Call me lucky. Every week, I get to sit down at the mic for my LawNext podcast and have a conversation with the leading “innovators and entrepreneurs who are driving what’s next in law.”

For me, each and every one of these conversations is fun and fascinating. But I am equally fascinated to add up the numbers at the end of the year and see which topics and guests you, the listeners, found most interesting.

So, as I do every year, I’ve compiled two lists here. The first lists the top 15 episodes published during 2023. After that, I list the top 15 episodes of all time, regardless of when they were published. (The first episode of LawNext was posted on July 16, 2018.) In each case, the rankings are based on unique downloads.

Most popular this year: My interview with Daniel Martin Katz and Michael Bommarito just after their first try at having GPT take the bar exam. Interestingly, another top episode was my interview with the three founders of Casetext — before they announced their $650 million acquisition by Thomson Reuters.

Also popular were my dueling, back-to-back interviews with DoNotPay founder Joshua Browder Kathryn Tewson, the paralegal who investigated DoNotPay’s products; an interview on the Fastcase-vLex merger with the founders of both companies, as well as a reprise of an earlier interview with Fastcase’s founders; an interview with Clio founder Jack Newton on the lessons he’s learned over 15 years; and a 2022 year-end retrospective with LexFusion’s founders Joe Borstein and Casey Flaherty.

Rounding out the most popular this year were interviews with four legal innovation leaders recorded live at the NetDocuments conference, Axiom’s Chief Strategy and Legal Officer Catherine Kemnitz on its opening a law practice in Arizona, Smokeball’s Chief Revenue Officer Jane Oxley and President Ruchie Chadha, Theory and Principle founder Nicole Bradick, Documate founder Dorna Moini on rebranding as Gavel, BYU Law’s Gordon Smith on stepping down as dean, and AltaClaro founder Abdi Shayesteh on training lawyers to use generative AI.

You can also check out the most popular LawNext episodes of 2022, of 2021, of 2020 and of 2019.

Catch all the episodes of LawNext by subscribing at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. For a visual array of all episodes, see the LawNext Episode Gallery.


Top 15 of 2023


1. Can GPT Pass the Bar Exam? We Find Out.


2. LexFusion’s Joe Borstein and Casey Flaherty on the 2022 Legal Market in Review.


3. Casetext’s Three Top Execs On CoCounsel, GPT-4 and ‘A New Age in the Practice of Law’.


4. Paralegal Kathryn Tewson On Her Quest for Accountability from DoNotPay.


5. A Special Fireside Chat on the State of the Legal Industry, Recorded Live with Four Innovation Leaders.


6. ‘A Bit Of A Nothingburger’: Joshua Browder Speaks To The DoNotPay Controversy.


7. As ALSP Axiom Opens A Law Firm in Arizona, Its Chief Strategy and Legal Officer Catherine Kemnitz Shares Details.


8. A Closer Look At Smokeball, with Chief Revenue Officer Jane Oxley and President Ruchie Chadha.


9. Theory and Principle Founder Nicole Bradick on Designing and Building Legal Tech Products.


10. Documate Founder Dorna Moini on Rebranding As Gavel and How Law Firms Can Productize their Legal Services.


11. 15 Years, 15 Lessons: Clio Founder Jack Newton On What He’s Learned About Building a Successful Company.


12. Revisiting the Fastcase Origin Story: Ed Walters and Phil Rosenthal on How Their Company Came To Be.


13. The Four Founders of vLex and Fastcase on the Merger Of Their Two Companies.


14. As He Steps Down As Dean, Gordon Smith Reflects On His Mission To Make BYU Law ‘One Of The Most Innovative Law Schools in the Country’.


15. Training Lawyers to Use Generative AI, with AltaClaro Founder Abdi Shayesteh.


Top 15 of All Time


1. As Time By Ping Raises $36.5M, Exclusive Interview with CEO Ryan Alshak.


2. Jonathan Pyle on Why He Developed Docassemble and Made It Open Source.


3. Joshua Schwadron On Pivoting His Legal Tech Company to A Law Firm to Compete with His Former Customers.


4. How to Start Your Own Law Firm and Have the Practice You Always Wanted, with Carolyn Elefant.


5. The State of the E-Discovery Industry, with Doug Austin.


6. How Legal Departments Can Use Data to Drive Smarter Decision-Making, with Jeffrey Solomon of Wolters Kluwer.


7. Digitally Transforming the Legal Department: A Panel of Top GCs and Experts.


8. As LawPay Acquires MyCase, Our Exclusive LawNext Interview with the Two CEOs.


9. Pro Bono Net Cofounder Mark O’Brien on Technology As A ‘Force Multiplier’ For Meeting Legal Needs.


10. From Radical to Trailblazer: How Innovative GC Jeffrey Carr Disrupted the Legal Department, Part 1.


11. Kriti Sharma, Chief Product Officer for Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters.


12. Former Tesla Lawyer Laura Frederick on How to Teach Contracting Skills for the Real World.


13. Digitory Legal Founder Catherine Krow on Using Billing Data to Drive Diversity.


14. Filevine CEO Ryan Anderson on His Company’s $108M Raise and the Future of Practice Management.


15. Carl Malamud on His Three-Plus Decades of Working to Free the Law.