Colin Levy: Building Real AI Competence in the Legal Profession

About this episode

AI isn’t coming for your job—but it is coming for your workflows. In this episode, you’ll learn how to cut through AI hype, protect client confidentiality, and use practical tools to automate the repetitive work that’s clogging your day.

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Colin Levy discuss:

• Uneven adoption of AI and legal tech across the profession
• Evolution of legal technology from e‑discovery to modern AI
• Practical, low‑risk AI use cases for everyday legal work
• Data privacy, confidentiality, and paid vs. free AI tools
• Building real technology competence through experimentation and better prompts

Key Takeaways:

• Technology will not slow down to let professionals catch up, so it’s essential to actively close your own AI knowledge and usage gap.
• The most valuable AI applications today often center on document-related tasks—summarizing, comparing, and drafting from existing materials.
• Using free, open AI tools with client data can violate confidentiality obligations; controlled, paid environments are critical for sensitive work.
• Before buying any new platform, clearly define the problem you’re trying to solve so the tool doesn’t become expensive shelfware.
• True tech competence is built by experimenting, refining prompts, and learning from how different inputs change AI’s outputs—not by passively consuming AI headlines.

"The power of AI right now is in using existing knowledge and taking that to create something new or build something new." — Colin Levy

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About Colin Levy: Colin S. Levy is a leading authority on legal technology, AI in law, and contract lifecycle management (CLM), currently serving as General Counsel at Malbek and an Adjunct Professor at Albany Law School. Widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in legal tech, he guides legal professionals through digital transformation, modern AI integration, and workflow innovation. Colin is the author of The Legal Tech Ecosystem—a definitive guide to legal technology and AI—and frequently speaks and writes on how technological advances continue to redefine the future of legal practice worldwide.

Connect with Colin Levy:

Website: https://www.colinslevy.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinslevy/

Connect with Steve Fretzin:

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin

Twitter: @stevefretzin

Instagram: @fretzinsteve

Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.

Website: Fretzin.com

Email: [email protected]

Book: Legal Business Development Isn't Rocket Science and more!

YouTube: Steve Fretzin

Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911

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