Law & Culture: Decade Rewind

December 23, 2025

The 2010’s were an iconic time in law, both in business and pop culture. From hit shows like How to Get Away with Murder and Suits to; celebrity lawsuits like those of Bill Cosby’s or Taylor Swift’s, law and the legal industry have always been influential.

But it doesn’t stop at pop culture. Professional trends in the legal industry are prominent as well. Working as an attorney looks wildly different today than it did 10 years ago. At the start of the 2010s, firms began to integrate more technology into their business with advancements like case management software and eSignature platforms. By the end of the decade, many firms were well versed in the use of “cloud” programs for file storage.

The 2020’s have been no different for legal trends. Now that we’re officially past the halfway point, let’s take a look at the “legal-verse” in this century’s “Roaring Twenties” so far.

The pandemic hits. Like in every sector, this is a major event in the legal world that comes with huge changes to work culture. While there were pre-pandemic early adopters of the work-from-home model, the pandemic forces law firms to make this major shift.

The tragic case of the “Rust” film shooting, in which actor Alec Baldwin was on trial for involuntary manslaughter after fatally firing a prop gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, quickly becomes a famous case. It brought legal liability and best safety practices to the forefront of the cultural conversation.

TikTok explodes with popularity, with millions taking to the app amidst pandemic boredom to create content—lawyers included. “LawTok” emerges, a subsect of TikTok with content made up of lawyers giving generalized legal advice and tips to users, and law firm owners promoting their businesses.

Corporate and M&A law anyone? Elon Musk’s chaotic and embattled takeover of Twitter (now X, though doesn’t everyone still call it Twitter??) was a huge news story. The HBOMax show Succession was at its height of popularity, and the world was suddenly talking about buyouts, acquisitions, and shareholder intrigue.

AI, specifically large language models like ChatGPT, enter the conversation in late 2022 and transform the way businesses operate. By 2023, it is widespread and various models arise tailored to various industries, including law, where it’s used for everything from streamlining operations to client services. While the use of generative AI in law firms started out small at 11%, usage surges to 41% in 2024.

Legal TV extends beyond Law & Order SVU, which has 27 seasons making it one of the longest-running TV shows in US history.

In 2024, Matlock, a modern-day reboot of the original 1986 series starring Kathy Bates as “Matlock”, premiers with a Rotten Tomato score of 90%.

On the other end of the spectrum was 2025’s, All’s Fair ,earning a rare 6% score on Rotten Tomato despite a star-studded cast of familiar faces including Sara Paulson, Glenn Close, and Niecy Nash. Despite universally scathing reviews , it is celebrated as a great hate watch and for its camp—and renewed for 2026.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds enter a multi-front legal and PR battle with Lively’s It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni that starts with Lively filing a legal complaint against Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment and ends with a countersuit from Baldoni against Lively and Reynolds, summoning pop-sensation Taylor Swift to court as well. Trial is set for March of 2026 and is sure to keep the internet buzzing over what is already a very intricate case.

Our crystal ball is a little bit cloudy, but we feel confident that AI, consolidation of corporate power (see Paramount, Disney, etc.), and celebrity legal woes will feature prominently in the years to come.