Jordan Furlong

Whether this is the rock that starts the big landslide, I don’t know. But this is definitely not a one-off. Other large firms, maybe even ones just as prestigious as Weil, are likely much more fragile than they appear. Merger/consolidation didn’t work; the remaining options are dire.

I think this is happening. Wow, what a terrible night for some of the worst people in the world.

How should we respond to the surging waves of AI-generated claims, complaints, and submissions threatening to overwhelm the legal system? My newest Substack explains how we can use AI to fight fire with fire, creating a new entranceway to civil justice: jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/the-new-fr...

The only issue on the ballot in November should be sanity.

Great piece from @noupside.bsky.social on why we should be skeptical of claims that a few strikes on Russian data centers led to some huge drop in misinfo and propaganda. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

If my law firm wanted to create an "AI persona" of me that would analyze a case like I would, that they could use after I left the firm, and that they would own in perpetuity, I'd tell them to go pound sand. Not at this firm, apparently: www.law.com/legaltechnew...

I found Kirkland & Ellis's decision to withdraw from active participation in the AmLaw 100 noteworthy because of what it suggested: The metrics we've been employing to communicate legal status and price legal work are loosening their grip on the profession. jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/the-legal-...

Same for applications to courts and tribunals, especially around wrongful dismissal and discrimination claims. Legal institutions think they’ve already seen a wave of new filings; the real tsunami is now gathering strength.

A total of 46 lawyers leaving 200 firms isn't exactly a tidal wave. But the growing availability of interesting options elsewhere will make it harder for law firms to keep lawyers around. Maybe, as the pyramid narrows to a cylinder, that's just fine with the firms. www.law360.com/pulse/modern...

Honestly, just let US law firms incorporate already. There are easier ways to bring investor cash into your business than hacking off your “back office” in order to bring private equity inside the tent. www.ft.com/content/030d...

It's depressing to encounter clearly AI-drafted writing all over the place: not just LinkedIn, where I've come to expect it, but in Substacks and legal trade periodicals. And it's frustrating, because I never know if I'm getting someone's actual opinion or a hive-mind consensus of pseudo-cognition.

Lawyers owe duties not only to their clients, but to wider society -- we serve both commercial and civic interests. But we've downplayed the latter role too long. My newest Substack describes why it's time for us to revive and restore the Citizen Lawyer. jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/enabling-t...

And just like that, I'm switching navigation apps.

Every time Trump announces he's doing something (e.g., renaming a Great Lake, changing meat inspection standards), check to see whether he has any legal or constitutional authority do so. In many cases, including the examples above, the answer is no.

Today's hot take is that calling yourself a "legal engineer" doesn't make you an actual engineer.

"AI is extraordinary once a problem is well-posed, and close to helpless at posing it. Legal education should optimize for ... structuring the problem: which question to ask, in what order, under which exceptions." Great observations from Samuel Dahan of Queen's: www.linkedin.com/posts/samuel...

The answer to the question I keep hearing, "How will law firms train associates after AI?" is: "They won't. They'll be training partners."

Worth remembering that the words that followed "one ring to rule them all" were "and in the darkness bind them." www.law.com/legaltechnew...

New Mexico (www.law360.com/pulse/modern...) and Utah (www.law360.com/pulse/articl...) on track to join Oregon and Washington with supervised-practice licensure pathways that don't require a bar exam. As soon as a large state figures out how to do this at scale, the bar exam is toast.

"The AI-empowered client is not necessarily the in-house legal department. It's an organization that can do much of the legal work that used to require the legal department.” Richard Susskind, sending a chill down corporate counsel's spines: www.law.com/legaltechnew...

Some free advice from 🇨🇦 for @americanbar.org: Appeasing these people never works. They'll take what you offer them and come back for everything else. Stick to what you said about diversity and inclusion. You might as well go down standing for something you believed in. www.law360.com/pulse/modern...

When AI empowers clients to travel much of their legal journey themselves, lawyers need to be the providers of essential assistance at critical moments to ensure a successful outcome -- and to recalibrate their pricing systems to match. My newest Substack: jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/the-last-m...

Every Democratic politician who mused about how a Canadian 51st state would tip the Senate in their favour: This one’s for you.

<taps sign>

Canada scarcely needs to place tariffs on any American goods. Just slap a big “Made in the USA” sticker on any incoming product and people here will avoid it like it’s radioactive. To be clear, though, yes, tariff them to the sun.

No deal is better than a bad deal. Especially a bad deal with a senile authoritarian grifter.

The billable hour lies at the foundation of lawyers' market value, business infrastructure, and sense of professional worth. If it really does disappear, what happens then? That's the subject of my newest Substack newsletter: jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/long-live-...

Why do we say "meteoric rise"? The last I checked, meteors travel in one direction, and it's not up.

Canadian hero Ketevan Gallagher.

"By my estimate, 40% of ABA law schools are in severe financial distress, and another 30% are in considerable economic difficulty." Seriously dire warning from Prof. Paul Campos on the future financial viability of US legal education: www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/08/is-y...

The man emits corruption like uranium emits radiation. Proximity to Trump warps and disfigures those around him, even if they weren’t already inclined that way. He’s toxic to human character.

Your baseball pitcher name is your grandfather’s first name and the last thing you bought. That great Scottish pitcher, William MacBook.

Been thinking a lot about the students in this class (presumably, but not certainly) using AI on a take-home midterm and then bombing the in-class final. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty... But I think the real story here is not *that* students use AI, it's (part of) *why* students use AI. 🧵

Mafia nation.

The positive of Balogun is it's the first time a Republican has intervened to reduce a black man's sentence.

I'm going to keep re-taking this test until I'm not Ezra Klein. britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...

So until that situation changes, which could happen in many different ways, the law librarian community - specifically the Legal Information Services to the Public SIS of AALL - has stepped up and created a guide of Best Practices for Using AI in Legal Research. www.aallnet.org/lispsis/wp-c...

Sometimes the obvious choice is also the correct one. Good call by the Prime Minister.