- NOVELCITY NEWS | Law & Tech Trends

Published: April 20, 2025 | By Wesley Phillippe | NOVELCITY News | Law & Tech

The TRU Staffing Partners 2025 report raised more than a few eyebrows in legal innovation circles last week. Privacy job postings dropped 57% between 2022 and 2024, and AI governance roles—arguably the hottest theoretical sector in tech law—barely exist.

What happened?

According to TRU CEO Jared Coseglia, most companies began bracing for a recession that never came. The panic triggered aggressive legal budget cuts, especially in compliance and data privacy. Instead of hiring full-time professionals, employers now prefer contractors. Flexibility is in. Institutional investment? Not so much.

The Gen-N Lens: This Isn’t Just a Labor Trend—It’s a Systemic Identity Crisis

Here at NOVELCITY News, we examine more than the surface.
We ask: What system is this data pointing to?

And from the Gen-N perspective, the answer is clear:
The legal tech field isn’t evolving fast enough to match the stakes of the future it’s supposed to govern.

Let’s break it down.

Key Signals from the Report (and What They Really Mean)

1. AI Governance Is Being Bolted onto Privacy Jobs

“A lot of privacy people are being thrust AI governance upon them…” – Coseglia

Translation:
We’re duct-taping AI accountability to legacy roles not built for it.
There’s no standardization, no clear job design, and—crucially—no power built into these roles to shape governance frameworks from the ground up.

Guidance for Legal Tech Novel Professionals:
Stop waiting for job descriptions. Write your own frameworks.
Design AI accountability workflows. Build toolkits that evaluate bias, audit datasets, and interface with engineers.
Governance isn’t a job title—it’s an architecture.

2. Employers Don’t Know What AI Lawyering Is Worth (So They Lowball It)

AI governance roles are paying up to 48% less than privacy roles. Why?
Because employers don’t know what they’re buying. And vague deliverables always mean underpayment.

Guidance:
Build clarity = Build compensation.
If you're an early-stage AI counsel, your first task is to define the scope, risks, ROI, and reporting structure of your role.
Use your contracts to educate employers on the value of proactive AI risk mitigation. Tie your contributions to reputational, regulatory, and revenue impact. That’s how you shift the pay scale.

3. Contractors Are the New Counsel

In 2021, 72% of privacy roles were full-time.
By 2024, 65% were contract.
Why? Contractors offer flexibility and don’t trigger long-term HR budget tension.

Guidance:
If you’re entering legal tech now, think like a hybrid professional.
Structure yourself as a fractional governance architect—a contractor with systems thinking, pre-built templates, and adaptable scopes.
Bonus: contractors can work across industries, amassing real-time intelligence no siloed GC can match.

Strategic Opportunities for the Gen-N Legal Tech Class

If you’re a law student, compliance professional, or legal ops disruptor trying to understand your next move—here’s where the real leverage lives:

1. Start Building the AI Governance Playbook

There is no industry-standard definition of “AI Governance Counsel.”
Be the first to draft it. Partner with engineers. Audit vendor models. Track legislative frameworks (EU AI Act, NY AI Bias Law, etc.).
Then publish your framework under a Creative Commons license—or spin it into a consulting toolkit.

2. Become a Cross-Functional Contractor

The winning privacy professionals in 2025 will be:

• Contract-based
• Cross-trained in AI, data security, and ethics
• Fluent in both legal and technical vocabularies

Design your LinkedIn like a product. Offer “fractional legal innovation services.” Build a microsite. Own your narrative.

3. Plug Into Civic Legal Ecosystems

While private firms slash roles, cities, advocacy groups, and digital equity coalitions need AI policy experts yesterday.
Apply your skills to public interest legal tech. Join data ethics boards. Advise school districts on student surveillance policies.
You don’t need to wait for the Fortune 500 to call.

Final Examine: The Job Doesn’t Exist Yet Because the System Doesn’t Either

Let’s be honest:
Legal education didn’t prepare us for LLM bias audits.
Privacy law doesn’t yet account for generative hallucinations.
Most GC offices still don’t know where their AI is sourced or stored.

So the system isn’t broken.
It’s just still being built.

And Gen-N legal professionals?
We’re not here to ask for jobs.
We’re here to prototype roles that make systems safer, smarter, and more just.

Want to Contribute to Legal Innovation Journalism?

If you’re building new roles, testing new legal tools, or reimagining the contract economy—pitch your voice to NOVELCITY News | Examine Environment.

Submit to: ncnews@novelcitychamber.com

Subject: SUBMISSION – Examine This – Legal Tech

#ExamineThis #LegalTech #GenN #GovernanceByDesign #PrivacyProfessionals #AIandLaw #ContractIsCode #NOVELCITYNews

- NOVELCITY NEWS | Law & Policy Trends

Published: April 13, 2025 | By Wesley Phillippe | NOVELCITY News | Law & Policy Section

The legal system is no longer a backdrop—it’s a battleground. From agency authority to algorithmic accountability, from drug pricing to digital rights, 2025 marks a profound shift in how law is made, challenged, and enforced.

According to Bloomberg Law’s 2025 Trends Report, the U.S. legal landscape is entering what can only be described as a post-stability era—where precedent is questioned, power is redistributed, and the once-obscure sectors of policy now headline national debates.

At NOVELCITY News, we interpret these shifts not just through a legal lens—but through the eyes of Gen-N: a generation of civic entrepreneurs, policy architects, and social engineers building the justice frameworks of tomorrow.

A Personal Signal from the Future: When AI Became My Co-Counsel

A few years ago, I used AI to redline a contract—nothing radical, just intelligent language prescribing protections in a deal that had clear blind spots. It wasn’t legal science fiction. It was practical, risk-aware, and designed to protect my interests.

But the response? Brutal. The attorneys I was working with dropped me. No explanation beyond vague discomfort. One even said, “We don’t work with bots.”

In that moment, I realized something deeper than the immediate fallout: **AI wasn’t the threat—**insecurity was. The traditional legal industry wasn’t ready to sit at the table with technology that could challenge its gatekeeping. Instead of partnership, I met resistance. Instead of collaboration, I got sidelined.

That experience didn’t just cost me representation—it revealed the emotional undercurrent of disruption in the practice of law. And it confirmed what many Gen-N innovators already know: Systems resist what they can’t control.

5 Meta-Trends Redefining Law in 2025 (And What They Signal for Gen-N)

1. The Death of Deference: Courts Are Rewriting the Rulebook

Chevron is gone. Courts, not agencies, now lead statutory interpretation. This will usher in a wave of fractured standards, state-led regulatory regimes, and courtroom ambiguity.

Gen-N Response: Prepare for a legal environment that rewards local agility and real-time insight. Expect AI-powered compliance tools and digital-first legal frameworks to become essential infrastructure for civic startups and policy labs.

2. The FTC vs. Big Pharma: Drug Pricing and Justice in Motion

The FTC’s insulin-pricing suit is the biggest federal stand against PBM monopolies to date. Whether it wins or not, the ripple effects are already redefining healthcare market fairness.

Gen-N Response: This is a signal to move: to design policies that restore pricing power to consumers and expand the voice of local health providers in federal litigation narratives.

3. Litigation Finance as a New Asset Class

Litigation funding is becoming normalized—with insurance, secondary markets, and broader access changing who can afford to seek justice.

Gen-N Response: Use these tools wisely, but don’t ignore the fine print. There’s a big difference between empowerment through capital and dependency on legal speculation. The nuance matters.

4. AI, Copyright, and the War Over Fair Use

As open-source LLMs like Meta’s Llama 3.1 enter the market, courts must determine if mass AI training on copyrighted material violates IP law—or transforms it.

Gen-N Response: Lead the charge in building ethical AI models. Forge creative licensing structures. And above all, defend a new vision of “fair use” that protects both creators and the commons.

5. Tort as Regulation: Justice by Litigation

As federal agencies lose power, tort law is stepping in. From PFAS to social media harms, courtroom decisions are becoming policy proxies.

Gen-N Response: If you're building tech, platforms, or services, assume you're building law too. Factor litigation risk into design. Collaborate with legal foresight experts. Stay ahead of regulation by becoming a regulator—of yourself.

Final Signal from NOVELCITY NEWS

We’re not just witnessing legal change. We’re being tested by it.

2025 is the year that demands a new kind of legal fluency—one that blends human insight, technological courage, and civic imagination. Gen-N must lead with clarity, but also with compassion—for the systems we inherit, the ones we’ll challenge, and the ones we’ll have to build from scratch.

The law isn’t static.
It’s iterative.
And so are we.

#GenN #LegalInnovation #ChevronDoctrine #AIandLaw #JusticeTech #LitigationFinance #RegulationRedesign #NovelCityNews