Legal tech influencers. It's a word combination that would probably befuddle anyone not closely aligned with the tight sphere of legal operations pros, legal tech nerds and other "aligned professionals." Try explaining to your non-legal tech friends that the video you just chuckled at about billable hours comes from an influencer, not one who's hocking plumping lip balm on TikTok, but who's repping process-optimizing SaaS for lawyers on LinkedIn.

Yet for those in this small legal tech coterie, they're celebrities: from the techno-colored to the sincere to the deadpan, legal tech influencers have emerged as their own niche-within-a-niche. The fresh juxtaposition of stodgy legal profession themes and social media vernacular has earned legal tech influencers followers and, well, influence.

Last summer, though, influencing got harder. LinkedIn announced in June 2023 changes to the algorithm that they said would emphasize content from first-degree connections and prioritize knowledge-sharing posts. These changes were apparently prompted by the platform trying to clamp down on more personal posts going viral, leading to complaints about declining engagement from existing influencers.