Alabama happens to come first alphabetically among state bars and law societies. We didn’t plan it that way—but it feels like a fitting place to start.
LexSelect has recently been approved as a Member Benefit provider for the Alabama State Bar, marking our first program with a professional regulatory body. Thanks in large part to the support and collaboration of Jillian Evans, we were able to set up the program and make it available to all ASB members.
This milestone isn’t about promotion or visibility. It reflects a deeper belief we hold about how legal technology—and AI in particular—should enter the profession.
AI adoption is accelerating, but uncertainty remains
AI adoption across the legal profession has accelerated rapidly, with recent studies suggesting that a vast majority of legal professionals are already using these tools in practice. At the same time, uncertainty remains high.
Legal professionals are being asked to reconcile powerful new capabilities with ethical obligations, professional standards, client expectations, and very real concerns about accuracy, confidentiality, and risk. Questions around data handling, verification, and appropriate use are not theoretical in law — they go to the core of professional responsibility and public trust.
Hesitation in this context is not resistance to change. It’s professional judgment.
Why state bars and law societies matter
State bars and law societies exist to regulate the profession in the public interest. Their role is to uphold standards, guide professional conduct, and help legal professionals adapt responsibly as the practice of law evolves.
That role becomes especially important during periods of technological change. Introducing new tools through these institutions helps ensure adoption happens with context, care, and accountability, rather than through hype or fear of being left behind.
When AI enters legal workflows through trusted regulatory and professional channels, it does so with guardrails, education, and an understanding of how legal work is actually performed.
The role of practice management advisors
Within many state bars and law societies, practice management advisors (sometimes called practice advisors or practice management counsel) play a critical role.
These advisors are typically lawyers themselves, with real experience in practice. They work closely with members every day to understand the operational, ethical, and practical challenges lawyers face. They are also deeply engaged with the legal technology landscape — attending conferences, evaluating tools, and sharing insights across jurisdictions.
Importantly, they are not selling technology. They provide confidential, unbiased guidance designed to help legal professionals make informed decisions while managing risk and maintaining professional standards.
In a moment where AI adoption feels both inevitable and uncertain, practice management advisors serve as a crucial bridge between emerging technology and responsible use.
Where LexSelect fits
LexSelect was built to address a specific and persistent problem: critical information trapped inside unstructured documents like PDFs and scanned files.
Through LexChat, legal professionals can find, verify, and extract information directly within their drafting workflow. Through our enterprise workflow platform, firms and organizations can transform large volumes of unstructured documents into structured, verifiable outputs that integrate into broader systems and processes.
Across both offerings, the principle is the same: AI should augment professional judgment, not replace it, and outputs must be traceable back to their source.
Working with state bars and law societies allows these tools to be introduced through institutions that already prioritize responsible adoption, competence, and public protection.
Looking ahead
This program with the Alabama State Bar is the first of many we hope to develop. Not because Alabama comes first alphabetically, but because the model makes sense. If AI is going to reshape legal work, it shouldn’t happen at the margins of the profession. It should happen with the involvement of the institutions and advisors who already help legal professionals navigate change responsibly.
That’s the approach we’re committed to, and this is just the beginning.
If you’re involved in practice management, practice advisory, or member benefit programs at a state bar or law society and want to explore similar initiatives, I’d welcome the conversation.
Connect with me on LinkedIn, or feel free to email me at morgan@lexselect.io.