In this episode of The Uplevel View Podcast, Stephanie Corey and Brandi Pack sit down with Ryan Walker, CEO and co-founder of General Legal, to explore how AI is transforming the legal industry.

Ryan shares his journey from mathematics and early NLP work to building some of the first AI-powered legal tools at Casetext. The conversation dives into a persistent issue: despite massive advancements in AI, legal services remain expensive, inefficient, and largely unchanged for clients.

General Legal is tackling this problem head-on with a new model—combining AI-native workflows, embedded legal services, and flat-fee pricing. The result: faster turnaround times, lower costs, and a more integrated client experience.

The episode also explores the limitations of current AI models, the importance of human lawyers in the loop, and the emerging power of agent-based systems that can unlock insights from unstructured legal data without requiring heavy infrastructure like traditional CLMs.

Ultimately, this episode paints a compelling picture of a future where legal services are more accessible, efficient, and aligned with client needs.

Links & Resources

• General Legal - General Legal | AI native law firm for growing companies

• UpLevel Ops - Home Page

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• 00:00–01:00 – Introduction to Ryan Walker and his background in AI and legal tech

• 01:00–02:30 – How Ryan entered legal tech and why the space fascinated him

• 02:30–04:20 – The persistent adoption problem in legal technology

• 04:20–06:05 – Why AI hasn't yet changed the client experience in legal services

• 06:05–07:30 – Launching General Legal and early traction (0 to 100+ clients)

• 07:30–09:00 – Embedding lawyers into client workflows (Slack, CLMs)

• 09:00–10:30 – The access-to-justice gap and unaffordable legal services

• 10:30–12:10 – The inefficiencies of the billable hour model

• 12:10–14:00 – AI limitations: high issue detection, low contextual judgment

• 14:00–16:00 – Why human lawyers are still essential in AI workflows

• 16:00–18:00 – Flat-fee model: $500 per contract and full lifecycle coverage

• 18:00–20:30 – Building client context through past contracts and interactions

• 20:30–23:30 – AI agents and the future of legal data analysis

• 23:30–26:00 – Replacing heavy CLMs with flexible AI-driven systems

• 26:00–End – The future: freeing lawyers from rote work to focus on high-value tasks