July 17, 2025· 49 min

What AI Is Already Doing to the Legal Industry

Joel Wertheimer

Orality

Model

50%

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,274 words)

M:29%

HostTracy Alloway(2,603 words)

M:29%

GuestJoel Wertheimer(5,382 words)

M:29%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic25%

literally, completely, absolutely

Engagement82%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, now, like

Repetition100%

know (137x), like (129x), think (91x)

Parallelism72%

And I'm Tracy Alloway...., And every time I know that...., And I'm always asking them, li...

Sound Patterns81%

86 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases4%

you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging6%

may, could, might

Passive Voice3%

is replicated, is called, is expected

Abstract Nouns16%

investment, recommendation, business

Subordination7%

though, because, until

Sentence Length33%

Avg: 13.2 words/sentence

Word Complexity45%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style18%

874 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style78%

literally, completely, apply

Description

If there's one thing that lawyers do a lot of, it's spending a prodigious number of hours going through documents. And they're often very well compensated for this work. So if there's one area where AI can obviously be highly disruptive, it's law. Documents that used to take hours to scan or format might be dealt with instantly. Finding relevant prior case law is becoming much faster, thanks to today's most advanced models. On this episode, we speak with Joel Wertheimer of Wertheimer Fleder LLP, a civil rights law firm in New York. We discuss the actual economics of being a lawyer, how it's changing, the effect that the technology will have on the distribution of income going forward, and what the entire profession could look like years into the future. Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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