As I disembarked at the soon-to-be-renamed Dolly Parton Nashville International Airport last week, the prominence of legal tech was immediately apparent. From Harvey to Everlaw, Clio to Litera, and even a local church, the ads painted a vivid picture of an industry at its zenith, dubbed "Peak Legal Tech" by pundit Bob Ambrogi.

The scene at ILTACON 2026 was no less dynamic. Legal AI giant Harvey commandeered a sprawling 24 booths, evoking the Berlin Wall in both form and function, potentially overshadowing smaller exhibitors. Yet, the real story here wasn’t just the scale of the displays but the palpable shift in the air towards strategic partnerships and what I term the legal tech "Polycule" — an intricate mesh of relationships filled with as much cooperation as competition.

Gone are the days of exclusive deals and isolated platforms. This year's conference highlighted a unanimous move towards interoperability. Everlaw, for instance, is not just a discovery platform but now positions itself as the 'evidence layer' across various legal tech products, irrespective of the user interface. Thomson Reuters and iManage revealed similar collaborative ventures, aiming to become ubiquitous, underlying layers in legal data handling.

The once popular "single pane of glass" model, where one interface would rule them all, appears to be shattered. Instead, a more democratic approach has emerged—vendors are focusing on ensuring their data and processes integrate seamlessly with others, letting law firms choose the interface.

However, beneath the surface, there lurks a financial iceberg dubbed "Tokengeddon." The legal tech bubble, built on subsidized AI usage, is showing cracks. The closing keynote at ILTACON shared insights into the impending shift from flat-rate licensing to consumption-based billing — a move that could fundamentally alter how law firms manage costs and bill clients. This could lead to a resurgence of flat-fee arrangements, not unlike the early 2000s legal research pricing wars between Lexis and Westlaw.

This year’s ILTACON wasn’t just about who had the best technology but who could best integrate, economize, and ultimately harmonize within the sprawling legal tech ecosystem. As firms navigate these changes, the focus might shift from merely choosing the best tool to selecting tools that offer the best synergy and cost-efficiency.

As legal tech continues to evolve, ILTACON 2026 has set the stage for a new era of "coopetition" where collaboration and competition merge to meet the complex demands of the modern legal landscape.