On June 16, 2026, I had the opportunity to speak at the East Central Illinois Women Attorney Association Lunch Meeting about what I learned at the 2026 Lawyers on the Beach Retreat in Cancun, Mexico.
Despite the name, being a “lawyer on the beach” is not necessarily about answering emails beside the ocean. It is a state of mind. It is the belief that a law practice can be intentionally designed to support the life its owner wants to live.
Your “beach” may be traveling, working remotely, spending more time with your children, managing a farm, pursuing a passion project, or simply having the flexibility to work from home when needed. The destination will look different for every lawyer.
The common denominator is freedom, and that freedom usually begins with better systems, processes, technology, and delegation.
Much of this year’s retreat focused on artificial intelligence and its growing role in legal practice. I left Cancun feeling both excited and overwhelmed. AI presents a tremendous opportunity, but it also requires law firms to think carefully about privacy, training, ethics, organization, and the continued importance of human judgment.
Here are some of my most important takeaways.
Freedom Begins With a Well-Organized Law Firm
A flexible law practice does not happen simply because its owner buys a laptop and decides to work remotely.
Real flexibility requires a firm that can function consistently without every decision, task, or problem flowing directly through the owner. That means developing reliable systems, documented processes, standard operating procedures, technology workflows, and clearly defined team responsibilities.
Law firm owners sometimes think of operational systems as administrative details. In reality, those systems are what create freedom.
They also create value. A firm that can operate without being completely dependent on its owner may be more sustainable, more attractive to future leadership, and potentially more valuable to a buyer.
The more a law firm owner feels trapped by the business, the harder it becomes to step away from it. Building systems is not just about efficiency. It is about creating options.
AI for Law Firms Is No Longer a Question of “Yes” or “No”
One of the clearest messages from the retreat was that artificial intelligence is not going away.
The question is no longer whether a law firm will “choose AI” or “opt out.” AI is already becoming part of how clients search for information, how businesses operate, and how legal professionals complete their work.
Clients are increasingly using AI-powered tools to research legal questions and locate attorneys. Traditional search engine optimization remains important, but law firms should also begin thinking about how their content may appear in AI-generated answers.
That means continuing to publish useful, relevant, long-form content that demonstrates genuine authority. Law firm websites should clearly explain the services offered, answer the questions potential clients are asking, and provide an obvious next step through a strong call to action.
Law firms should ask themselves: Are we creating content that will still establish us as a trusted authority five years from now?
Privacy Must Come Before Convenience
The legal profession cannot adopt AI without addressing confidentiality and privacy.
Law firms should understand which versions of AI platforms their attorneys and staff are using, how those platforms handle submitted information, and whether the user’s data may be used to train future models.
Whenever possible, firms should use paid professional, team, or business versions of approved AI platforms and review the available privacy settings. Terms and settings change, so they should be revisited periodically rather than reviewed only once.
Attorneys should also consider how their own use of AI is addressed in engagement agreements. Informed consent may be appropriate depending on how the technology is used.
Clients should likewise be cautioned about placing confidential communications, legal documents, or case strategy into public or unsecured AI tools. A client’s independent use of AI may create confidentiality or attorney-client privilege concerns, particularly when sensitive communications are shared with a third-party platform.
Privacy is not about being afraid of technology. It is about using technology maturely and responsibly.
AI Should Be Treated Like a Junior Intern
One analogy from the retreat especially resonated with me: Treat AI like a junior intern.
A junior intern may be capable, fast, creative, and surprisingly helpful. That does not mean the intern should make final decisions, send unreviewed legal advice to clients, or complete important work without supervision.
AI still requires context, instruction, human interaction, and review.
It may help a lawyer or legal professional:
- Draft an initial outline
- Summarize a lengthy document
- Organize a brainstorming session
- Prepare meeting agendas
- Identify missing information
- Draft routine correspondence
- Create onboarding emails
- Summarize meeting notes and action items
- Develop marketing ideas
- Organize workflows
- Build checklists and preliminary standard operating procedures; or
- Reduce administrative work that does not require an attorney’s independent legal judgment.
However, AI output must still be reviewed by someone who understands the subject matter.
AI is not replacing the need for lawyers. In many ways, it highlights why clients need attorneys. Legal work requires human discernment, context, judgment, empathy, advocacy, and advice tailored to a specific person’s circumstances.
Begin With the First Level of AI
Kristen David of Upleveling Your Business described three general levels of AI use:
- Questions and answers
- Automations
- AI agents.
I am still largely working within the first level, and I have learned that this is perfectly acceptable.
I have used AI to assist with job descriptions, presentation ideas, moderator introductions, brainstorming, marketing concepts, and other preliminary work. I have some experience with traditional automations through platforms such as Lawmatics and Zapier, but AI-driven automations and agents remain a newer area for me.
The possibilities are exciting, but they can also feel overwhelming, especially when you are simultaneously running a business and practicing law.
The important lesson is that users should develop a strong foundation before moving to more advanced applications. Learning to communicate effectively with AI, provide the right information, protect privacy, and evaluate the output should come before turning over more complex workflows to automated agents.
Like learning the Rules of Evidence, my AI education is happening in layers over time.
Experiment With Different AI Platforms
Not every AI platform performs equally well on every task.
Lawyers should consider experimenting with professional versions of platforms such as Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, NotebookLM, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. The goal is not necessarily to use every platform indefinitely. It is to understand their relative strengths and determine which tools work best for particular needs.
One helpful exercise is to provide several platforms with the same information and the same prompt, then compare their responses.
After reading Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold, I dictated several hours of thoughts into a recording device. I uploaded the same material and used comparable prompts across multiple AI platforms.
For that particular project, Claude produced the strongest overall result. However, several of the other platforms identified useful points or phrases that I incorporated into the final document.
The lesson was not that one platform is always superior. The lesson was that lawyers should test the tools themselves rather than assuming every AI system will produce the same result.
Consider Practical Uses Beyond Legal Research
Some of the most valuable uses of AI may have little to do with researching the law.
AI can help reduce the mental and administrative load carried by lawyers, managers, parents, and business owners. Potential uses include:
- Conducting a daily “brain dump” and organizing the results into priorities
- Preparing for meetings
- Summarizing emails and drafting preliminary responses
- Transcribing meetings and identifying action items
- Building Asana or other project-management workflow
- Creating employee onboarding materials
- Drafting internal checklists
- Summarizing financial reports
- Identifying recurring “time vampires”
- Establishing scheduling rules
- Creating meal plans and shopping lists
- Developing marketing calendars
- Organizing passion projects
- Assisting with strategic planning.
At Rincker Law, we have spent years developing operational manuals, training materials, checklists, and procedures. Some are complete. Others are only 50 or 75 percent finished. We also have hundreds of training videos that have not yet been transcribed.
I am now considering how AI could safely help us organize, transcribe, update, and complete some of those materials.
This reflects a larger shift for law firm owners: We need to stop being the person who personally completes every task and begin designing better systems through which the work can be completed.
Build a Master AI Knowledge Base for the Firm
One of my biggest takeaways was the value of creating a master AI knowledge base for the organization.
AI produces better and more consistent work when it understands the business it is assisting. Rather than beginning every conversation from scratch, a law firm can create a comprehensive reference document containing important information about the firm.
The knowledge base might include:
Firm Foundation
- Mission statement
- Core values
- Short-term and long-term goals
- Strategic or vivid vision
- Organizational priorities.
Brand and Positioning
- Brand voice
- Marketing guideline
- Logos and letterhead
- Preferred terminology
- Examples of approved content.
Clients and Services
- Ideal client profile
- Common client concerns
- Practice areas
- Geographic service areas
- Frequently asked questions
- Common objections
- Examples of successful intake communications.
Thought Leadership and Marketing
- Blogs and article
- Social media content
- Presentations
- Press coverage
- Publications
- Marketing campaigns
Team and Operations
- Organizational chart
- Team roles
- Department structures
- Key responsibilities
- Training materials
- Playbooks
- Standard operating procedures
A firm does not need to have every category completed before beginning. The knowledge base can grow over time.
When uploading multiple documents, it can be helpful to instruct the AI platform to wait until all materials have been provided before analyzing them. Once the uploads are complete, the platform can be asked to prepare a detailed organizational summary for future use.
The resulting document should be reviewed, corrected, updated, and saved in a clearly organized project.
Create a Personal AI Guide Too
A law firm knowledge base explains the organization. A personal AI guide explains the individual professional.
I have not yet completed this exercise for myself, but I plan to include materials such as:
- My résumé or curriculum vita
- Articles and blogs I have authored
- Personal and professional goals
- My preferred learning style
- My reading and communication preferences
- Information about the different businesses and projects I manage
- My hobbies and interests
- My ideal day or week; and
- Personal-brand marketing materials.
The more accurately a platform understands your responsibilities, preferences, priorities, and communication style, the more useful it may become as a strategic assistant.
Organize AI Projects Intentionally
Another breakthrough for me was recognizing that AI platforms need their own organizational system.
I created consistent numbered categories for projects involving goals, operations, hiring, onboarding, finances, thought leadership, training, templates, playbooks, marketing, practice areas, and legal ethics.
I then began aligning those categories with our other organizational systems, including Asana, Lawmatics, CosmoLex, and NetDocuments.
Consistency is important. A well-organized AI platform can become a useful extension of the firm’s knowledge and workflows. A disorganized platform can become another place where information is scattered and difficult to retrieve.
Lawyers should also understand that AI may not automatically remember information stored elsewhere. A document placed in one project may need to be uploaded or connected separately when working in another project.
Do not assume the platform remembers. Give it the information necessary to perform the particular task.
Better Prompts Produce Better Results
The quality of AI output depends heavily on the instructions and information it receives.
AI is not simply a more conversational version of a search engine. Two users can ask about the same topic and receive dramatically different results because they provided different context, background materials, and instructions.
Effective prompts often identify:
- The role the AI should assume
- The intended audience
- The desired tone
- Relevant background information
- The user’s learning or communication preferences
- The desired format
- The necessary level of detail
- Any limitations or issues the platform should avoid.
Specificity matters.
Prompt engineering is becoming an important professional skill, and I would like to see more bar associations provide practical education on how lawyers can communicate effectively and responsibly with AI tools.
Train the Team Before Expanding Access
AI licenses should not be treated merely as an employee perk. They are powerful professional tools that require policies, education, and supervision.
Law firms should decide:
- Which platforms are approved
- Which versions employees may use
- What information may never be uploaded
- When human review is required
- How client confidentiality will be protected
- Who is responsible for maintaining organizational knowledge bases
- How AI-generated work should be documented; and
- Whether employees may use personal or free AI accounts for firm work.
The distinction between free and professional versions may not always be apparent to an employee. For example, a platform may appear automatically within software the firm already uses, even though the employee does not have an approved professional license.
Firms should address these issues through employment policies, independent-contractor agreements, training programs, and ongoing education.
The challenge is to balance the need for technological education with the reality of technology fatigue. Even so, avoiding the subject is not a sustainable strategy.
Automations and AI Agents May Be the Next Major Shift
The more advanced possibilities involve teaching AI systems to complete repeatable processes.
After the conference, I saw a colleague use Claude CoWork to assist with a Lawmatics naming-uniformity project that had been lingering for years. What had previously required significant manpower was completed within hours.
I also saw a demonstration of an automated skill that could review unnamed scanned documents, rename them according to an established convention, move them into the correct folders, and upload them to a client portal.
These tools should still be implemented carefully, tested, monitored, and supervised. Nevertheless, they suggest that law firms may soon purchase or develop specialized AI skills for tasks such as:
- Document naming and filing
- Discovery organization
- Calendar and email management
- Financial reporting
- Drafting routine documents
- Reviewing questionnaires for missing information
- Preparing standardized preliminary correspondence
I believe the legal industry may soon see a growing marketplace for specialized AI skills and agents designed for particular law firm workflows.
Better Systems Can Create a More Valuable Firm
A law firm that provides freedom to its owner may also be a more valuable and transferable business.
Potential buyers are not simply purchasing a list of clients. They are evaluating whether the firm has consistent revenue, manageable overhead, trained personnel, documented processes, reliable data, and systems that can continue operating after the founder steps away.
Standard operating procedures, playbooks, financial reporting, naming conventions, organized technology, and defined workflows all make the firm less dependent on a single individual.
AI may help law firms build, organize, and maintain those systems more efficiently. It may also help firms evaluate staffing capacity and reduce the amount of work that must be performed manually.
The objective is not to eliminate the human element. The objective is to ensure that valuable human time is directed toward the work that truly requires it.
AI Can Also Support New Educational and Creative Projects
AI may help lawyers develop new revenue streams and educational resources, including:
- Templates
- Downloadable guides
- E-books
- Mini-courses
- Full educational courses
- Tutorials; and
- Court or hearing preparation materials.
Attorneys interested in these opportunities should conduct market research before investing substantial time or money. They should also consider whether a separate business entity or brand is appropriate for the project.
The larger point is that AI can help lawyers move ideas out of their heads and into a more organized, actionable form.
My Biggest Takeaway From Lawyers on the Beach
I returned from Cancun with more ideas than I could possibly implement at once.
That can be energizing, but it can also create pressure. Lawyers and law firm owners do not need to master every AI platform, automation, or agent immediately.
We can begin with one problem.
We can experiment with one secure platform, improve one prompt, organize one project, complete one unfinished checklist, or remove one recurring administrative task from a lawyer’s desk.
AI is a tool. It is not a substitute for legal judgment, client relationships, leadership, or the human experience.
Used thoughtfully, however, it may help law firms become more organized, more responsive, more valuable, and less dependent on their owners.
Ultimately, being a “lawyer on the beach” is about designing a practice that supports the life you want to live.
The beach is yours to choose.
Cari B. Rincker is the founder of Rincker Law, PLLC and is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia.
Affiliate Disclosure: Cari B. Rincker has no financial relationship with Lawyers on the Beach and does not participate in an affiliate program associated with the retreat. This article may contain affiliate links, including a link to Lawmatics. If you use an affiliate link to sign up for a service, Cari or Rincker Law, PLLC may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. Cari only recommends products and services she believes may be helpful to other legal professionals.