan Klevan ⚖️🤖
/My next guest is Alan Klevan, a veteran personal injury lawyer and Chair of the ABA Law Practice Division’s Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC), known for running one of the first paperless practices in New England and for his clear-eyed approach to AI in law. In this live episode recorded at the ABA Spring Conference in San Diego, Alan and I dig into how solos and small firms can use AI, case management platforms, hardware, and workflows to practice more efficiently while honoring their ethical duties and protecting client confidentiality.
Join Alan Klevan and me as we discuss the following three questions and more!
What are the top three ways Alan uses AI and other tech tools to control discovery and document management at scale, protect client confidentiality, and communicate complex case progress to clients who only care that it is accurate and on time?
As Chair of the ABA Law Practice Division’s Legal Technology Resource Center, what top three technology practices does Alan wish every small or solo lawyer would adopt in the next 12 months?
What were the three most important technology decisions Alan made early in his career around paperless workflows, practice management, automation, and AI‑powered research—and how can today’s practitioners follow that lead?
In our conversation, we covered the following:
[00:00:00] Live from the ABA Spring Conference in San Diego, introducing Alan Klevan and the setting of the conversation 🌴
[00:00:30] Alan’s mirrored bi‑state setup: two Lenovo i7 laptops in Massachusetts and Florida, dual 24" HP HD monitors, two ScanSnap iX1600 scanners, laser printers, and Microsoft OneDrive syncing between offices 💻📠
[00:01:10] Traveling with a third “road warrior” Lenovo laptop, iPhone as primary smart device, and using the reMarkable 2 tablet for handwritten notes that sync into client and ABA files ✍️
[00:01:45] Early impressions of the Plaud (AI wearable) device, background-noise muting, and why Alan limits it to non‑critical meetings due to privilege concerns 🎧
[00:02:20] Judicial skepticism about AI recording tools in court; motion practice, privilege issues, and a New York judge flatly banning AI recorders in the courtroom 🚫
[00:03:10] AI hallucinations in legal practice, roughly 1,300 known hallucination incidents, and why the real problem is lawyers not checking citations—highlighted by a recent Oregon sanctions case 💸
[00:04:00] The Oregon lawyer who tried to “fix” hallucinated citations with a motion to refile instead of candor to the court and opposing counsel, and how that became a fraud‑on‑the‑court issue under the Oregon Rules of Professional Responsibility
[00:04:45] Using Google Scholar as an AI‑prompting “hack” to verify every citation and case suggested by AI tools 🔍
[00:05:20] Question 1 restated: top three ways Alan uses AI and tech to (1) control discovery, (2) protect confidentiality and ethical duties, and (3) communicate complex case progress to clients
[00:05:45] Drafting AI and social media policies directly into contingency‑fee agreements so clients do not post about their case or use open‑source AI on case‑related issues 📜
[00:06:30] Hepner and Warner: open‑source vs enterprise AI, attorney–client privilege, work product concerns, and emerging discoverability questions for public‑facing AI platforms
[00:07:20] Trap for the unwary: why Alan insists clients notify him before using AI on their case and why he prefers enterprise versions of AI for better protection and governance 🧠
[00:08:10] The Nippon Life Insurance case: client uploads attorney communications into ChatGPT, asks if her lawyer is gaslighting her, then files 44 AI‑drafted motions—raising product liability and disclaimer questions for AI vendors 🏛️
[00:09:30] Court pushback on AI disclaimer language, defective product theories, and the infancy of AI‑related legal liability
[00:10:10] Alan’s big personal‑injury “Aaron Brockovich‑type” case with a deep‑pocket defendant and using AI to level the playing field on litigation management and motion practice ⚖️
[00:11:00] Feeding facts, parties, defense counsel names, and pleadings into a case management system with a built‑in, highly accurate legal AI component (VL) and generating 50‑state case research for negligent infliction of emotional distress claims 📂
[00:12:00] Running the same matter through two AI platforms (case management AI and Claude) to compare outputs, reduce hallucination risk, and mold responses to Alan’s writing style and Massachusetts practice
[00:13:00] Using Claude (enterprise tier) to draft an opposition to a motion to dismiss seven emotional‑distress claims, followed by manual review and cross‑checking in the case management AI—leading to the defendant’s motion being denied ✅
[00:14:15] Alan’s process for verifying AI outputs: second set of “AI eyes,” Google Scholar citation checks, and lawyer‑level review of every filing
[00:15:00] Advice for new attorneys: try AI platforms before buying, choose a tool that fits your workflow, avoid shiny‑object syndrome, and do not over‑commit to annual plans while the market is moving fast 🧩
[00:16:00] Michael’s caution about yearly plans, vendor lock‑in, and ensuring your data is nimble enough to move between AI platforms without costly migrations
[00:16:45] Alan’s rule: do not chase every AI; become a master of one platform, learn it deeply, and resist the temptation to constantly switch 🧠
[00:17:10] Both hosts stress “review, review, review”—AI as a law librarian or 3L intern, not as your practicing lawyer, and the concept that AI does not have a JD 🎓
[00:18:00] Anecdote from 1990: Alan is sent to court unprepared, gets sent out of the courtroom to learn his file, and how that story frames his modern view of AI oversight and responsibility
[00:19:10] Question 2: as LTRC Chair, Alan’s top three technology practices every small or solo lawyer should adopt in the next 12 months
[00:19:30] Tech Practice #1: invest in a fast machine (Windows or Mac) with as much RAM and storage as you can reasonably afford, and strip the “crapware” off box‑store Windows machines 🖥️
[00:20:10] Discussion of Apple vs Windows pricing, the need for more than 16 GB of RAM, multi‑core processors, and why Alan buys Lenovo laptops with 32 GB RAM and expects 3–4 year laptop lifespans 💾
[00:21:30] Backups and storage: redundant cloud backups, redundant hard drives, using external 5 TB drives from Staples, and keeping active machines “clean” for better AI performance
[00:22:30] Tech Practice #2: immerse yourself in what is happening with AI and law practice, become a master of one AI platform, and continuously read ethics and disciplinary decisions about AI use 📚
[00:23:15] Tech Practice #3: your head is your most important piece of technology—using judgment, stepping back to assess risks, and making sure anything submitted to court or client is accurate
[00:24:00] Economic access, hardware costs, and why Alan still believes lower‑resource attorneys can get workable hardware by being strategic about purchases, specs, and lifecycles
[00:25:10] Michael’s storage philosophy: lots of local SSD, multiple backups, and revisiting older briefs and arguments (e.g., mailbox‑rule analysis) to build new work more efficiently
[00:26:10] Disk space versus backup strategy, internal vs external drives, cloud vs local files, and disaster recovery considerations
[00:27:20] Question 3: top three early technology decisions Alan made around paperless practice, automation, and AI‑powered research
[00:27:40] Answer #1: going fully paperless in 2005—the first paperless practice in New England—and eliminating almost all postage costs by sending encrypted electronic communications and demand packages ✉️
[00:28:15] Answer #2: becoming a power‑user of Adobe Acrobat and PDF workflows so he can respond to massive production requests (e.g., 10,000 pages) in seconds instead of hours 📑
[00:29:00] Answer #3: adopting case management platforms with AI‑driven workflows that automatically assemble record requests, HIPAA authorizations, and certifications for medical providers
[00:29:45] Dusty hardware: why Alan’s printer and ScanSnap are seeing less use, yet scanners remain necessary for partners who still prefer paper and non‑electronic delivery 🖨️
[00:30:20] Michael’s own shrinking paper consumption, stamps.com, and transitioning to PDF‑based workflows with secure electronic delivery
[00:31:00] Adobe Acrobat as “gold standard” for lawyers, why every attorney must understand PDFs deeply, and Alan’s “learn it, love it, live it” mantra 📄
[00:31:40] Bonus segment: what the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC) is, its role as a “delivery board,” and how it serves both the Law Practice Division and the broader ABA membership 🏛️
[00:32:20] LTRC’s four pillars of law practice management—marketing, technology, practice, and finance—and how it delivers content via Law Technology Today, webinars, podcasts, and roundtables
[00:33:10] 2024–25 LTRC theme: AI‑centric content from intake through trial, and why Alan believes LTRC may become the ABA’s most important board for practitioners navigating AI
[00:34:00] Using AI for law‑firm marketing, content creation, case‑law recaps, and SEO—along with warnings about legal advice, PII, and AI‑generated “SEO articles” that sound inauthentic
[00:35:00] Call to action: join the ABA Law Practice Division and LTRC, become one of roughly 30 tech‑focused thought leaders, and help shape AI guidance for the profession 🙌
[00:36:00] Where to find Alan: why he is minimizing social presence during a major move and high‑stakes case, and the best way to reach him on LinkedIn
Hardware mentioned in the conversation
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600 scanners – https://www.pfu-us.ricoh.com/scanners/scansnap/ix1600
HP HD monitors – https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/slp/hp-monitors/hp-series-3-pro?jumpid=ma_accy_button_na_2_260304
HP LaserJet printers – https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/printers/prnttyp=Laser?jumpid=ma_pr_featured_na_1_250511
iPhone – https://www.apple.com/iphone
Lenovo laptops – https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/
Mac mini – https://www.apple.com/mac-mini
reMarkable 2 tablet – https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2
Software & cloud services mentioned
Adobe Acrobat – https://www.adobe.com/acrobat
ChatGPT – OpenAI ChatGPT – https://chatgpt.com
Claude – Anthropic Claude – https://www.anthropic.com/claude
Dropbox – https://www.dropbox.com
Microsoft OneDrive – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage
Stamps.com – https://www.stamps.com
Zoom – https://zoom.us
