Clients shouldn’t need a Latin dictionary and a team of cryptographers to understand what they’re paying for. More than a few professionals who are capable of writing clearly fail to do so because they fear that clients would be less willing to pay hefty fees for work product not wrapped in ponderous and incomprehensible jargon. The reality is that good writing should be more salable, not less. More at Plain English for Lawyers: The Way to a C-Level Executive’s Heart.

Pro Tip: Use your favorite AI App, Hemingway Editor Plus, or a similar dedicated writer app.

More tips in the article 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025.

Is the Internet “vanishing,” as Dennis Kennedy has suggested? Not exactly, but websites do disappear, sometimes sunset an article you have published there or add a paywall. Remember Google+? Now it’s just a ghost town.

Don’t let your valuable content disappear or become lost. Take control by archiving everything in an organized and easily accessible location. This way, you can ensure your work is always at your fingertips, not at the mercy of changing platforms or disappearing websites.

Pro Tip: Blogs may seem outdated to some, but they remain a reliable way to archive articles, slide decks, and more. The most significant advantage is that you don’t need to worry about a platform that may disappear or become undesirable. Blogs are entirely under your control.

More tips in the article 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025.

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has been… interesting. It’s like watching a dumpster fire try to reinvent itself as a gourmet marshmallow roast.

The Elon Musk-led Twitter/X meltdown has changed the social media landscape for microblogging. Many are eager to escape the Chernobyl-size disaster. Changing a primary platform can be painful for those who have many followers. Despite this, many are looking for alternatives. Neither Facebook nor Threads has established itself as a credible platform for business-oriented microblogging. Some leading alternatives are:

Pro Tip: Whichever new platform you use, resist the temptation to make a political statement by deleting your Twitter/X account. If you move to a new platform, keep your old account active to make it easier for your audience to find and follow you elsewhere.

More tips in the LLRX.com article 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025.

Learning to use the tools you already have is usually wiser rather than chasing the newest shiny object du jour. There are a few exceptions. I’ve found two apps particularly useful:

Grammarly. It’s not a spell checker. It’s not a grammar checker. It’s much more. Give it a try. Even lawyers need someone to tell them when they’ve accidentally declared war on the Oxford comma.

Gemini. So far, Google’s AI flagship seems better than ChatGPT or MS CoPilot. Testing continues.

Pro Tip: It’s usually best to get the premium versions of the apps you use most.

More tips in the article 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025.

Implementing AI is challenging for professions where progress often means figuring out how to get your printer to work. Many lawyers are waiting until they have developed a perfect implementation strategy. They wind up doing nothing.

Lawyers can and should benefit from AI today rather than waiting to develop the world’s greatest policy. Until that perfect policy arrives, follow two rules:

  1. Never rely on anything AI tells you about crucial issues.
  2. Always ask AI for advice on crucial issues.

AI does not merely save time. It can make your work product better. The time to get these benefits is now.

At the same time, safety matters. Conceptualizing AI as a sort of super research assistant can help. Wouldn’t you always verify any research assistant work product before using it for anything crucial? You don’t want your memo to be a Shakespearean sonnet about the existential angst of a CPA.

Can it be malpractice to fail to use AI, as people as wise as Carolyn Elefant have suggested? Not today, and probably never. It’s just a giant missed opportunity.

Pro Tip: Explore specialized AI-powered legal research tools like Lexis+ AI or Westlaw Edge. These tools can help you find what you need faster and more safely.

More Tips at LLRX article 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025.

The American Bar Association’s Formal Opinion 512, “Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools,” gets some things right, but goes astray when considering alternative billing models like flat fees:

The factors set forth in Rule 1.5(a) also apply when evaluating the reasonableness of charges for GAI tools when the lawyer and client agree on a flat or contingent fee. For example, if using a GAI tool enables a lawyer to complete tasks much more quickly than without the tool, it may be unreasonable under Rule 1.5 for the lawyer to charge the same flat fee when using the GAI tool as when not using it. “A fee charged for which little or no work was performed is an unreasonable fee.” [Footnotes omitted].

It is penalizing lawyers for efficiency that is unreasonable.

I can’t explain it better than Greg Siskind, so I won’t try:

You select a car based on a lot of subjective factors, including the reputation of the manufacturer and the perceived quality of the vehicle. Drivers usually don’t care whether the car is completely handmade or built with robots. But they do tend to care about things like the buying experience, the car’s look and feel, and the reputation and trustworthiness of the manufacturer. The buyers don’t care about how much automation was used in making the car. If a manufacturer produces a great product at a much lower cost to make the product because of superior technology, buyers are happy to reward them with higher profits. We would think it absurd if the government said that a car manufacturer had to lower their prices because of the savings they achieved through robots and automation. That would be the role of a competitive market. Why is law different?

More in my LLRX.com article Artificial Intelligence, ABA Formal Opinion 512 And Access To Justice.

Pro Tip: Take AI’s advice on how to reduce the possibility of errors. ChatGPT hallucinated when I asked it to give examples of brilliant chess games played by a famous player (Lubomir Kavalek). It made up a game that never happened. When I questioned the advice, it apologized. I followed up with a question about how I could make future errors less likely:

Question: I am particularly interested in the erroneous answer you provided earlier concerning the non-existent Kavalek-Fischer simultaneous game. What can I do to reduce the risk that you might give me similar bad information in the future?

Chat GPT Answer:

I appreciate your concern about ensuring accurate responses, and I value your desire for high-quality, reliable information. Here’s how you can reduce the risk of encountering similar inaccuracies:

  1. Request Sources or Citations: When asking for historical, biographical, or factual details, you can explicitly request sources or citations. For example, ask, “Can you provide evidence or a citation for this claim?” This will prompt me to clarify the basis for my response.
  2. Cross-Check with External Sources: If a topic is critical, consider verifying the information against trusted external sources like books, articles, or databases. I can assist by helping you identify credible resources.
  3. Phrase Questions for Verification: Instead of asking open-ended questions, frame queries to prompt a more precise or researched answer. For example, “Is there evidence of a simultaneous exhibition involving Kavalek and Fischer?”
  4. Ask for Current Information: If you’re seeking updated details, mention it explicitly, and I can use tools to gather the latest information where appropriate.
  5. Highlight Critical Accuracy: Let me know when the stakes for accurate information are high. For example, “This is an important topic to me. Please ensure the answer is as precise as possible.”
  6. Ask for Context or Nuance: If a claim sounds too definitive, you can ask me to explore its context or address potential exceptions. For instance, “Can you elaborate on any controversies or misconceptions related to this claim?”
  7. Feedback and Clarification: If you notice a discrepancy or error in my answer, provide immediate feedback. This will help me refine my responses or clarify misunderstandings.

If you have additional strategies in mind or specific concerns about how I process information, feel free to share them. My goal is to ensure our conversations meet your standards for accuracy and usefulness.

Dennis Kennedy’s top lesson learned from 2024 is right on target:


Oh my god, there are so many legal AI experts everywhere. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of people claim that they’re experts. I saw that Stanford is doing a conference in a couple months about best practices in Generative AI. It’s been around a year. It’s like the best practice would be don’t play with matches and burn the house down. What do we know at this point? The lesson always with legal tech is to have sort of an experimental approach, a humble approach, and don’t think that you know everything from the beginning, but just try to learn it. And especially if something as significant as generative AI seems to be, I think we should spend a little less time saying that we were experts a little more time just rolling up our sleeves and doing some experiments. [Lightly edited version of Kennedy Mighell podcast.]

Yep. Way too many lawyers are forgetting that “A man’s gotta know his limitations.”

Magnum Force, 1973.

Carolyn Elefant has some good advice: “Check everything ChatGPT does.“

I have found two rules of thumb useful:

* Never trust ChatGPT advice on any important issue.

* Always ask ChatGPT for advice on every important issue.

I treat AI as a sort of super law clerk. I would always verify any law clerk work product before using it for anything important.

At the same time, AI frequently suggests ideas that would not have occurred to me, or comes up with improvements on my work.

My biggest problem is realizing when I’m dealing with something AI can help me with. Whenever I do, I ask.

Hallmark Movies

  • Flip that Romance
  • The Sweetest Heart
  • Pumpkin Pie Wars
  • The Makeover

Movies Featuring Animals

  • Rescued by Ruby
  • Vicky and Her Mystery
  • Hachi, A Dog’s Tale
  • Lassie Come Home
  • Seabiscuit

Movies Featuring Kids

  • Annie
  • Feel the Beat
  • Early Shirley Temple Movies, including The Little Princess, Bright Eyes, and The Littlest Rebel.
  • The Sandlot

Movies About Women Overcoming the Odds

  • Young Woman and the Sea (1st woman to swim the English Channel)
  • Secretariat (Woman racehorse owner shows she is better than the male owners)

Musicals, especially with dancing. I have many on DVD, including West Side Story (1960), winner of Best Picture Oscar. I can show you how to use the DVD player.

  • CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) – Academy Award Winner for Best Picture (2022).
  • Feel The Beat. She has seen this over 10 times. It’s especially good because it is about kids in a dancing school
  • Wicked (I have “bought” this on Amazon Prime).

Some Adventure Movies

  • Indiana Jones series. I have bought all these. You can see them under Amazon Prime Videos Purchase and Rentals.
  • Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick. These can be hard to explain, but if you do a good job she loves them. I took her to see Top Gun Maverick in movie theaters 5 times after she got sick. The fifty time she said it was the best movie she had ever seen.
  • Twisters
  • Some Tarzan movies

Elvis Movies. I have “bought” some on Amazon Prime, including:

  • Viva Las Vegas
  • Speedway
  • Girl Happy
  • Tickle Me