🚨🎙️📘 Three Days Left: The Lawyer’s Guide to Podcasting releases NEXT WEEK! 🥳🥳🥳

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Inside title page of The Lawyer’s Guide to Podcasting, releasing January 19, 2026.

“The Lawyer’s Guide to Podcasting” will be released on Monday, January 19, 2026, through Amazon!!!

Designed for legal professionals, this book walks through every step of launching and sustaining an effective, ethically sound podcast that supports your practice and professional reputation.​

You will learn:

• Show formats

• Equipment needed

• Show hosting platforms to use

• Growing your audience

• Maintaining Professional Ethics

• Maybe earn some $Money$ too!

Want the release link the moment it’s live?
Email Admin@TheTechSavvyLawyer.Page with subject “Book Link.” I’ll send it on launch day. 🚀

Words of the Week: “ANTHROPIC” VS. “AGENTIC”: UNDERSTANDING THE DISTINCTION IN LEGAL TECHNOLOGY 🔍

lawyers need to know the difference anthropic v. agentic

The terms "Anthropic" and "agentic" circulate frequently in legal technology discussions. They sound similar. They appear in the same articles. Yet they represent fundamentally different concepts. Understanding the distinction matters deeply for legal practitioners seeking to leverage artificial intelligence effectively.

Anthropic is a company—specifically, an AI safety-focused organization that develops large language models, most notably Claude. Think of Anthropic as a technology provider. The company pioneered "Constitutional AI," a training methodology that embeds explicit principles into AI systems to guide their behavior toward helpfulness, harmlessness, and honesty. When you use Claude for legal research or document drafting, you are using a product built by Anthropic.

Agentic describes a category of AI system architecture and capability—not a company or product. Agentic systems operate autonomously, plan multi-step tasks, make decisions dynamically, and execute workflows with minimal human intervention. An agentic system can break down complex assignments, gather information, refine outputs, and adjust its approach based on changing circumstances. It exercises judgment about which tools to deploy and when to escalate matters to human oversight.

"Constitutional AI" is an ai training methodology promoting helpfulness, harmlessness, and honesty in ai programing

The relationship between these concepts becomes clearer through a practical scenario. Imagine you task an AI system with analyzing merger agreements from a target company. A non-agentic approach requires you to provide explicit instructions for each step: search the database, extract key clauses, compare terms against templates, and prepare a summary. You guide the process throughout. An agentic approach allows you to assign a goal—Review these contracts, flag risks, and prepare a risk summary—and the AI system formulates its own research plan, prioritizes which documents to examine first, identifies gaps requiring additional information, and works through the analysis independently, pausing only when human judgment becomes necessary.

Anthropic builds AI models capable of agentic behavior. Claude, Anthropic's flagship model, can function as an agentic system when configured appropriately. However, Anthropic's models can also operate in simpler, non-agentic modes. You might use Claude to answer a direct question or draft a memo without any agentic capability coming into play. The capability exists within Anthropic's models, but agentic functionality remains optional depending on your implementation.

They work together as follows: Anthropic provides the underlying AI model and the training methodology emphasizing constitutional principles. That foundation becomes the engine powering agentic systems. The Constitutional AI approach matters specifically for agentic applications because autonomous systems require robust safeguards. As AI systems operate more independently, explicit principles embedded during training help ensure they remain aligned with human values and institutional requirements. Legal professionals cannot simply deploy an autonomous AI agent without trust in its underlying decision-making framework.

Agentic vs. Anthropic: Know the Difference. Shape the Future of Law!

For legal practitioners, the distinction carries practical implications. You evaluate Anthropic as a vendor when selecting which AI provider's tools to adopt. You evaluate agentic architecture when deciding whether your specific use case requires autonomous task execution or whether simpler, more directed AI assistance suffices. Many legal workflows benefit from direct AI support without requiring full autonomy. Others—such as high-volume contract analysis during due diligence—leverage agentic capabilities to move work forward rapidly.

Both elements represent genuine advances in legal technology. Recognizing the difference positions you to make informed decisions about tool adoption and appropriate implementation for your practice. ✅

🎙️Ep. 128, Building a Tech-Forward Law Firm: AI Intake, CRM Strategy & Client Experience with Colleen Joyce!

My next guest is Colleen Joyce, CEO of Lawyer.com, a leading legal marketplace that connects over one million consumers monthly with qualified attorneys nationwide. With nearly two decades of experience transforming how law firms leverage technology and marketing, Colleen has pioneered innovations including LawyerLine call intake services, AI-powered matching technology, and the Lawyer Growth Summit. She publishes the Fast Five newsletter every Tuesday, reaching over 20,000 legal professionals with insights on AI trends, business growth strategies, and practice management. In this episode, Colleen shares her expertise on the essential technologies modern law firms need to scale profitably, how AI is revolutionizing client intake processes, and the critical human touchpoints that should never be automated in legal practice.

💬 Join Colleen Joyce and me as we discuss the following three questions and more!

1.     Beyond the essential lead generation that Lawyer.com provides, you see thousands of firms succeed and fail based on their operational efficiency. If you are building a modern law firm from scratch today, what are the top three non-negotiable technologies? For example, specific CRM automations, financial analytics, or project management tools you would implement immediately to ensure the firm scales profitably rather than just chaotically.

2.     We know AI is reshaping the top of the funnel for legal consumers. Based on the data you're seeing from your new AI initiatives, what are the top three specific intake bottlenecks that AI can now solve better than a human receptionist? Allowing attorneys to focus primarily on high-value legal work rather than data entry or basic screening.

3.     Technology can handle logistics, but it can't handle the emotion of legal crisis. From your experience overseeing millions of consumer connections, what are the top three human touchpoints in the client lifecycle that a lawyer should never automate? Because they are crucial for building the trust and transparency that leads to long-term referrals.

⏱ In our conversation, we cover the following:

-      00:00:00 - Welcome and Introduction to Colleen Joyce

-      00:00:20 - Colleen's Current Tech Setup: MacBook Pro, iPhone 16, iPad, and Curved Monitor

-      00:01:00 - Discussion about iPhone Models and AppleCare Benefits

-      00:02:00 - Using Plaud AI for Recording Conversations

-      00:03:00 - MacBook Pro Specifications and Upgrade Recommendations

-      00:04:00 - Dell Curved Monitor Benefits for Focus and Productivity

-      00:05:00 - Question 1: Top Three Non-Negotiable Technologies for Modern Law Firms

-      00:06:00 - Intake Technology, CRM, and Practice Management Systems

-      00:07:00 - Balancing Cost and Technology for New Lawyers

-      00:08:00 - Leveraging Freemium Tools and AI for Budget-Conscious Firms

-      00:08:30 - Question 2: AI Solutions for Intake Bottlenecks

-      00:09:00 - Answering Phones with Empathetic AI Agents

-      00:10:00 - Importance of Legal-Specific AI Training

-      00:11:00 - Consumer Adoption and Resistance to AI vs. Human Agents

-      00:12:00 - Using Virtual Receptionists and Calendly for Scheduling

-      00:13:00 - Generational Differences in Technology Adoption

-      00:14:00 - The Evolution of Legal Technology Adoption Over 14 Years

-      00:15:00 - Question 3: Human Touchpoints That Should Never Be Automated

-      00:16:00 - Relationship Building and the Courting Period

-      00:17:00 - Screening Clients Through Your Tech Processes

-      00:18:00 - Where to Find Colleen: LinkedIn and the Fast Five Newsletter - 00:18:30 - Closing Remarks and Gratitude

---

📚 Resources

🤝 Connect with Colleen Joyce

•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenjoyce

•  Lawyer.com: https://www.lawyer.com

•  Lawyer.com Services: https://services.lawyer.com

•  Fast Five Newsletter (Published Tuesdays): https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/ fast-five-fridays-7265815097552326656

•  Lawyer Growth Summit: https://lawyergrowthsummit.com

•  Lawyer.com Phone: 800-620-0900

•  Lawyer.com Address: 25 Mountainview Boulevard, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

📖 Mentioned in the Episode

•  MacRumors Buyer's Guide: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com

•  LawyerLine (24-hour Intake Services) : https://www.lawyerline.ai/

🖥 Hardware Mentioned in the Conversation

•  MacBook Pro : https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

•  MacBook Pro with M4/M5 Chips (Upgrade recommendation): https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

•  iPhone 16: https://www.apple.com/iphone-16/

•  iPad: https://www.apple.com/ipad/

•  Dell Curved Monitor (22-24 inch, white): https://www.dell.com/monitors

•  HP Printer (with automatic duplex printing): https://www.hp.com/printers

☁ Software & Cloud Services Mentioned in the Conversation

•  Plaud AI (Call Recording & Transcription): https://www.plaud.ai

• Slack (Team Communication Platform): https://slack.com

•  iMessage (Apple Messaging): https://support.apple.com/en-us/104969

•  Calendly (Scheduling Software): https://calendly.com

•  Monday.com (Project Management & Team Organization): https://monday.com

•  ChatGPT (AI Assistant): https://openai.com/chatgpt

•  AppleCare (Apple Device Protection): https://www.apple.com/support/applecare/

🎙️📘 Quick reminder: The Lawyer’s Guide to Podcasting releases NEXT WEEK!

View fullsize

Inside title page of The Lawyer’s Guide to Podcasting, releasing January 19, 2026.

If you want a podcast that sounds professional without turning your week into a production project, this book is built for you. It’s practical. It’s workflow-first. It keeps ethics and confidentiality in view. 🔐⚖️

✅ Inside you’ll learn:

• How to choose a podcast format that fits your goals 🎯

• A simple, reliable setup that sounds credible 🎤

• Recording habits that reduce editing time ⏱️

• Repurposing steps so one episode powers your content plan ♻️

📩 Want the release link the moment it’s live? Email Admin@TheTechSavvyLawyer.Page with subject “Book Link.” I’ll send it on launch day. 🚀

📢 ANNOUNCEMENT: Tech-Savvy Saturdays Takes a Brief Hiatus - Continuing to Empower Lawyers with Legal Tech Insights Through Blogs and Podcasts.

Hey everyone!

My goal with Tech-Savvy Saturdays (TSS) is to consistently serve as a cornerstone resource for legal professionals seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of legal technology. Due to other obligations, I need to take a pause on TSS.  But fear not, TSS will return in several months. Meanwhile, you can still stay updated on all things legal tech through the Tech-Savvy Lawyer Blog and Podcast.

Stay safe and Tech-Savvy!

Your Friend,
Michael D.J.