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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.
Nate Skinner (00:00):
The human element, it matters more than ever. It's kind of ironic because everything is Gen AI, but actually with the differentiator, what we're seeing is the people. We can do our jobs faster, but we can't lose trust in our customers and our customers definitely can't lose trust in us.
Will Ayers (00:15):
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. Today we are at Momentum Global 2026 and we are speaking to thought leaders who are really driving innovation across the space. Today we have a great conversation lined up with Mr. Nate Skinner. He is the chief marketing revenue officer at 8am and he is on the show today. Nate, how are you doing?
Nate Skinner (00:59):
Good. Thank you for having me, Will. Great to be here.
Will Ayers (01:01):
Nate, I couldn't wait to talk to you. I've got a lot of good questions. It's a lot of energy in the room, a lot of energy at this conference and you are one of the people that they told me that I would enjoy interviewing the most. So are you ready, Nate?
Nate Skinner (01:14):
I'm ready.
Will Ayers (01:15):
I put you on the spot. Just to give our audience some context into the work that you do, can you tell us about your role and some of the great work that 8am is doing?
Nate Skinner (01:25):
The simplest version is I run marketing and sales. We've been partners with Aderant since 2021, I think, maybe even before that, but we've rebranded the company. So last summer we were Affinipay with a bunch of different products. We relaunched 8am in the summer based on a lot of research and understanding about our customers and what drives their engagement with brands. And so that was a big part of last year's work. And then early this year, I added the sales team and that was really because we want to guide them through their journey from understanding who we are and how we can help them to acquiring the software and the solutions that can help them solve problems. And so that's what I spend my time doing. We have a team that's behind me and it's a lot of fun.
Will Ayers (02:04):
Now, I know that you guys are doing some incredible work in this space. So let's jump into these questions. Let's start with the foundation, trust and compliance in a space where firms are handling sensitive financial transactions all the time. What does trust actually mean today and how has that definition evolved over time?
Nate Skinner (02:24):
Yeah, that's a great question. GenAI has come along and been a real tidal wave of change for every industry. And in that world, there's an opportunity to lose sight of who the humans are behind the machines. And so if everybody has access to the same tools, if you can use Claude and I can use Claude, then we're by definition on the same playing field. What we have to not lose sight of is that people are trusting us with their financial transactions. They've been trusting Aderant forever. They've been trusting us, Afinipay/LawPay and 8am for a long time. And we can't forget that they are depending on us to do our job and they trust us to be compliant, to reconcile their bills appropriately, to not violate their trust in terms of where their data stored and how it's stored. And so the human element, it matters more than ever.
(03:10):
It's kind of ironic because everything is Gen AI, but the differentiator, what we're seeing is the people. And we can do our jobs faster, but we can't lose trust in our customers. Our customers definitely can't lose trust in us. It's a big part of why we're here at this conference and partnered with you guys is we're very aligned. And I know Chris, your CEO, is very aligned to that vision. When you're handling financial transactions for people, the last thing they want to do is not trust you. And so compliance and trust is at the heart of what it means for us to serve our customers. And I know that matters to Aderant as well.
Will Ayers (03:40):
Now you all are definitely handling a lot of transactions. You're now processing over 27 billion. That's billion across the platform. At that scale, what patterns or insights are emerging about how law firms manage cash flow and payments?
Nate Skinner (03:56):
You're right. It's a lot of volume. We're by far the largest payments platform for legal professionals in the US. Last night, I had an opportunity to have dinner with a few of our customers. And what comes along is a similar thread that I traced across the conversation at our dinner. The number of customers they have that still send them paychecks, like literally written checks. The paper check is not dead. And then reconciling that in a world where so much of this process and workflow is automated, it's still painful. What do you do with this paper check? Whose check is this? What case is this? What customer, what client? Reconciling that in a compliant way, making sure it goes into the general account or the trust account. We can help with that. But the trend you see is that although we process all of that volume, the thing that's still true is there are seams in the process and the workflow from send the bill to the payment that are still not automated for some customers and we're trying to help that.
(04:50):
That's a big reason why we have this integration we announced with Billblast so that that workflow is completely seamless. We continue to help them with what appears to be always forever manual process. If it's 27 billion in digital payments, imagine how much of it's still paper and managing receipts and what do I do with it? And so we're working on helping them with that. That's a continuous theme and no amount of AI can show up and process a paper check. We can help, but there's still going to be edges.
Will Ayers (05:16):
You mentioned the integration with Billblast. So let's lean into that a little more. With your integration across platforms like BillBlast and LawPay, how are you thinking about compliance, not just as a requirement, but as a strategic advantage for a law firm?
Nate Skinner (05:32):
That is at the heart of the integration. We know that you all have a standard for compliance that you maintain. It's part of why you have so many customers and why this conference is so full of great customers of yours. And the fascinating thing is that the dinner last night, almost all of the customers that came to our dinner were your customers too. So that compliance is at the core. Making sure that we're not doing something that violates the trust that customers have put in us is at the center of the integration. The good news is by connecting BillBlast and LawPay, you've completely closed that loop. So if Bill Blass sends the invoice, we actually receive the payment and now they're together and that reduces your risk. It increases your ability to remain compliant because you don't have this gap in that workflow.
Will Ayers (06:12):
You recently introduced next day payments. How meaningful is speed when it comes to law firm finance and what impact does that have on the overall performance of the law firm?
Nate Skinner (06:23):
Yeah. Human beings, if you're getting paid, you want to get paid quickly, right? It's no different for large firms. It's no different for small. The reason that is meaningful for most of our shared audience, which are relatively large legal firms, is it helps them to forecast, helps them do financial planning, helps them to understand what their burn rate is. It helps them do all the things that an FP&A function would be doing at a very large firm. But if I take this to where those large firms start, they often start as small firms and solos. And for them, it's even more impactful. They need to know if I did a hundred hours worth of work, I'm going to get paid for that when I process that invoice and it's going to get paid quickly. For many of those firms, and I'm not talking just solos, all the way up to 100, 200, 300 person firms, that next day payment could be the difference between hiring someone else or betting on a new building or expanding their firm to include a new practice area like immigration or family law.
(07:18am):
Being able to shorten that cycle and get that cash in your hands faster ultimately unlocks their ability to thrive and grow and do it in a way that does not create more risk and uncertainty. Because if you and I have 10 employees depending on us to make the right decision, one of the best ways to assure those decisions are right are knowing that we're getting paid.
Will Ayers (07:35):
That's true. That's true. That's a great point. One of the big themes we are hearing across the legal industry is reducing days outstanding. I've talked to someone last night that was in collections and they were talking about outstanding payments. Where are firms still getting stuck in the work to cash cycle and how are you helping close that gap?
Nate Skinner (07:55):
An interesting aspect of a conversation I had last night actually with one of our customers was that today they're finding that the interaction with the invoice is oftentimes an agent. It's not a person. It used to be you'd send your bill for collection and the bill would get paid and you'd get it back. Now you're sending it to a collection department who has an agent that's processing that and determining where it should go and how fast it should be paid and then potentially kicking it back if it doesn't meet certain rules all in an automated way that sounds good until it's not. And so what I mean by that is if you send a hundred bills to be processed or bills out with, let's say billblast, you send a hundred bills out to a hundred different clients and used to be that all of them were processed by a receivables department who would then send payment and the remittance was an expected known thing.
(08:41):
Now half of those customers are processing with agents and AI and for whatever reason they're kicking them back and you can't call somebody. There's not a person to be like, "Hey, Will, what happened? Why did you kick that back?" It was just automated. And so that's something that we're really focused on. I mean, our philosophy at 8am is GenAI where it helps our customers thrive. What workflows can we unlock? What workflows can we automate that help them help their clients? This particular one is one where we think we can help. This was a conversation I had just last night. I wasn't aware and it's a real problem and we want to help our customers navigate those kinds of challenges.
Will Ayers (09:17):
And I'm pretty confident that you guys are going to solve that problem as well. I think in today's era that we're in, innovation is moving so fast and organizations and companies like yours are really at the forefront of solving those issues. So there's no doubt that you guys will close that gap date. The integration with Billblast really points toward a more unified work to cash experience. How important is it for firms to think about billing and payments as a single connected system rather than a separate process? Because a lot of the conversations I'm hearing at Momentum focus on building that ecosystem or that seamless flow of data and information. So can you talk about that a little bit?
Nate Skinner (09:58am):
Yeah. I mean, this is what makes this LawPay and BillBlast integration so powerful because it closes that loop. So you send the bill and then you receive it and then you pay it and it reconciles it. Without the integration, those two work streams happen separately. By connecting the two, that whole workflow process is seamless and the loop is closed. So for all of our customers, like the dinner I had last night, I hate to sound like a broken record, but when we talked about that, they're like, whoa, that is a meaningful advantage now that we were having to do that manually. I mean, here's my bill. Okay, which customer is it? Which case is that? Which matter do I need to reconcile this against? Do I reconcile it? Is it compliant? All that stuff was manual. Now it's all automated with the LawPay handle in the backside.
(10:38am):
So that closed loop is a real advantage and our customers are going to get that benefit very soon.
Will Ayers (10:43):
I spoke to president and CEO, Chris Cartret, and he talked about 2026 being the year of the ROI for AI because there's so much hype around it, although every week there's something new. From your perspective, where is AI delivering real value in legal finance?
Nate Skinner (11:04):
So first of all, this hype cycle's different than most, right? I mean, we've seen them, everybody can measure them. The internet versus mobile versus social. There's lots of hype cycles. This one's different because it continues. Like you said, every day somebody else has a new model and it does new things, but at least our customers, I think they want us to tell them how to help and show them how we can help them because if it's difficult for technology people like us, it's extremely difficult for people who, "Look, I'm a lawyer. This isn't my jam." Anytime we can reduce the need for human beings to do work that they'd rather not do, that's an opportunity to apply AI. So I'll just come up with an example. If you're reconciling a bunch of invoices against payments and you're doing that manually, who wants to do that job like nobody, right?
(11:49):
Instead, we can have GNAI reconcile those and send it back and take care of it. So now what does that person get to do? They get to go do something more valuable to the company and that's what I think the hype cycle is proving. If you read LinkedIn headlines or news headlines, it seems like everybody's got the new unlock and you're going to get three times revenue if you just turn on this one prompt. It's not reality. When we talk to our customers about how they're deploying GenAI and what they'd like our help with, it is solving problems like the one I just described. Reduce the operational burden on people that we could then redeploy to more creative, more strategic, more important work. That's where GenAI is most impactful.
Will Ayers (12:28am):
How do you stay disciplined when it comes to AI focusing on what customers are asking for versus chasing industry trends? Because I've seen it and just like you said, every week there is something new, there's a new model, there's a new way to leverage AI. How do you stay disciplined and not jump off the deep end and do too much?
Nate Skinner (12:49):
This is a great question. I mentioned that I lead our sales team and our customers will say, "What's your GenAI capability?" Well, that's actually not the question they're asking. What they're really trying to understand is how are you applying GenAI to help me even better and give me even more value. Our message in the market is that we're all about GenAI that helps our customers thrive. So wherever we can reduce manual processes and automate processes that otherwise people don't want to do anyhow, give our customers more runway, give them more visibility into their cashflow, give them the opportunity to manage their firm in a more productive way, we're going to do that. When we get that question, our discipline is, what exactly are you looking for to solve? I can talk about four or five things that we do with GenAI to solve problems, but when you ask me, "What's your GenAI capability?" I'd reposition that question around, what are you trying to accomplish?
(13:41):
What's the number one problem you're facing right now? What's the number two problem you're facing right now? And if you work down those problems, there's probably a solution there that we have. Oftentimes customers then hit reset and they're like, "Oh, it's not just GenAI for GenAI's sake. I have a real problem, cash flow or billing, time management, time tracking. It could be any number of things. All of them we have an AI solution for, but let's frame it around solving your problem." That's the discipline.
Will Ayers (14:07):
Yep, that's true. Now, customer stories often tell the real story behind the tech. Can you share some examples where improving the payment experience had a tangible impact on the business? Because I think it's very important to talk our audience through success stories of the way people are leveraging the technology.
Nate Skinner (14:24):
So I had a chance to meet a customer named Erin Elliot in Atlanta. Elliot Immigration is her firm and I think it's about 10 or 20 employees, but they're a LawPay customer and a Docketwise customer. We have a solution for immigration form processing that we could call Docketwise. And when we sat down and talked in Atlanta, she started to tell me all the macro things she was dealing with. When I was asking her like, "What's your number one challenge? What's your number two challenge?" She didn't go to my issue with DocketWise or my challenge with LawPay or the thing I wish you guys would solve. She's like, "The cost of gas is 40% higher than it used to be. I just got our employees to start coming back to the office and now they don't want to. How do I solve that problem?" What I can do is help you get more cash and have it be next day payments so that you can get your employees paid sooner that we can help you with.
(15:06):
But my point of that story, Will, is her trust in us is not just in the solution and the capabilities of our technology, it's in having a vendor that she can rely on to help navigate even more meaningful things. And if you follow immigration law at all, 2026 is kind of a year, right? It's a lot going on and we help our immigration firms navigate all of that change and that's who we want to be for our customers. We want to help them navigate even problems that aren't obviously solved by our solution because we have that line of sight into hundreds, thousands of customers that are facing exactly the same problems.
Will Ayers (15:38am):
All right, Nate, before we get up out of here, got one more question for you. When you step back, firms are ultimately focused on revenue, cost and risk. How does improving the payments and collections experience influence all three and where do you see the biggest opportunity to go forward?
Nate Skinner (15:55):
Great question. Our customers, they don't want to think about it in any order other than the one you just laid out top growth and then costs and then risk. That order is typically the way our customers come to the table, but frankly, they should make sure that foundation is covered. That's the risk layer, that's the trust and compliance layer we talked about earlier. And so I wouldn't suggest they flip the order and put risk and compliance on top of growth and cost control. But I would say if you do growth and you reduce costs, but you're not compliant and you have risk in your business, you don't want to be there. And so our job is to make sure our customers understand, and this is for BillBlast and LawPay 8am customers and Aderant and customers generally speaking, address the risk, solve that problem. We can do that.
(16:39):
We're 20 plus year old company, Aderant's been around I think at least that long. We have the compliance and trust issue nailed. And so let's go to market and let's talk about that and say, look, we can take that off the table. Then let's look at how can we get your costs down? Well, there's lots of ways we can do that. One of them is Gen AI. And then of course you want to acquire customers. Erin and I talked about immigration doesn't have a state border. It's a national issue. Well, she's in Atlanta. She can get customers from anywhere. What's stopping her? So how can we help her get more cases from outside of the greater Atlanta area, increase her ability to grow her business? That's something we can absolutely help with. It was number three, but in her mind it was number one.
Will Ayers (17:17):
Nate, phenomenal conversation. Now that I know that you are in the ATL, you have to come by and do another interview in our actual Studio A setup that's in our Atlanta office.
Nate Skinner (17:30):
Would love to.
Will Ayers (17:31):
I need you to do that.
Nate Skinner (17:32):
I will do that. Great to meet you, Will. Thanks for having me.
Will Ayers (17:34):
Thanks for joining the show. That was Nate Skinner from 8am. If you enjoyed that conversation, be sure to check us out on YouTube and subscribe to the Aderant YouTube channel. You could check out that episode and more and also be sure to check out Studio A on all major streaming platforms. You've been tuned in to Studio A, Powered by Aderant. Thanks for listening to Studio A. For more from this episode, visit aderant.com. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a beat and we'll see you next time in Studio A.