I have many many faults, but I hope you will take me by my word
Rob Johnson 2025: “currently hiding from the baby that I am trying to sleep train”
Read an article, pissed me off, just an analyst having an opinion on a market they don’t know… CLASSIC, have a read HERE
Controversial opinion:
The legaltech market isn’t hitting saturation
It’s hitting the consequences of 10 years of selling tools that never fundamentally changed how legal teams work.
DO YOU KNOW HOW I KNOW… I HAVE SOLD ALLOT OF IT 😆
Everyone’s pointing to “market saturation” as the reason for the predicted slowdown, but that’s the I am a banker version. The real issue is that the sector spent the last decade building layer upon layer of tooling without ever fixing the underlying operating model of legal departments.
We don’t have too much legaltech.
We have too much legaltech that solves 10% of a problem and expects a 100% budget allocation.
Big Nicky, please just think about it:
We didn’t run out of demand; we ran out of patience from buyers.
GCs aren’t rejecting technology, they’re rejecting “more things that need onboarding, integrations, training, and a change-management plan for a 3% efficiency gain.”
Vendors kept shipping new modules instead of helping legal actually transform how matters flow, how work is triaged, how data is consumed, or how talent is deployed.
Our market lives in a weird flux that Ai is the hero and the villain…….. come on we all know the quote!!
AI isn’t the villain here, if anything, AI exposed the truth.
It showed that some vendors were building genuinely smart systems, while others were just wrapping old workflows in new buzzwords. But the slowdown isn’t about AI fatigue. It’s about buyers finally demanding substance over Rob flogging them crap.
Here’s the real punchline:
The legaltech slowdown isn’t a sign of a mature market — it’s a sign that legal hasn’t even started its true transformation yet.
What’s dying isn’t innovation.
What’s dying is the era of duct-tape point solutions and endless “platforms” that don’t platform anything.
The next wave won’t be defined by who has the flashiest AI demo.
It’ll be defined by who can help legal departments actually operate like a modern function, interconnected, data-driven, transparent, and talent-centred.
The “slowdown” is just the industry finally being forced to grow up.
Well that was all very grown up of me……….. not sure what to do now errrrr.
Use our LegalTech recruitment firm I guess!
Rob
