The Play Newsletter

Practical AI for law firm operators. Not theory, not vendor pitches. What's going on and what's actually working, from someone running it.

Featured

Compliance

Sep 15, 2026

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7 min read

The Play — Issue #22: Slowing Down AI?

An evaluator who does not report to the buyer, Latham's own GPU servers, Morgan & Morgan's four percent, and the gap between using AI and deploying it.

Matthew Roberts

Articles

Compliance

Sep 15, 2026

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7 min read

The Play — Issue #22: Slowing Down AI?

An evaluator who does not report to the buyer, Latham's own GPU servers, Morgan & Morgan's four percent, and the gap between using AI and deploying it.

Matthew Roberts

Compliance

The Play — Issue #21: The Fix Never Reached the Template

Sep 11, 2026

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6 min read

The Play — Issue #21: The Fix Never Reached the Template

Four plays: fake citations that lived in a go-by, a filing whose metadata named its author, a D.C. judge's cite-check model against California's, and ChatGPT's forward-only off switch.

Matthew Roberts

Compliance

The Play — Issue #20: The Safe Harbor Your Email Server Closed

Aug 31, 2026

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7 min read

The Play — Issue #20: The Safe Harbor Your Email Server Closed

Four plays: Rule 11 service you can prove, the reprimand that never expires, California's last day, and the fake law arriving from the other side.

Matthew Roberts

Compliance

The Play — Issue #19: Your Legal AI Vendor Is Now a Connector

Aug 26, 2026

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7 min read

The Play — Issue #19: Your Legal AI Vendor Is Now a Connector

Four Points: renegotiate before you sign, read what California actually amended, fix the taxonomy the connector inherits, and watch who is building the plumbing.

Matthew Roberts

Compliance

The Play — Issue #18: Every Citation Was Real

Aug 24, 2026

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6 min read

The Play — Issue #18: Every Citation Was Real

Four plays: a position check your cite-check cannot run, the appendix that ended a case, twenty-five dollars a client, and a sanction the lawyer cannot bill.

Matthew Roberts

Compliance

The Play — Issue #17: The Notetaker Kept a Copy for Itself

Aug 17, 2026

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8 min read

The Play — Issue #17: The Notetaker Kept a Copy for Itself

A federal court drew the line between a tool and a party, and Otter landed on the wrong side. Plus the legal AI tool nobody vetted, and a mark inside your drafts.

Matthew Roberts