Legal Tech Trends with Peter Duffy (Q1 2026)

🎙️Peter Duffy is back for our quarterly deep dive into the biggest stories from his ever-popular Legal Tech Trends newsletter (celebrating its recent 50th edition 🎉). This time around, the conversation is dominated by one name: Anthropic. Between a legal plugin that spooked public markets, a viral tweet showcasing a "Claude-native" law firm, and a principled stand-off with the US Defense Department that sent millions of users switching sides — it's been quite the quarter.

What we else dive into:

Vibe coding hits legal — From weekend hackathons to working prototypes in 30 minutes. Peter explains why it's transforming ideation and prototyping, but flags the considerable leap from "amazing demo" to "enterprise-ready." Plus, Alex reveals his salmon regulation app “Branchly” is storming the charts over at vibecode.law.

The privilege and compliance watch-outs — An SRA investigation into a solicitor uploading client docs to ChatGPT, a US ruling that use of consumer Claude waived attorney-client privilege, and judges struggling with where "AI" begins and ends. Shadow IT is alive and well.

The LLM numbers blind spot — Peter's public service announcement: LLMs are not designed for numerical calculations and it's one of the easiest ways to trigger hallucinations. 

The McKinsey security incident — A security researcher accessing 45 million+ internal chatbot messages. Not an AI-specific problem per se, but a timely reminder that vibe-coded tools and internal chatbots need proper security scrutiny — especially when you have client data and a reputation on the line.

Harvey, Legora, and the question you shouldn't be asking — "Which one should I buy?" Maybe start with your problems, not the product. Talk to your users, define your requirements, understand the commercial value — then go to market with a structured evaluation. 

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Listen if: You want a grounded, hype-free take on the quarter that put legal AI firmly in the mainstream spotlight.

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For more conversations at the intersection of law and technology, head to https://lawwhatsnext.substack.com/.