

16 Sep 2026 · 40m · 19 chapters

Alex Su’s promotion to president of Latitude Legal and how AI is increasing demand for “flex talent” (high-caliber contract attorneys) rather than eliminating legal work.
AI output creates more need for human judgment to direct, check, and own work; uncertainty in hiring/resourcing pushes clients toward flexible staffing; contract attorneys are often mischaracterized as doing commoditized tasks, while Latitude focuses on higher-judgment engagements.
Latitude’s reported growth after Su’s tenure—nearly doubled client base and office footprint, hundreds of new law firm/corporate clients, and 52% jump in new client acquisition (first half of the year). Latitude also supports AMLAW clients training/validating proprietary AI models, requiring senior expertise.
Alex Su—former Sullivan & Cromwell associate; federal clerk; legal tech startup executive (e-discovery, AI contract management); joined Latitude as chief revenue officer in 2024; now president.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes.
Alex Su shares the news of his promotion to president of Latitude Legal.
“Before we get to my interview with Alex, please take this moment to hear from the sponsors who so generously support this podcast.”
Alex Su shares the news of his promotion to president of Latitude Legal.
“Now let's get to my second conversation this year with Alex Su.”
A discussion on Alex's career path and the vision for Latitude Legal.
“For those who don't know, we are an alternative legal services provider.”
Exploration of how AI is increasing demand for flexible legal talent.
“And then about two and a half years ago, I was advising Latitude Legal and I decided to jump in full-time as its chief revenue officer.”
A look at the changing nature of legal employment and the rise of flexible work.
“We want to double down on that because we think that works.”
Learn about the increasing interest in flexible work arrangements among attorneys.
“you started to see a higher caliber of attorney who was interested in flexible work.”
Explore how Alex Su's diverse legal background informs his current role.
“I mean, you've been through different stages from clerking to practicing to legal tech startup to this job now.”
Understand how Latitude connects law firms with flexible legal talent.
“So it's really, I think, a good pairing.”
Discover the growing demand for flexible talent across various practice areas.
“And the key thing that makes us different is that very often this work comes in waves.”
Learn about the fluid relationship between clients and candidates in legal staffing.
“And what's interesting is that very often a client can become a candidate and vice versa.”
Explore how Latitude leverages AI to enhance its services and operations.
“temporary placement, and that got extended, and the extension turned into a job offer at some point and then stayed.”
Discuss common misconceptions about flex talent in the legal industry.
“I'm here with Alex Su, who has just been named president of Latitude Legal after having been the company's chief revenue officer for the last three years.”
Explore the diverse roles contract attorneys can play beyond commoditized work.
“So I would say, yeah, that's what I would love for firms to be aware of.”
Learn why Latitude Legal prefers to distance itself from the ALSP label.
“And their rate was dramatically lower than what a junior associate at a big firm would cost.”
Discover how social media engagement can enhance visibility in legal practice.
“ALSPs are needed and for many reasons, and I'm a big fan of them.”
Examine the ways AI is reshaping demand for legal staffing and talent.
“why my content was relatable was because I was putting out jokes that people talked about already.”
Understand how law firms are evolving to include new roles beyond traditional lawyers.
“And in fact, I think we've seen the opposite where rates are going up and it seems like there's even more demand for lawyers than ever.”
Learn about the hiring strategies and unique approaches at Latitude Legal.
“And so, again, these are all new jobs that are being created because of AI, and we're keeping a close eye on that.”
Discover how flexible work arrangements in legal staffing can vary widely.
“This is a stupid question, but when you say you're always hiring, are they on your payroll or are they on the client's payroll?”

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.
On LawNext, what are the key points of this episode?
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.
0:02Today on Law Next, having just been on this show last February, Alex Su is back. And there's a reason I'm invited him back so soon. Last February, Alex and I recorded a live episode of this podcast over lunch in a Cambodian restaurant in his hometown of Alameda, California. Mics and cameras sat up on the table while other people ate lunch all around us. It was part of my Law Next on Location series during my extended visit to the Bay Area. And Alex and I talked about his winding career, from Sullivan and Cromwell associate to federal clerk to legal tech startups to social media influencer. And finally, the chief revenue officer at Latitude, the flexible legal talent company.
0:44Back then, I asked him what's coming next. And his answer was that as AI got better, the demand for lawyers with real judgment to direct it, check it and own the work would only grow. Seven months later, Alex has proved himself prescient. On the day we recorded this conversation, Latitude announced that Alex had just been named its president, unifying the company's commercial and talent operations under his leadership. During Alex's time with the company, the announcement said it had nearly doubled its client base and office footprint, added hundreds of new law firm and corporate clients, and saw a 52 % jump in new client acquisition in just the first half of this year.
1:25So as Alex joins Law Next for the second time this year, we talk about what's driving that growth, why AI is producing more demand for human lawyers rather than less, why Alex says contract attorney undersells what Flex Talent actually does today, and why he bristles a bit at the label ALSP. I'm Bob Ambroji, and this is Law Next, the podcast that features the innovators and entrepreneurs who are driving what's next in law. Before we get to my interview with Alex, please take this moment to hear from the sponsors who so generously support this podcast.
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2:44With LolliLaw, you can easily access over 150 industry-specific USCIS, DOJ, and EOIR forms. Plus, all forms are updated within an hour of official agency release, so you can spend less time hunting down updated forms and more time helping your clients. Ready to streamline your form-filling process and increase your firm's efficiency? Visit lollylaw.com today. That's L-O-L-L-Y law.com. Now let's get to my second conversation this year with Alex Su. Alex Su, welcome back to Law Next. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me back on, Bob. Looking forward to talking to you today. You and I were just reminiscing before we started the recording that we had a lot of fun recording a live in-person podcast.
3:40in a Cambodian restaurant in your hometown of Alameda back in February. That was part of a little tour I was doing and some live recording out in California. That was a lot of fun. It was. I can't believe I had Bob Ambrosie at my local restaurant in Alameda, but I'm glad you had a chance to swing by. Thank you for making the time then. It was so much fun. Well, it was kind of a scene. I mean, we had the mic and the camera and stuff set up on the table while there are other people in there dining. And you know the place and you knew the owner, so that made it a little more comfortable. But that was great.
4:19Thanks so much for doing that. It was a real highlight of my trip out to San Francisco. Of course. Of course. So normally I wouldn't have you back on the podcast so soon after that, except that you've got some news that was just announced today on the day that we're recording this. So I'll let you tell it. What's your news? Well, my news is this. I've just been promoted to president of Latitude Legal. For those who don't know, we are an alternative legal services provider. We focus on providing high-caliber attorneys to law firms and legal departments on an engagement basis. We've been growing quickly.
4:54And for many reasons, we've decided to unify all of our commercial operations under me. We know that the market is moving very quickly. AI is playing a role in this. It's creating a lot of demand for flexible legal talent. So we thought that this might be the best way to serve our clients and our candidates. So we announced that this morning. And so, yeah, of course, right on brand, Bob, you just got in front of me quickly. So I'm so glad we have a chance to chat about it today. I'm happy to do it. So, and you had been chief revenue officer. You've been there, what, three and a half, almost four years now, I think, total.
5:35And I'm going to tell people to go back and listen to that prior podcast because we talked a lot about your career and your career evolution. But give us the nutshell because it is relevant, I think, to what we'll be talking about today? Yeah, no, that was a great conversation. I got to walk down memory lane because I joined the legal tech and innovation space about 10 years ago. But before that, I was a lawyer who was not sure about what to do next with his career. I graduated from Northwestern Law, worked at Sullivan and Cromwell, clerk for a federal judge. But for many reasons, I thought, hey, this is not it for me.
6:16So it took a little bit of time, but then I pivoted to the legal tech space where I worked for a successive number of startups that were serving lawyers in the legal industry. It was e-discovery at first, then it became AI-powered contract management. And so I've kind of been part of these scaling companies where I'm able to use both my recently acquired business and sales skills, but also tap into my legal experience. So that's kind of why it was so much fun to be in that world with you and all of our friends in the legal innovation ecosystem. And then about two and a half years ago, I was advising Latitude Legal and I decided to jump in full-time as its chief revenue officer.
7:06So what's interesting is that Even though this is a move towards services rather than tech, it's still tying in all elements of my practice experience, of my technology experience, my work with startups and AI. So everything is kind of tied together. What is it that you found compelling about Latitude, about getting into sort of the legal talent space as opposed to the legal technology space, which is a little bit distinct? What attracted you to that? Well, I thought that Latitude had a very unique approach to the market. Many other companies have pretty traditional salespeople or go-to-market strategies where they hire career professionals to sell and manage their clients.
7:55Latitude, on the other hand, decided to take senior in-house lawyers and former law firm partners to essentially be their client services team. So really betting big on the fact that lawyers were uniquely suited to evangelize flex talent to other lawyers. Again, not a super popular move, but it was highly effective. And I thought, hey, look, with all of this AI happening, technology seemed to be getting better day after day. There would be a need for the people side of things to catch up as well. So we all know that legal departments and law firms hire full-time employees, but there was this emerging category of flex talent, which are essentially high caliber contract attorneys who work on engagements.
8:45So not full-time. And that bench of talent was getting better and better by the day. So I thought, hey, this is a company that was at the intersection of a couple of trends that seemed to be picking up speed. So that's when I kind of made the jump to Latitude in 2024. and it's been a fun ride since. Your role as president, you were chief revenue officer as acknowledged before, and the CEO remains in place, Ross Buher, is it my pronouncing his name right? Yeah, okay. And he's based in Nashville or I just was two weeks ago for ILTA. And you're of course in the San Francisco area. So what does this mean for you as you move into this role?
9:32What changes? What stays the same? You know, I'd say that a lot stays the same. For example, you know, we've been trying to introduce Latitude to a broader group of audiences. You know, we, again, as I mentioned, we hire experienced lawyers to evangelize our offering. That's going to continue. We want to double down on that because we think that works. Our clients tell us that they like it. They don't often want to be dealing with a professional salesperson. They like the fact that they're talking to a peer, someone who's held their own job before, who can give them advice on budgets, hiring, trade-offs that you have to make.
10:11So that's going to continue being the same. We're going to focus on that very heavily. And what that means is as a company, we need to make sure that all of our teams are aligned and supporting our broad-based initiatives. A lot of times it's all about making sure everyone is on the same page internally when we're launching new initiatives or trying to scale growth, which we are. So in many ways, things aren't very different, but just unifying everything under one point of view. You've already alluded to the company's growth over the last couple of years. I think the press release talks about 243 new corporate legal clients, 120 new law firm clients, I think just within the last couple of years, growth of 52 % in 2026 over last year.
11:01Is it just AI driving all of this or what is driving this acceleration right now? Well, I think it's a combination of factors. Not to mention your sales talents, I should mention that as well. Well, I think it's a really interesting time because I remember speaking to you at that a Cambodian restaurant, you know, six, seven months ago. And I think you'd asked me like, what's up next? Like what's coming next? And I remember saying that there was something happening where it seemed like the pace of AI was accelerating. It was getting better and better day after day, but that would create a whole ton of new types of work because you need to have humans with deep experience, judgment to manage all of this output.
11:48And I think what I've seen firsthand in the last six to seven months is even more of that. Demand has basically spiked for Flex Talent, in part because there's a huge need for lawyers with judgment, with the expertise to manage all of the output created by AI. And then separately, as law firms and legal departments are seeing the impact of AI, they're also trying to figure out how do they handle hiring and resourcing? What works can be allocated to AI versus a human? And so with that uncertainty, that's just created more demand for a flexible work arrangement. So a lot of our clients come to us and say, hey, we have a need for this interim solution.
12:35That's kind of the big untold story, I think. Everyone's talking about the frontier labs, the big legal AI companies that are getting higher and higher valuations every day, it seems. But I do think that an underrated story is the human part of things, which is the growth of this work that needs a human with expertise and judgment. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I mean, does that reflect the fact that there are fewer permanent jobs and therefore greater demand for flexible workforces? Or does it just simply suggest that flexibility reflects new areas of expansion, new areas of growth, or something like that?
13:17I think that's a great question. I don't know the impact ultimately of AI on full-time jobs. I think that that's something that's playing out right now. But what I can say is that there are two things happening on the flex side. One of which is what you mentioned on the demand side with more uncertainty, partly caused by AI, but also a lot of other factors. These can be very industry specific, right? We work with companies and all sorts of industries, including retail, automotive, financial, so not just tech. There's uncertainty everywhere. And so that's kind of the demand side. And then on the supply side, the talent, you know, it used to be that contract attorneys were viewed as those who could only do commoditized work, but with remote work, with Zoom, with all sorts of technological advances, you started to see a higher caliber of attorney who was interested in flexible work.
14:10So the trend I'm talking about really comes in part from AI creating this uncertainty, but also this rapidly improving bench of talent. Like I tell the story a lot, but like even people who understand how good these types of flex talent attorneys can be, they always do a double take or have some type of reaction when they see the resume. Like, this is not someone you would expect to be doing contract work, but there it is. I think that the lawyers today, with all technology and remote work, are more and more interested in flexible work arrangements, which has lifted the quality of the talent pool.
14:47So it's those two types of trends that are happening at the same time. It's a lifestyle choice. It is. It is. It very much is. And it's kind of, I think we joked about this when we talked in Alameda, that it's almost a little bit ironic that you've ended up in this role because in some ways your whole career has been an alternative or a flexible legal career. I mean, you've been through different stages from clerking to practicing to legal tech startup to this job now. How does that background, that experience help inform what you're doing now? So much. You know, on the one hand, I started out my career in the most strictest of career paths, like the most structured of roles, which is a large law firm associate.
15:29And so I do understand a little bit of the psychology of our clients and some of our candidates who come from that world. But on the other hand, it seems like everyone has an interest in flexibility, whether it's the firm or legal department that just needs to get the work done and just can't get approval for full-time hires. They need to be flexible with some type of other solution. And then again, on the talent side, similar to me, there is a time to work at a full-time job and a very demanding job at a large law firm. But then maybe at some point later in their life, it becomes that they need that flexibility, whether it's to support a growing family or aging parents, or maybe they move back home where the cost of living is lower.
16:08So it's really, I think, a good pairing. The flexibility and pragmatism I've had in my past career paired with this newer trend of flexible work, both for the employer and the contract attorney. So, you talked early on in our still brief interview here about latitude and what you do, but if there are people in the audience who haven't heard of the company, really aren't even familiar with the idea of flexible staffing, talk a little bit more about what it is you do, who it is you serve, and how you serve them. Yeah. So we work with law firms and legal departments where they have work that needs to be done, but perhaps they can't get approval for a full-time hire.
16:59So sometimes they'll go like an in-house legal department will go to a law firm, but often they'll come to us and say, hey, we need to get this work done. Tell us who we should hire. Do you have someone? And we offer them resumes and attorneys that have the expertise they need to complete the work, but they're not on the hook in the way that they would be for a full-time hire. They can scale up or down on the usage of the contract attorney or the flex talent, depending on what's needed. So some people call it like on-demand attorneys, and I kind of like that. It really starts from the client saying, hey, we need this work done.
17:40One, we don't have the resources to hire a full-time person. Maybe it makes sense to bring in someone who can work on an engagement or flexible basis. Is that going to mostly be individual assignments? Or what if it's a project that requires 20 attorneys, a review project, say, or something like that? Do you also do that kind of job? We do. It's both. And the key thing that makes us different is that very often this work comes in waves. And, you know, I think because of the nature of our client services team, again, these are people who have formerly been senior in-house counsel or law firm partners, we can prescriptively suggest certain staffing models and basically tell our clients, hey, this is how much you should spend.
18:27This is the team size you need. basically have a dialogue about what's available depending on how much work is needed to be done. Which, again, this goes back to our core strategy, like just looking for people who have good judgment to help select the attorneys and team that's needed to complete the work. What size law firms? What size legal departments? I mean, it's just mostly larger firms or does it go across the span and span across the board in terms of sizes of firms? It's across the board. We do have a growing roster of Fortune 500 companies and Amlaw firms, But I would say that it doesn't matter if you're a large or small organization.
19:00The resourcing challenges out there, especially in the world of AI disruption, is just widespread. So we're seeing demand from all segments of the legal industry. And what about practice areas? I mean, are there ones that you specialize in? Or again, is that across the board sort of? It's largely across the board. I will say that where we specialize is probably the higher judgment, deep expertise type of work. We've found that there's just more demand for that these days. And accordingly, our talent pool is filled with people with that experience. So these are people who come from AMLAW firms with extensive experience in-house, in a variety of practice areas and industries.
19:41How do they come to you? How do you fill that pool of talent? It's an ongoing process. And the company was founded in 2013. So this has been playing out for over a decade. But when we post jobs, we have applicants and we interview them and we review them. We also spend quite a bit of time on our brand and trying to attract people who are interested in this type of work. And what's interesting is that very often a client can become a candidate and vice versa. A candidate can become a client. This is what I think a lot of people or a lot of outsiders don't get about the legal industry. It's like today's client could be someone who ends up needing your help tomorrow and vice versa.
20:24It's like it's the people in this industry are always moving around. And, you know, the GC of a large company could suddenly find themselves the next day after a transaction looking for work as a contract attorney. Like, can you believe that? And that's why I think that our strategy of really being accountable to this community and known by this community of lawyers is so critical because it's not a short-term transactional type of sale. It's really just understanding the nuances of where you fit in and knowing that who you work with today, you might work with differently tomorrow. Yeah. Does it work the other way around?
21:07Does it happen that you place someone with a law firm and that someone ends up becoming permanent at that law firm? It does. That does happen, whether it's a law firm or a legal department. Sometimes people, again, have called it, like, try it before you buy it. But what better way to de-risk a hire than to work with them on an engagement basis? And that's part of our model. We do encourage that. I happen to know somebody who got a lawyer who got three different jobs that way. I don't think it was through your company, but over the years, it happened to be a woman, and it happened to be that she left practice twice to have children and wasn't looking to get back into full time, but got a temporary placement, and that got extended, and the extension turned into a job offer at some point and then stayed.
22:01And that cycle actually repeated itself a couple of other times in that person's career. So, I mean, it was actually a great, it kind of works both ways because not only does it let the legal department or the law firm know the candidate, but it lets the candidate know what they're getting into, right? It does. It does. It's a two-way street. And that's why we've seen that play out so many times. And it sounds like the friend of yours, I mean, that's a real testament to her ability if she keeps on getting hired away full time by these employers. When she didn't want to. It's more like they talked her into it.
22:38Yeah, she wasn't even looking for full time.
22:49My guest is Alex Hsu, who on the day we recorded this, had just been named president of Latitude Legal, a flexible legal talent agency, where he had previously been chief revenue officer. We'll pick up that conversation in just a moment. But first, please take this moment to learn about the sponsors who so generously support Law Next.
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23:54Welcome back to Law Next. I'm here with Alex Su, who has just been named president of Latitude Legal after having been the company's chief revenue officer for the last three years. And as we return to our conversation, we talk about AI marketing and what's next for flexible legal talent in this AI era. Let's get back to it.
24:25You came from, again, you obviously came from a background. You worked for three different AI technology companies and Ironclad of a sort. You were at Logical back a while ago. How does Latitude use AI in doing what it does? And how do you use it in your own work there? There's so many ways, Bob. I think we do take AI governance seriously. So there's a lot of consulting with our outside counsel on the best way to use it. But the long and short of it is that AI is disrupting and changing a lot of work. And it's not just legal. I use Claude and ChatGPT every day. I'll even use Gemini too. I can't imagine working without it.
25:11Sometimes they can range from just helping me think through some content topics. I'll admit that I definitely use AI in my writing and in my content, but also not in a copy and paste whatever it tells me to. But I also use it to analyze a lot of information and handle kind of formatting or just a lot of different things that I normally would probably in the past life relied on an assistant or a person. So we are big power users of AI internally here at Latitude. I would just say that we're trying to be very thoughtful about the best place to operationalize it because, again, as I mentioned, AI governance is really important as all these capabilities get better and better.
25:57So your new role encompasses a range of responsibilities, including marketing, business development. And as you think about that role, what is it you think, do you think that law firms understand what you do? What don't they understand? What do they get wrong about what you do that you want to make sure they understand going forward that you want to use your role of marketing maybe to educate them about? Yeah. Well, I think just awareness is the first thing. But the second thing is that once they're aware of us, I think we get bucketed into the contract attorneys category. I've used that term sometimes because it's easy to understand rather than flex talent.
26:42But when law firms hear contract attorneys, they think of essentially contractors who are working on commoditized work. I remember when I was an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell, and I remember thinking that contract work was really reserved for first level document review. Well, that was like 15 years ago. E-discovery project. E-discovery, right. I don't think that firms out there realize that there is flex talent. There are lawyers working on engagements that are handling fractional GC work or trial work, trial strategy, just really high level tasks that probably many of their full-time employees wouldn't be doing.
27:22So I would say that that's the thing I would love for firms to best be aware of. And the implications of having flex talent for high caliber attorneys is pretty broad. So for example, we have Amlaw clients who use us to help train their proprietary AI models or validate those models. This is not something you can just pass off to a junior associate. This is work that you would need to have someone with significant experience in a practice area to check things over. And, you know, that's kind of the new demand that we're seeing that probably didn't exist just a few years ago because firms are now basically tasked with bringing themselves into the AI age and they need all of these resources to help make it work.
28:01So I would say, yeah, that's what I would love for firms to be aware of. Like contract attorneys are not just for commoditized work and that there's many ways we can help, not just with traditional legal work. So the difference is the skill level, the experience level, the ability to actually be kind of an SME in a particular domain or something like that. That's right. And that's why I would always go back to, hey, look, you may not believe me, but just reach out to us because when we send you that resume, like I remember one of my first experiences at Latitude, this happened and I sent over a resume of a former Amlaw partner.
28:34And their rate was dramatically lower than what a junior associate at a big firm would cost. So these are the things, like people seeing the resume and reacting to them, that seems to be the most powerful factor in persuading them. Yeah. Another area of confusion, I mean, I think this is something we talked about again when we were together in California, is I think at some point Latitude was more positioned as an ALSP and an alternative legal services provider. And as I recall from our conversation, you don't like that phrase, or at least as it applies to what you do. And that's another area where I think you feel that there is maybe misunderstanding in the industry about the sort of different kinds of entities that all can provide specialized legal help for different kinds of circumstances.
29:26So do I have that right? Do you not like positioning Latitude as an ALSP and why not? I use it as shorthand, Bob, because all of us in the innovation space know what that is. But you're right that those of us in marketing or who oversee marketing spend a lot of time thinking about words and phrases. And this is one of them where I would say ALSPs, right? That covers a broad swath of different types of providers. And where we want to position ourselves is more higher judgment because that's what we do. We're not offering flex talent for first level doc review or basic NDA review. It's much higher judgment work.
30:10ALSPs are needed and for many reasons, and I'm a big fan of them. But that's probably why I would want to carve out some differentiation for us. Yeah. Uh, you gained a great degree of visibility because of some of your, uh, your social media skills, your TikTok skills, uh, all of that. And I know you've kind of maybe, uh, pulled back a little bit on that over the last couple of years compared to what you were doing for a while, but do you see that as an important part of the marketing and education that you want to pursue going forward? I do. I think there's a time and place for everything and where I would place my content today is that, you know, like our partner, our client service partners here, like everyone's well known within their communities.
30:59So am I. People know me from the memes, the TikToks, the content. And so that's just a part of who I am. I like making it. It's just that over the last two and a half years, I've been a little bit busy with my day job, but it's all tied to basically being known within this community and making sure that we're a partner to everyone who's in the ecosystem. It's not really just about trying to get some leads or post some content just so they can get some sales or visibility. It's really just, I think the reason why my content was relatable was because I was putting out jokes that people talked about already.
31:37And so they knew that and they could relate to it. So yeah, I'm going to keep doing that, but it's a bigger story about how the individual and its tie to the community seems to be very, very compelling and kind of our secret sauce. You know, you talked about the fact that AI has driven maybe more demand ultimately for legal staffing or flexible legal staffing help right now. Do you think that we are in a particular moment here? I mean, how do you think this plays out over the next couple of years as law firms get more used to generative AI, adopt more generative AI tools, tools that, you know, we all talk about can perform at least some of the work of lawyers and associates and other legal professionals in a firm.
32:25Where do you see this? I mean, obviously, you know, you've just moved up to president. I'm sure you see this as a long-term career for you. Do you think that this flexible staffing market evolves in a sort of positive way for a company like Latitude or that it's maybe an uncertain time? I think that there's always going to be a need for judgment. And technology is just pushing that judgment to even higher and higher levels. Like, I don't think that's going to change. Technology can get better, but you still need someone to figure out almost like an editor of legal work. Where I think AI is going now, I can't tell, Bob.
33:07Maybe you can from where you sit because Frontier Labs are all moving into legal. You've got legal AI companies kind of coming out with newer and better things every day. You also have, gosh, just all sorts of different tools that are available out there and getting funding. So I'm very bullish on how good AI will become. The question, though, is I think where the rubber meets the road is that with all of this excitement over here on the product side, what happens to how it ties into the work? Who checks over the work? Who makes sure that it's directed in the right way? So in my mind, I'm not seeing the need for that go away.
33:48You always make jokes about how some Twitter talking head will say, hey, legal AI is going to replace all lawyers. And in fact, I think we've seen the opposite where rates are going up and it seems like there's even more demand for lawyers than ever. So I wouldn't bet against that trend. What about other kinds of talent within law firms? I mean, one of the, you know, I was just at Ilta Khan in Nashville. I don't know. Were you there as well? I wasn't. I did not see you there. So out of nearly 6 ,000 people, I somehow didn't see you there. But you weren't there. I was not. One of the trends that was very visible there is the fact that law firms are hiring a lot of people who are not into lawyer roles or associate roles, but into innovation roles, into development roles, into engineering roles, even law firms are hiring scientists into engineering roles.
34:47as the nature of the jobs that make up a law firm evolve and change? Is that something that you work with law firms on, or are you just focused on the lawyers and the legal talent? It's not that we have a specific point of view on this right now, but all of these roles are emerging. And so we want to see how this plays out because, for example, take legal engineering. That's not exactly a new job, but it seems to have gotten some cachet and popularity in recent months. We're monitoring that because if it turns out that a legal engineer needs a law degree, doesn't need a law degree, I don't know what the case may be.
35:29But it may be that over time, we find that that is an absolutely critical role and that there's demand for it. So, you know, we take our cues from the market. We'll be here from GCs and law firm leadership about where they're interested in bringing on roles. And so, again, these are all new jobs that are being created because of AI, and we're keeping a close eye on that. Yeah. Well, what else are you thinking about as you step into this role? What's on top of your mind? What else would you like people to know about the company that we haven't had a chance to talk about? So again, I'll go back to what makes us unique, right?
36:04Because we're not the only flex talent provider out there. By the way, I suspect many of them are experiencing the same tailwinds as we are. But what makes us unique is that we rely on experienced lawyers to basically evangelize our offering. And so I'm always hiring. And so I'm always looking for people who have had senior in-house experience or law firm partners who might be interested in business and at the same time tapping into their legal experience, their contacts and things like that. So I think the only thing I'd leave with your listeners is we are always hiring. We are always looking for people who come from the legal profession, who are interested in working at the intersection of innovation and business and law.
36:51Yeah. This is a stupid question, but when you say you're always hiring, are they on your payroll or are they on the client's payroll? So I was referring to our, essentially our corporate team. Oh, okay. Yeah. The talent is over here. And so what I'm always hiring for are people on our client services team, our partners, so to speak. I see. Okay. So I'll ask that other question though. When somebody's on your talent team, I'm a, I don't know, you know, a former partner. I want more flexibility right now for any number of lifestyle reasons. I approach you. You decide to include me in your talent pool.
37:36And I assume there's some vetting that goes on there and some kind of review. There is. Whatever you've approached me. And should, am I, what should I expect after that? Is there sort of a fairly constant flow of work or is it highly intermittent? How predictable is the amount of time that I might be employed doing something as opposed to just, you know, not involved in an engagement? There's a range of outcomes. Some people only get and want to work a few hours a week. Others, far more. Then there's others who may want to work a pretty intense schedule for a set period of time, say two to three months.
38:17and then take the rest of the time off. And so they're suited for things like trial work or M &A. So there's a whole range of different types. I would say that the amount of work you get is largely determined by what you want to do, but also what the demand is for your skill set. So there's just so many different models that it would be hard to generalize. Yeah, okay. But if you have a skill in an area that's in high demand, you can kind of, Maybe more or less call your shots in terms of the levels of activity. Yes. Good. That's right. Well, Alex, thanks so much for hopping on this podcast on what I am sure is a busy day for you with this news just going out today.
39:03And congratulations. Thank you, Bob. It's always fun talking to you. And I feel like we're probably going to have to get lunch again soon, maybe in your town or mine. I think I may be headed to ACC in Boston. So maybe you'll see that. All right, come out this way. We'll get some lobster or something, okay? Yeah. All right, sounds good. That was a great restaurant, but... It is. Yeah. All right, well, Alex, congratulations, and thanks a lot. All right, thanks so much, Bob.
39:34Thanks for joining us for today's show. I hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to share your own thoughts or comments, just email me. You can get me at ambroji at gmail.com. You can find me on LinkedIn and other social media. And if you're a fan of the show, please leave us a review. We appreciate it. Law Next is a production of Law Next Media. I'm Bob Ambroji. Hope you can join us again next time for another episode of Law Next.
Call it Alex Su, redux. We do not usually have the same guest on LawNext twice in the same year, but there is good reason to have Alex back, as he has just been named president of Latitude Legal, the flexible legal staffing company.
Last February, Alex and host Bob Ambrogi recorded a live episode of this podcast over lunch in a Cambodian restaurant in Alex's hometown of Alameda, Calif., as part of our LawNext on Location series. They talked about his winding career, from Sullivan & Cromwell associate to federal clerkship to legal tech startups and finally to chief revenue officer at Latitude.
In that interview, Bob asked Alex what was coming next. His answer was that as AI got better, the demand for lawyers with real judgment — to direct it, check it, and own the work — would only grow. Seven months later, that prediction is proving prescient. In just the first half of this year, Latitude says it has seen a 52 percent jump in new law firm and corporate clients.
So with Latitude's promotion of Su to president, he returns to LawNext to discuss why he thinks AI is driving more demand for experienced lawyers, not less. He also talks about how Latitude's client-service model relies on former law firm partners and senior in-house counsel, why he pushes back on labeling flex talent as "contract attorneys" or calling Latitude an ALSP, and why he expects the market for flexible legal talent to keep expanding as law firms and legal departments sort out what AI can and cannot handle.
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