I am a prosecutor now, and I love it.
I'm a prosecutor because public service gives me purpose. But before I close the chapter on private-law innovation, I want to leave behind the clearest explanation I can of what I learned, why law firms struggle to innovate, and what I think the solution is.
That matters to me because I have always been drawn to work that feels connected to something bigger than myself. I felt that in the Army. I felt it being part of a team, being deployed, and serving a mission. I feel it again as a prosecutor. The work is meaningful. It serves the community. It gives me a role in a system that, at its best, protects people and helps hold a community together.
Private law practice never felt that way to me.
That is not because private lawyers are bad. They are not. Many private lawyers do excellent work for people who need help. But the business model of private practice always bothered me. Too often, the system is built around time, not value. Lawyers bill by the hour because knowledge work is hard to price. The billable hour is easy to understand, easy to track, and easy to administer. But it also creates a serious problem.
That means efficiency can become a threat. If a lawyer, paralegal, or assistant finds a way to complete a project in half the time, the client may benefit — but the firm may bill less. The employee may also receive less billable credit. So the firm says it wants innovation, but the incentive structure often rewards the opposite.
That is the core problem.
The legal industry does not primarily have a technology problem. It has a pricing-and-incentives problem.
For years, I tried to work on that problem. I believed private law firms could use better systems, better workflows, automation, software, and now AI to reduce costs, serve more people, and still make more money. I still believe that. In fact, I believe it more now than I did when I started.
But I also learned why change is so hard.
The knowledge gap
The decision makers in law firms are often not the people whose daily work would change the most. AI, automation, templates, and process improvements usually help the doers: assistants, paralegals, and junior lawyers. Those are the people who know where the inefficiencies are. They know what gets typed over and over again. They know which forms are duplicative. They know which steps waste time. They know where the system could be better.
But they are not always rewarded for fixing those things. Sometimes they may even feel threatened by fixing them.
The solution is pricing
That is why pricing matters. If firms want innovation, they need a model that rewards completed valuable work, not just time spent. In my view, that means moving more legal services toward flat fees or fixed-scope pricing based on the complexity and value of the task accomplished.
That is not easy. A firm cannot simply pick a flat fee out of the air. It needs to understand the service, the complexity, the client's need, the likely effort, the risk, the market, and the value of the result. But once a firm understands those things, it can begin to price legal work in a way that makes sense for both the client and the firm.
That is why I built a calculator.
The goal is simple: help lawyers think about price based on the value and complexity of the service, rather than defaulting automatically to time. It is not perfect. It is not magic. But it is a tool for thinking differently.
Moving forward
At this point in my life, I am choosing to focus on prosecution and public service. That work gives me the sense of mission I was looking for. But before I fully set aside the private-practice innovation work I spent years developing, I want to leave the idea here.
When law firms are ready to change, the answer will not simply be "use AI."
The answer will be: change the incentives.
Define the service. Measure the complexity. Price the value. Build systems around repeatable work. Reward the people who improve the system.
That is how private law practice can become more efficient, more profitable, and more accessible at the same time.