Like many of you, I sort of wondered about the new name for AffiniPay’s set of companies, 8am, as I discussed in a previous post. Are they offering a new coffee? Some sort of clock? I appeared on a Michael Eisenberg’s Tech Savvy Lawyer podcast earlier this week and when I said I was at the 8am conference, he said, “What? It’s 2 p.m. here, where are you?” It took us a few minutes to get things straight.

And 8am’s conference name: Kaleidoscope. What’s that all about?

Kaleidoscope???

Most of this became a little clearer at the keynote from 8am’s Chief Product Officer, Leslie Witt. Witt bounded on the stage Wednesday morning full of energy and fittingly sporting a pair of cowboy boots. She gave a 30-ish-minute talk explaining the names of both the company and the conference and as she put it, the new program.

Kaleidoscope is 8am’s (and the AffiniPay companies’) first user conference and they are working hard at doing it right and being hospitable. Witt explained that the conference name was based upon the concept behind the children’s kaleidoscope toy. When you first look though the toy, there appears to be random bits and pieces of objects. But when you twist the bottom, the pieces come together in an interesting geometric design.

Witt likened the coming together of the previous AffiniPay companies into 8am as a similar process. AffiniPay started as a payment company. It added practice and case management companies and capabilities and, later financial management companies as well. All of these acquired companies and tools kept their separate names. Now they are all coming together and being integrated into the singular 8am platform, according to Witt. The idea, I suppose, is that in the coming together, the mission and goals of the company and its set of tools will become clearer. The integration certainly cleared up for me 8am’s vision and mission.

It’s All in a Name

And about the name. As I previously mentioned, the name 8am reportedly comes from the concept that the first thing many of us do in the morning is to try to take care of business: the financial non-billable end of things. “Rising means getting up and getting going.”

Indeed, the theme that every day is a brand new day permeates the entire conference. And 8am’s mission statement carries this idea forward: “we start every day on a mission to empower professionals to deliver world class outcomes for your clients and exceptional financial results for your business.” Hence 8am. (I guess if you work for 8am, you better be a morning person.)

And Now the Substance

Now for the substance of what Witt talked about. She described how 8am is going to increase its focus on how the business needs of a growing law firm shift as the firm grows.

She also specifically mentioned several new tools. SmartSpend, for example, is a credit card provided to employees that allows them to charge business expenses. The tool then automatically applies those charges to correct invoices enabling better collection. I had written about this tool when it was introduced in beta at LegalWeek in March; it’s now out of beta and live.

Witt also announced a new feature called 8am Capital which she says will be launched in the market early next year. This tool will assess a firm’s financial needs and viability and extend short-term loans where needed. Witt noted that it’s sometimes difficult for law firms to obtain these kinds of loans from banks who don’t understand the business end of the practice. 8am Capital will offer an alternative option.

A new integration of the 8am tools with NetDocuments in the future was also announced. This one is pretty interesting given the search capability within NetDocuments. The integration will broaden the materials upon which the 8am tools can operate and from which results can be provided. It also reflects that NetDocuments is focusing on the smaller firm market (which 8am primarily serves) in addition to the large firm market.

Witt also talked about a customizable reporting dashboard that will be offered in the next few weeks that will be able to filter and add different dimensions to better convey financial and other information. She also announced that 8am will soon have the OCR ability to search images in addition to just text.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she talked about something called Chat with Cases that 8am is developing. The tool will enable natural language chat capability similar to that offered by ChatGPT and other LLM providers whereby you can query the 8am tools and data to obtain answers to questions concerning finances and client information. It will provide what Witt described as “actionable financial insights.”

So, according to Witt, you can ask it things like who owes you money: once the tool identifies someone, it can automatically send them a ding letter. I assume this will be an agentic AI type of tool, although unlike in most other vendor presentations, Witt never used the term. And she promised, the tool won’t hallucinate. Unfortunately, that smacks of vendor hyperbole. Hallucinations and inaccuracies can be reduced by limiting the data set upon which the LLM operates but don’t think anyone is yet at the point of guaranteeing that a GenAI tool will be hallucination free.

Chat with Cases does have somewhat profound implications. Much of the debate at Kaleidoscope and other legal tech conferences is whether and to what extent AI will finally drive a stake in the billable hour. And whether it can or will be replaced by alternative value-based billing. At the heart of making those alternative systems successful is understanding the cost to the firm of taking a certain matter. That cost is reflected both by the time to get to a result but also by the cost to the firm of the matter, the cost of the resources the firm must expend. Having a tool that can provide immediate feedback on cost and other financial questions alleviate the fears many — both lawyers and clients — have about adopting an alternative fee approach.

Like most vendor keynotes, there was little reference to the cost of any of these new offerings to the customer.

What the Integration Means for the Everyday Lawyer

While you might be jaded and think the name 8am and the Kaleidoscope concept are a little too cute, it’s hard to deny that what 8am is doing and where it’s headed is good. I have mentioned before all too often legal tech vendors offer a plethora of products doing slightly different things. It’s confusing and bewildering even to me and I cover this stuff. For lawyers, particularly in small firms without IT resources, it has to be even worse. I frankly had trouble keeping track of the AffiniPay companies and what they did. Combining these into one platform helps.

Do the Tools Scratch a Real Itch?

And what 8am is offering is important to lawyers and address a real need as well. As Witt put it, few lawyers have studied or know how to run a business. She cited some statistics from the Legal Industry Report of 8am that reflect this:

68% of lawyers surveyed report fee collection is a major hurdle.
61% of law firms have difficulty with accounting principles. (I know from experience that trying to read a basic financial statement in an understandable way is a challenge.)
53% reported having difficulty making a confident set of informed financial decisions.

The 8am tools promise to help with by offering “seamless connectivity” and an efficient way to be a better businessperson without having to go to B school to succeed in practicing law. It provides help in dealing with critical financial issues for which lawyers have little training and spend too little time dealing with.

The proof though is where the new tools do what 8am says they will do and whether the promised future products come to fruition. Over-promising and under-delivering is all too common with legal tech vendors. Let’s hope that’s not the case with 8am.

Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.

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