Guest Post: In the Second of His Three-Part Series, Ken Crutchfield Looks At Whether UPL Will Hit the Breaking Point in 2026

Where does all the pressure building in legal tech concentrate? On unauthorized practice of law (UPL), says Ken Crutchfield — and something’s got to give.

In Part 1 of his series on “The New Physics of Legal Tech,” Crutchfield examined the macro forces shaping the industry. Now, in Part 2, he zeroes in on the collision point where technology, consumer behavior, ROI pressures, and professional regulation meet.

“The question is no longer whether the rules make sense in theory, but whether they can be applied consistently in practice as consumer behavior and technology diverge from the rules’ design,” he writes.

In his latest column for LawNext, The New Physics of Legal Tech: Will UPL Hit the Breaking Point in 2026? (Part 2 of 3), Crutchfield argues that ChatGPT has “thrown gasoline on a simmering fire” by blurring the lines between legal information and legal advice through conversational AI.

Drawing parallels to how Uber forced regulatory adaptation and how the medical profession evolved through specialization, Crutchfield suggests that regulators will follow, not lead. “Once consumer ridership reached scale, enforcement shifted from a legal question to a political one,” he notes. “The regulatory response to UPL will follow a similar pattern.”

Access to justice provides the ethical imperative for change, while capital investment — which “does not look for permission to act” — accelerates it.

In Part 3, Crutchfield will examine how these forces are reshaping legal services for corporations and prompting BigLaw’s response.

Crutchfield is principal of Spring Forward Consulting and has been an executive at LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and most recently Wolters Kluwer, where he was vice president and general manager of legal markets for Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

Read his full post on LawNext.