Legal Geek Growth 2025: The one that grew too big?
I was at Legal Geek Growth in London on 5 June 2025.
Legal Geek Growth is the summer alternative, for SME law firms, to the much larger main Legal Geek event (more now aimed at Big Law) in London in the Autumn.
I’ve done some reviews of the main Autumn event in the past:
- Legal Geek 2018 : The One where Reality overtook Hype
- Legal Geek 2019 : The One with the Filing Cabinet, the Axe and the Sling
- Legal Geek 2023: The one with Withnail and GenAI
The first two of those were BCGPT (before ChatGPT) and the third was ACGPT (after ChatGPT). I discuss the difference between the two at ‘Chatbots‘.
Legal Geek Growth started (I think) in 2023 and has been run annually since. So (if my thinking is correct) this is the third one. I have been to all three (if there have been three!) but have only gone to network and not for the talks. This is really because I don’t find the agenda very inspiring and it is far too AI heavy.
Too much AI?
I counted 28 of the sessions this year with AI in the title out of 73 (so 38%). I imagine a good number of the others probably didn’t manage to avoid mentioning it. Even if it was not in the title, clearly from the content description, many other talks were still heavily about AI. However, it is possible to run a legal conference in 2025 that almost completely avoids the topic: Reshaping Legal Services 2025: The one where AI was only mentioned once.
Comments I heard from my afternoon chats with those that did go to the talks included:
Too much AI and no substance to any of the talks on it.
Not much has really changed then (despite the apparent advances we are told have happened) since the Autumn 2023 Legal Geek conference.
Although, I did hear, when chatting to delegates, some interesting things in AI going on at the coal face in certain law firms (not covered on stage at Legal Geek Growth 2025). We should be speaking about those and it won’t take 28 different AI sessions to do so.
Bring Back Boring and Implementation not Ideas
If you are familiar with my blog posts on here, you will know that I am a big believer in #bringbackboring and #implementationnotideas (thanks to Justin North and Alex G Smith for these hashtags). In my review of the Autumn 2019 Legal Geek, I said of #implementationnotideas:
And that is the hashtag we need to see at Legal Geek 2020 and any other Legal Technology conference in 2020 and beyond. The organisers need to get speakers who can tell stories of actual implementation and not just ideas.
Sadly, 6 years later and there is still not enough of that going on at Legal Geek. This is a problem that I think is really true of all the more Legal Tech focussed conferences. And growth in SME legal firms in not all about Tech, and certainly not all about AI. Any owner of a SME law firm will know that there is a huge number of different things that their attention must be directed towards to achieve growth.
I wore the T-Shirt at last year’s event, but forgot to pack it this year:
At least one exception to this, at Legal Geek Growth 2025, was probably Catherine Bamford of Bam Legal. Catherine was speaking on ‘The drafting dilemma: When to go AI, when to go automation’. I know that Catherine speaks from the coalface of having been there, done that and worn the T-shirt. As Catherine put it in a LinkedIn post this morning:
My purpose in all this is to help lawyers do their work more easily.
I was a junior lawyer. I witnessed good friends have panic attacks and worse due to the pressure of their jobs.
If you ever wonder why I preach about legal tech that can help lawyers do their jobs more easily, help law firms rethink how they deliver their services, and occasionally seem critical of current models of billing… its because I have been there.
I am not trying to replace lawyers. I am trying to make things better for those who choose to practice law by reducing the time and effort they spend on things they don’t need to.
Legal Tech can do that but as Catherine will tell you such Tech does not necessarily have to involve AI. And, as I will tell you, do be aware of:
I also think that these events should reflect on the dangers posed by GenAI. On the very dark side of it that, unfortunately, exists. Just yesterday, I was reading a tragic news item about a 14 year old boy who took his own life. He was encouraged to do so by “an AI chatbot styled as Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen”.
Legal Growth Elsewhere on the Same Day
I noticed, via LinkedIn, that on the same day as Legal Geek Growth, LexisNexis InterAction+ Accelerate was also taking place in London. As the post, by Sarah Strachan, on Passle said:
one session I was especially looking forward to was “Professional Troublemakers Wanted.” With a bold title and an even bolder promise, the panel brought together strategic thinkers and doers who aren’t afraid to shake up the status quo in legal marketing, business development, and operations.
Led by Stephen Allen, Chief Scout at TRAMPELPFAD, and joined by Barbara Hamilton-Bruce (Partner & Legal Operations Director, Simmons & Simmons), Benedikt Schueller (Divisional COO, Withers), and Sue Bence (COO), the session dove into what it truly takes to champion innovation in a sector often seen as resistant to change. From bringing CRM and MarTech out of the shadows, to using data with purpose, the conversation was packed with real-world honesty (plus a few swear words) and actionable insight.
Now that would have been a talk worth hearing.
Sarah Strachan quotes Stephen Allen as saying:
Innovation without action is just having an idea.
I, coincidentally, saw this image on LinkedIn, via Frank Ramos, just after reading that:
Other Legal Growth Conferences
Some conferences that perhaps try a bit harder than Legal Geek Growth, but are not so Legal Tech focussed, are:
- Legal Practice Management (LPM) – an old stalwart.
- The Great Big Legal Offsite (GBLO) – a new one in 2024.
- and historically, it is one I miss, Legal Futures Innovation – I think the last one was in 2022 but held annually for many years before that.
Has Legal Geek Growth become Too Big?
Another comment that I heard quite a bit at Legal Geek Growth 2025 was that:
It’s getting too big like the main Legal Geek did.
There is not the same feel/vibe that it used to have.
I would agree. Previous years it was held at the Truman Brewery. In a space that was smaller and felt more comfortable than this year at Woolwich Works. There were also comments about the lack of bars/restaurants nearby for continuing on at, after the main event.
The People that make Legal Geek Growth worth attending
However, as I often say it is the people that make these events worthwhile. Being able to meet and chat with them at it.
Last year I had several good discussions. One of which led to a new solicitor joining my law firm, Inksters, just before this year’s event.
This year was the same. Discussions that you are unlikely to have by phone, Zoom/Teams, e-mail or on social media. Discussions that will hopefully, like last year, lead to good things actually happening before Legal Geek Growth 2026 comes around.
There is great value to that.
Conclusions
So, despite the concentration of GenAI and it growing too big, I will in all probability return. However, if I do so for Legal Geek Growth 2026, that will, again, really be for the people.
Image Credits: Robots high fiving – created by Copilot, prompted by me; ‘Actually Doing Something’ via Frank Ramos; all others © Legal Geek (I was too busy chatting to take any myself!)
