Legal tech veteran Joe Borstein has returned to Above the Law to assess a bold prediction he made in 2017, and he says the results speak for themselves.
Borstein, now a partner at Baretz+Brunelle and co-founder of LexFusion, argues that the legal technology sector has vindicated his early enthusiasm beyond most reasonable expectations.
“Would I be back here if I had whiffed? Absolutely not,” he writes, adding that “it’s still 2026 and we can already call this a home run.”
The industry has now minted 16 unicorns, including decacorns, a milestone Borstein points to as clear validation of the trajectory he foresaw nearly a decade ago.
His journey through the legal tech world began when he was working as a “Biglaw exile” at Thomson Reuters Legal Managed Services, running a legal outsourcing business alongside Penn Law classmate Ed Sohn.
He later co-founded LexFusion, a legal tech accelerator that was acquired in 2025 by Baretz+Brunelle, where he now operates as a partner focused on helping companies and law firms navigate the sector.
Borstein describes his core advantage not as technical expertise but as something less tangible: “an almost comic enthusiasm for legal tech” that appreciated significantly as an asset over time.
His original 2017 case for entering the legal technology field rested on three pillars, which he quotes directly: “the market for legal innovation is huge,” “the alt.legal community is tiny,” and “your skills will translate.”
The scale of that market is no longer a matter of speculation, with the LPO market pegged at $27.8 billion in 2025, a figure Borstein cites from industry analysts tracking the sector’s expansion.
He also points to landmark deals as evidence of explosive growth, noting that Casetext, an early LexFusion member, sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in 2023.
The close-knit character of the legal tech community remains intact despite its growth, as illustrated by the recent addition of Evan Shenkman to the Baretz+Brunelle partnership.
Shenkman, the Fisher Phillips innovation chief and the design partner behind Casetext’s CoCounsel product, joined Baretz+Brunelle as a partner last month.
Borstein reserves particular emphasis for the third pillar of his original argument, stating that the claim “your skills will translate” remains the most important point for anyone considering a move into legal tech.
He is now doing precisely what he once argued someone should be doing: helping legal tech companies mature while guiding firms and legal departments toward the right purchasing decisions.