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Behind every great law firm is a team of professionals working hard to keep operations running smoothly. With the challenges of staying on top of complex billing requirements, managing time reports, and navigating constantly shifting industry trends, it’s easy to see why most firms write off millions in uncollected revenue each year.
To help your firm stay in the green, we’re introducing Studio A, a new podcast from Aderant.
Studio A is purpose-built to help you run your firm like a well-oiled machine. In each episode, legal business leaders and industry experts will share problems firms face and the revolutionary approaches and cutting-edge software they use to solve them. Because ultimately, in the business of legal firms and the ever-evolving world of technology, you can’t afford to fall behind.
Chris Cartrett (00:00):
If you think about a lighthouse, a lighthouse doesn't actually get you to shore, but a lighthouse is an enabler for how that will happen. And so for the investments that we've made at Aderant, that analogy fit for what we're doing, stated this to multiple people multiple times. It is happening. It will either happen to you or it will happen with you one way or the other.
Will Ayers (00:20):
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 Power by Aderant, your podcast for the latest conversations shaping legal tech. I'm your host, Will Ayers. I am here at Momentum Global 2026 and I have my favorite guest on the show right now, president and CEO Chris Cartrette. How are you doing?
Chris Cartrett (00:53):
I'm doing very well, my friend. It's been a really good few days here.
Will Ayers (00:55):
Chris Cartret is the president and CEO at Aderant, and he normally kicks things off for us at Studio A, but some reason he-
Chris Cartrett (01:03):
You voted me off. You moved me to the end. I don't know what that means about what I've been doing.
Will Ayers (01:08):
Next year we're going to put you
Chris Cartrett (01:10):
Back at the top
Will Ayers (01:11):
Of the list.
Chris Cartrett (01:11):
Thank you.
Will Ayers (01:12):
And we're going to get it done.
Chris Cartrett (01:13):
I appreciate that.
Will Ayers (01:14):
Now we are at Momentum Global 2026. The big theme is innovation delivered. There's a lot of innovation going on and I saw you on stage talking about all of the amazing things that our team is doing at Aderant. Can you tell our audience what is the main thing that you talked about on stage today? Because it was great.
Chris Cartrett (01:35):
This has been a really good conference. Over the past few years, we've made a lot of investments. We've delivered a lot of things to the market, but we really were doing some foundational work for things that we knew would have a greater impact for clients. The reason that we chose innovation for this one was we have 12 different AI products in market, like truly revenue generating AI products in market. And then we were releasing our agent center with three new agents that honestly have an enormous impact for the law firms who leverage the different products and applications that we have. And then between now and the end of the year, there's another 15 products coming and another 10 agents over the top of that. It just made sense to make it about innovation. I think we're realizing our place as it makes sense in the ecosystem of what's happening, especially within our core market, which is the back office.
(02:26):
I talked from the stage about the fact that I want our customers to think of us as like a lighthouse. It helps steer you clear of where there are rocky places. The most important thing is though, if you think about a lighthouse, a lighthouse doesn't actually get you to shore. It's still about you. You're the one that still has to get there, but a lighthouse is an enabler for how that will happen. And so for the investments that we've made at Aderant, for the things that we've brought to market, for everything that's continuing to come out on a pretty regular basis, I thought that analogy fit for what we're doing and based on the feedback from our clients, they seem to have really enjoyed it.
Will Ayers (03:02):
Now you talked about Aderant 2030. I'll say that again for our listeners. Aderant 2030. What fundamentally changes about how law firms operate between now and 2030 and explain what that means.
Chris Cartrett (03:17):
Yeah. So Aderant 2030 actually is a little bit more about them than it actually is about us. Meaning we tried to look at the market for what is happening with AI that you've seen happen in professional services, accounting firms, everything else that's really happening exponentially within the legal market. For example, you and I have talked about this before. Law firms are becoming AI native. The fact that the back office has to become more autonomous. So the idea was that, okay, what does that mean for Aderant as a company? And then for us, that means that everything that we're doing, everything that we've been bringing to market over the last few years has to become more of an operating system that enables you for how you want to run and manage your business and less so of apps and software and kind of things are a little bit disjointed.
(04:05):
So we've been executing on that the last two years. Obviously it's gone well, thus our market position. But I think what everybody has seen this year has shown that we've doubled down on that and they've been receiving it really well.
Will Ayers (04:17):
You mentioned AI native law firms. What does that mean in practice?
Chris Cartrett (04:22):
An AI native law firm doesn't mean like today, a lot of firms are kind of leveraging AI around the edges, like trying to find ways to automate a little task or whatever else. But as we move forward over the next two to three years, it's going to be native, meaning the actual core workflows, how they serve their clients, the things that they do today that are manual, it's not going to be that way anymore. You're going to be like a single operation. I use the example that if I look at just a software engineer, our software engineers a few years back, they were leveraging AI to help them within their jobs. But if you watch what they do today, AI is central to their job. 95% of their code in some way, form or fashion is AI generated. Their technical expertise is still the most important thing to understand what was done, how it's going to solve the problem.
(05:13):
But honestly, AI is like native to every single thing they do. That is exactly what's going to happen to a lawyer. When you pay a lawyer, you're paying them for their brain. You want the intelligence that they're bringing to whatever the matter is. But the reality is a lot of the things that will happen that help them get to that point will be AI generator, or they will be leveraging AI to take advantage of it. So that's what I mean by it's just going to be AI native. It's just going to be a part of what they do and it'll be as natural as it is surfing the internet.
Will Ayers (05:39):
With that being said, Adirond is the operational backbone for many top law firms around the world. So what does it mean to own that role for Aderant across the ecosystem?
Chris Cartrett (05:51):
Yeah, so to me, that's a challenge for our company. If you're the operational backbone, everything that you do has to come with the flexibility to allow them to be as creative, meaning our clients, to be as creative as they want to be to whatever they think their secret sauce is. And more importantly, let's just take data for a second. Law firms are going to need access to more of the information that we actually are the main holders of. So how we manage and handle that data and how we enable them to leverage that for whatever it is that they're wanting to do to serve their clients becomes mission critical. So being an operational backbone means that you have this core function that you choose Aderant for, which is running your back office. Everything worked to cash, pricing all the way through to resources and talent.
(06:37):
Everything happens within that one place, but then they're going to need to leverage that for other things that they're doing in the business and we need to be an enabler of that, not somebody who holds them back.
Will Ayers (06:48):
Now you've talked about moving from hours to outcomes. How real is that shift today and what has to happen for that to truly take hold?
Chris Cartrett (06:57):
Yeah, so that is actually happening. And let's be crystal clear, Chris Cartrette did not say the billable hour is going away.That is not a thing. You may want to repeat that. Repeat that one more time. I keep saying it over and everybody's like, oh, Chris thinks the billable hour is going away. I do not. But what is happening is all of our clients have been getting challenged with this, which is how do you show AI value within a matter? And a lot of the GCs that are asking that question, they don't even know themselves what they want to see the answer to be. But what it is though is you're seeing firms have to be sometimes in a defensive posture about whatever the charge is related to the result that they provide. Too often we get caught up in the price based on the number of hours versus it being centered on the outcome that you're delivering.
(07:42):
It really is just a shift and a change that, hey, if I can do something faster, it doesn't change the fact that that's enormously valuable for me a client of legal services. So helping law firms be able to articulate that value, to be able to separate that just from the hours worked is another central part. To me, that's one of the things that we have to do. When we acquired VPD, we did that first and foremost because better than anything that existed in the market, they were able to leverage AI to understand what you had done in your previous matters, see what you've done recently on matters where you are actually leveraging AI and then to be able to take a proposal into the market to help you price that next opportunity. So I feel like we are there. I just think there's a lot more that we could do.
(08:31):
And so that's kind of been another challenge for the team.
Will Ayers (08:34):
You've talked about turning every interaction. And when I say interaction, I mean time, billing, cash, and to live data, live intelligence. How does that change decision making for leadership day-to-day?
Chris Cartrett (08:47):
What we've been working on, especially with the Stride and Analytics piece, is it's not just about where you are and where you've been. Help me understand where everything is going, meaning start pointing out where potential challenges are before they actually become a challenge. It's about how do we remove a lot of the friction that exists today from when work gets done until somebody actually gets paid. But then within that as well, how do I help educate a firm that like, "Hey, there's these four opportunities out there you need to pay attention to because based on their history, this AR is at risk or there's a collection challenge that may be coming." Or, "Hey, there's some appeal opportunities here that you need to turn that fast." There's just a lot for us to do there to help firms forecast and to be action oriented versus just acting on stale data that from whenever it came from.
Will Ayers (09:40):
Now many times there's a gap between vision and execution. So let's talk a little bit more about what's already working. Where are you actually seeing firms begin to operate this way today?
Chris Cartrett (09:53):
Yeah. So you know what's funny? In our work to cash program, we actually talked about this in the main stage. We have clients, but they honestly talked about the fact that they had 70% reduction in deductions. They're having an enormous impact. The way we handle rules and guidelines, having that integrated with time, having that integrated into the bill, how that flows through the e-billing process, how that then comes back and educates the rules and guidelines for the next time you do it is having an enormous impact. And the law firms are seeing this. We had on AmLaw 100 firm that talked about like $14 million in deductions that actually were found and were able to handle through our software in a different way. I believe for us though that we're just now scratching the surface because today we're still doing things as individual apps passing information.
(10:43):
Back to our thing about being an operational backbone, that can't be individual apps. It has to feel like just one meshed experience and everything happens end to end, human in the loop of course, but truly end to end for greater results.
Will Ayers (10:56):
Now you mentioned human in the loop and I think that's a great bridge to my next question. That was a great example. What does that kind of visibility unlock at the executive level?
Chris Cartrett (11:07):
I remember being in Australia and having conversations with senior leaders and AI was just sort of the thing. They were kind of playing around with Copilot or something, but it wasn't really like a strategic initiative. Well, then you go back last year and those same law firms are like, they're all in. They're like, "We got to figure this thing out. " And we have certain firms in New York that are always kind of out front of maybe some others and what I've watched happen with them is they were looking at AI as a way to automate around the edges, meaning take a process and maybe fix a few little things inside it. To me though, what this is ultimately about, it's about rethinking the entire process. Knowing that we have AI as a capable tool, what is the fastest way to get to the outcome?
(11:56):
And I think that's what you're starting to see. You're seeing executives completely rethink their value chain, completely rethink how they serve a client. As we look out to 2030 in the legal market, one of the things that we're also going to start to see is not just client teams, meaning like inside a law firm, a client team that goes to serve a client, the reality is those client teams are now going to start having AI counterparts that come along with them, meaning ways to actually help you serve that client, leveraging technology and tools in a way that's completely different than how you may be serving that client today. So now back to the Aderant world, that requires data, that requires true analytics to understand what's going on in the business at all times. That requires you to see around corners before you actually get around the corner.
(12:42):
So that to me is like a challenge for our team. That's what we want to enable. That world is coming and we think Aderant has a major place to play in that.
Will Ayers (12:51):
Well, let me ask you this. How much of this transformation is being driven by client pressure versus internal ambition and things Aderant wants to put into the market and problems that we want to solve?
Chris Cartrett (13:03):
Yeah, I would say almost all of this has been client-based. We are fortunate enough as a company doing what we do that we are able to see some things that are coming that our clients didn't know was capable. But I would also argue that our clients are starting to get really pushed by their clients. And so their client's demands and actions is what's actually requiring this type of change. They're doing really good. They're serving clients, law firms have been doing really well. But even in this situation where they are doing well, they are also not resting on the laurels, like they're pushing themselves to be able to provide the next level of service or what is the next thing that's going to be needed for our clients. And so I actually think it's a really exciting time to be in this world. I mean, they're pushing us.
(13:49):
We may have certain tools out there that are serving them well, but the reality is they're like, "Hey, hey, but we need it to go here." So yeah, I actually enjoy it. I like the pressure. So it's been really good.
Will Ayers (14:01):
I love it. I love it. Now for those firms and legal professionals that are listening to this conversation, those that are still hesitating that may be on the fence, what's your advice to them as they listen to you talk about this vision about this rapid innovation taking place at Aderant and being an AI enabled law firm, what's your advice to those that just may be a little bit still on the fence and are scared to jump in the water, I'll say?
Chris Cartrett (14:29):
Well, that would be terrifying if they're scared today, because I've stated this to multiple people multiple times. It is happening. It will either happen to you or it will happen with you one way or the other. The AI world that we're living in right now, this is legit. I shared this story I heard a few weeks ago in Chicago. It was a real story from a real law firm that I think it was like 1988, this guy had this handwritten note that he kept and it was from a practice head who literally had talked to the managing partner and in the note it said, "Hey, listen, we've been doing this POC and we've decided we want to opt out. We don't think this email thing will take note." I'm like, "It's email." It's hilarious to think about how people thought about that then AI is at a whole nother level.
(15:13):
So it's the same thing again. There is so much there to help us like at Aderant, to be a better business, to serve our clients better, to be more innovative and bring things to market faster, that why would you not want to lean into that opportunity? And so then if I'm a law firm, it works the same way. Hey, I need to try some things that may fail, but at the same time though, I got to be going because once you start hitting, the opportunity for success is pretty enormous. I'll add one more thing to that, Will. There's a lot of challenge like, okay, what will growth look like for a law firm in the future? I think this is one of those situations where we're trying to take it in this little small snapshot. They're trying to look at a tree and they're kind of missing the whole forest because the reality is the way we provide legal services, the way we manage those legal services from the back office, they are going to change.
(16:10):
But one of the things that we do know is that AI actually creates opportunity for new things to happen or maybe for a new way of managing and serving a client than what existed before. So those people that are leaning in on this opportunity to do something unique and different, I truly believe are going to be the winners in the next three, four or five years.
Will Ayers (16:33):
Now before we close, let's lean in on leaning in because I need to get more clarification around that. So I want you to take a deeper dive into that. For those listeners at law firms or even other legal tech companies, what does leaning in actually look like now in a way that's different than last year?
Chris Cartrett (16:55):
That's actually a great question. I mean, the truth is this stuff is moving everything is moving so incredibly fast at everywhere you turn models, how they're changing things that AI last year maybe was 75% correct. Well, today those things are exponentially better than they were because it's constantly learning, it's constantly getting better. So when we use lean in inside the Aderant world, I use the analogy of a downhill skier. It's natural when you're coming down a mountain and you're going really, really fast, especially if you're not a great skier, to want to lean back because you're like, "Holy crap, I'm about to kill myself here." But once you lean back, you lose all control. Whereas if you're on that downhill slope and you'll lean into the front of your boots, now you have greater control of your skis. And so that has been the way we've tried to talk about it internally is like, "Hey folks, this is a thing that's happening.
(17:51):
So let's just lean forward in our boots. It can feel a little scary because you are going fast." But at the same time though, that's how you have the best control. You've got to be willing to experiment. You got to be willing to try things. We heard from our head of AI yesterday and he made the comment that like, "Hey, we've actually been building a ton of things." Some of them were,
(18:09):
But then some of the others like, holy cow, it blew you away. So that's what I mean. You got to set aside the time to really pursue innovation knowing that, yeah, you may miss on a couple of things, but the overall impact on the things that you hit for your client, they're just absolutely enormous. And I would say it's the same way on the law firm side. You're seeing law firms that are really trying to add value to their client relationship and so they're trying things. And I think that's just a good word for all of us just to lean in, lean into the process and lean into the opportunity.
Will Ayers (18:48):
I love it, love it. Speaking of opportunity, Chris, it's always a great opportunity to talk to you because I learn a lot. Our listeners learn a lot and I got to thank you again for stopping by Studio A. At Momentum Global 2026, you've already said on record you will be the first interview next year, so I'm going to hold you to that. Okay.
Chris Cartrett (19:08):
Will, you do a great job, brother. I cannot thank you enough.
Will Ayers (19:10):
Thank you, Chris. That is Chris Cartret, president and CEO at Aderant. If you enjoyed that conversation, you could check us out on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to the Aderant YouTube channel. You can also check us out on all major streaming platforms. You've been tuned into Studio A powered by Aderant. Thanks for listening to Studio A. For more from this episode, visit adorant.com. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a beat and we'll see you next time in Studio A.