Jon Con Esq.

I want to apologize to an old colleague of mine. He’d just gotten married and took a 10 day honeymoon (wow!). A month later he did a weekend ski trip (oof!) and couldn’t get WiFi for a closing that got moved up 4 weeks. I filled in for him. I remember the partner saying he was a total ‘liability’ & that he sucked. I laughed and said “yeah - doesn’t want it.” I believed it too. I spent the whole weekend playing ‘hero’ for Deal Team Six. You can ALWAYS count on me. Meanwhile my relationship was on borrowed time and hair thinning rapidly. I’m V10 baby! He got ‘stealth’ dismissed that Monday. They let him keep his website photo for 2 months while he found something new. He did. Fast forward a few years - I see it way different. He was bright, and hard working, and put his ppl first. He liked his life. He had balls. But I was racin’! - king of the rats. And my apartment in midtown actually had vermin. A totally delusional period of my life. One of those lessons you learn in hindsight. Hope you’re doing well brother.

@Eli_Albrecht There he goooooooes - saying the stuff that hits the heart of it all. 🎯 You hire for succession, growth, rapport. And 100 other things. That’s called law in the real world

Just got off a call with the CEO of a smaller client. He didn’t open our document. He asked if we had inside baseball on the other side. He also said “fuck them” a few times. PSA - you’re not hiring a lawyer to be the John Grisham of form contracts💡 We are agents, not authors

@SellersCounsel That’s a great point tbh - they’re so easy & off the shelf that a real form gets you 80% there. So get a real form. Have at it folks. You didn’t change the sport of law, you got a machine to throw BP before the game. Per usual, alignment

100% this. If you think AI is revolutionary because it can spit out some form docs that have been available for $100 on LegalZoom for the last decade then you just don’t understand what lawyers are actually doing But on that same note, a lot of these docs are simple and only as good as the form you start with. And most of the forms in front of a paywall are deficient in some way. Like assuming AI is pulling at least some language from random EDGAR filings, there are about to be some weird contracts out in the wild

@botzarelli A form document is a starting point. I learned that most ppl think the piece of paper is the game. A wildly errant red herring This

Yes, very much this. Also I think writing prompts is basically the same as taking instructions. The difficult part of taking instructions is working out precisely enough what the client actually wants to achieve. In the end that involves understanding humans, which AI only gives an illusion of doing.

For those new to this - Almost every doc on that list is a junior associate first cut. Million forms. Few pages This isn’t transforming the practice of transactional law. These aren’t the money pits

@fan_cornell In your orbit, and your debt! CHF til the wheels fall off

Someone I admire and respect is @SteelToeScribe Jon is a total teller of truth. Solid. Smart. Tons of life experiences for a comparatively young guy. I like Jon very much because in this age of 24/7 disinformation he is a beacon of truth. #FF

What people do not understand about AI and Lawyer-hiring. I do not hire junior/midlevel lawyers because I need someone to do junior work. I have always done that work faster myself. I hire them so they can grow into deal team leads and partners who can originate.

@lawheroezV2 Tech bros don’t know what tech bros do

The one reason AI will never replace lawyers is because clueless tech bros don’t understand what lawyers actually do.

@beagewill @ZackMorrison18 You had me at trust bust - couldn’t agree more

@SteelToeScribe @ZackMorrison18 Yeah. They have too much money and very few productive ideas. In a way Meta/Google are just all print, radio and television ad revenue funneled into two companies... it's pretty goddamn staggering that they haven't been trust busted.... yet

It’s insane what that $80B could have done in the real world.

@StevenShortino I’m just jawing you - agree with you and agree with me. It’s all true to a tee. Merit prevails, and tools can be merit 🤝

The select few firms who get out in front of the AI boom will succeed. But you can’t deny the fact that people are paying lawyers less and less because of LLMs. I’ll give you a perfect example: Franchise prospect got quoted $3k for an FDD review. Instead, the prospect ran the FDD through 3 different LLMs, and then provided us with a list of questions. They were all reasonable and items we’ve been asked by other attorneys in the past. The prospect was pleased and is now a franchisee. Also, $3k wealthier.

I used AI to interpret and redline 50 pages of legal documentation in a 7-figure MnA deal. My attorney thought I went behind his back and hired a top firm when I showed him. Spent a couple hundred bucks having him review changes instead of thousands. Lawyers should be worried.

@beagewill @ZackMorrison18 Damn - Meta rly Zucked up An atrocity & a catastrophe

@SteelToeScribe @ZackMorrison18 No, man. This isn't true. The $80B is operating loses over the course of 7 years. Actual free cash flow going out of the company with almost no revenue. statista.com/statistics/129…

@SellersCounsel So true - @TrailerParkGuy you still having cold sweats about your OpAg Saga?

@SteelToeScribe Yeah it’s definitely hard to convey “this is one of the most important documents you’ll see” but also “as long as there’s nothing crazy just sign it”

@SellersCounsel YES - agree. I cannot stand operating agreements, sneaky hard. That’s why I left CRE 🛠️ I was kinda over generalizing but it cracks me up when ppl think an NDA is intense It is, but like … it’s not.

Yeah I think you’re spot on The only thing I’d disagree with on a few of the responses is that operating agreements and partnership agreements can get expensive to negotiate, but in those cases it’s especially important to do it upfront because if you don’t you’re almost guaranteed to end up in court (parties that fight hard over partnership agreements tend to be litigious)

@jkubicki Preach JK - LZ is arguably better at some stuff too 🗣️

Claude writing NDAs/LLC agreements better than $800/hr lawyers? LegalZoom's been letting you generate + customize those same docs (with attorney review add-ons) for ~$99/mo + e-sign for over a decade. Slow down on the 'replaces lawyers' hype. It’s evolution, not revolution.

@bullzi009 @Fitness20Fit @COSDAWGCFB @ZackMorrison18 I’m saying that the mere cost of personnel for this catastrophe is a loogie in the ocean blue

@Fitness20Fit @SteelToeScribe @COSDAWGCFB @ZackMorrison18 I believe they’re saying that the true number spent on workers was nowhere near 80 billion dollars

@dhoesq @heynavtoor Don Ho Kno > I am an immensely kind person on here It was arguably the craziest x-twit post I’ve seen

@heynavtoor usually has pretty good AI alpha, but I'm gonna guess that he's gonna regret posting this one sooner than later... And if you don't want to believe me, just read the comments and see what dozens of very reputable lawyers are saying about this advice

@TiredBambooLaw uhhhhh about that 💰

@SteelToeScribe I was shown a bill on my second week, as part of a "know what world you're in right now and act accordingly you can do it" meeting and uh

@TiredBambooLaw That’s gospel 📜 👈🏽

@SteelToeScribe I don't have anything to add other than it won't cut any costs, nor do juniors costs a mere $15k 😂

@MarketPalmer_ Marriage, kids, interests. “Life”

Recently learned that 25% of 60-year old doctors have a net worth below $1 million. How…?

@drewjacobs_ @ordonez_adan @heynavtoor I’m down. Let’s ask @SMB_Attorney - he’s more Gibson Done than Shirkland & Hellis anyway

@SteelToeScribe @ordonez_adan @heynavtoor Would love to see someone post the output of the Claude prompt for “The Gibson Dunn Cease and Desist Letter” 😂😂😂

🚨 BREAKING: Claude can now write legal contracts like NDAs, freelance agreements, and LLC paperwork better than $800/hour corporate lawyers. Here are 12 prompts that replace $15,000 in legal bills: (Save this before it disappears)