Judicial Security, AI, and What's Really at Stake for the Federal Bar – 2026 ALPS Bar Leaders Retreat

Federal judges are telling their own children not to answer the door to strangers, and that's the reality bar leaders are now building policy around. Kevin Maxim, national President-Elect of the Federal Bar Association and a commercial litigator in Atlanta, breaks down why judicial security has climbed to the top of the organization's Capitol Hill advocacy alongside judicial vacancies and court funding. He traces how the pandemic hollowed out the informal, in-person relationship-building that once held the profession together, and why rebuilding those connections, especially for newer members, has become part of his leadership philosophy. Maxim also raises a sharper concern facing the profession: what happens to attorney-client privilege once confidential communications start feeding into AI tools, particularly as a generational divide widens between attorneys who treat data protection as sacred and younger practitioners who see information differently. Law firms remain constant targets for phishing and cyberattacks, he says, and the profession's next real test is figuring out how much trust it can extend to the tools it's racing to adopt.

Proving once again that ALPS Insurance puts the "treat" in retreat, they gathered leaders in law from across the country this summer. These sit-down conversations reveal flavors of leadership and legal trends from a variety of perspectives. Cool takes, one scoop at a time, recorded live at the 2026 ALPS Bar Leaders Retreat in Missoula, MT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices