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Podcast

Trust and Human Judgement Are the Legal Currency of Today ft. Bill Ryan

44:07 min

Law firm operations are undergoing a massive overhaul - as they should, in the age of AI. In this episode of Between the Briefs, hosts Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Bill Ryan, Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at AT&T, to explore how enterprise legal departments can harness AI to disrupt traditional workflows and what this means for enterprise compliance.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to build organizational trust as the foundation for technological change
  • Why dedicated teams outperform wide AI operation 
  • Why “vision without execution is just hallucination” 
  • How to approach outside counsel partnerships in an AI-driven market 
  • Why human judgement becomes more critical as technology scales
  • The dual risk-opportunity dynamic in AI democratization

 

Tune in to learn the leadership principles that make technological transformation actually work.

Quotes:

  1. "People love problem solvers. If you have somebody on your team or you have somebody that you're talking to that's really, really effective at solving a problem, your instinct is to give them the bigger problems. And bigger problems usually come with increased responsibility and an expanded scope and a broader team."
  2. “As we start to navigate the world that's moving so rapidly around us, human judgment and the creation of trust of the path we're about to navigate, is what people are going to look more and more to. The people I continue to prioritize aren't just creating output, but building teams that trust their leadership, I think are gonna be the most effectively navigated."
  3. "We need these partnerships to be successful. What we're asking for them is to acknowledge that the world's changing at the pace that we think it's changing, that we have to change our model. For those partnerships that lean in and kind of evolve and strategically navigate this, I think it's an unbelievably awesome upside."
  4. "The wide availability, the democratization of AI, means anyone in the world can now send a letter or a file or come up with a draft lawsuit to file against a company if they go into ChatGPT. At the same time, our ability to process work and create output is growing, so the playing field is exponentially growing."

Highlights:

00:00
Introduction

01:57
From Teaching to Compliance: A Purpose-Driven Legal Career

04:19
Problem-Solving as the Foundation of Legal Excellence

06:40
Transform Change by Honoring Past Achievements

08:56
Human Judgment Becomes Critical as Technology Scales

12:04
Building Organizational Culture Before Technological Change

15:12
AT&T Legal Edge: The AI-First In-House Law Firm

20:05
Hiring for Adaptability Over Technical AI Expertise

22:27
Why Law Firms Must Evolve Their Pricing Models

About the Contributors

Joe Stephens

Joe Stephens, J.D., is Steno's Director of Legal Solutions as well as a Clinical Lecturer at Texas Tech University School of Law. With over 15 years of experience in criminal defense and public service, he founded and led Texas' largest rural public defender office, which serves a 12-county area. A graduate of The University of Texas School of Law (cum laude) and Vanderbilt University (B.A.), Stephens currently serves as a Board Member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association (TCDLA) and sits on multiple State Bar of Texas committees. His expertise spans the intersection of legal practice and technological innovation in the justice system.

Adrian Cea

Adrian Cea is Steno's Social Media Manager, leading content strategy, audience engagement, and digital brand-building across platforms. He also produces and co-hosts Between the Briefs, Steno's podcast covering the intersection of legal technology, court reporting, and the future of litigation. With a background spanning content creation, field marketing, and sales at companies like Sell Better and Chili Piper, Adrian brings a multi-disciplined lens to making complex legal tech topics accessible and engaging.