Legal Tech Doesn’t Need More “Lamborghinis” ft. Kara Peterson and Richard DiBona

September 24, 2026 Adrian Cea

Everyone claims AI will revolutionize legal, but Kara Peterson and Richard DiBona want to fix the systemic bottlenecks that have broken the system for decades.

Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with Kara and Richard, cofounders of Descrybe, an AI company focused on making the law easier to find, understand, and verify. Their story began during the pandemic, when a personal legal issue pushed them into the frustrating reality of trying to understand and access the law as nonlawyers. That experience became the starting point for a platform designed to make legal information more accessible, accurate and affordable.

What You'll Learn:

Why the justice gap is fundamentally an operational supply-and-demand mismatch
How inaccurate AI outputs could trigger harsh judicial regulations
Why Descrybe moved from D2C pro se tools to empowering legal aid providers
How issue-level citation analysis outperforms traditional "good law/bad law" tools
Why high-quality legal tech does not require enterprise pricing tags

This episode is a grounded look at what responsible legal AI can actually do: not replace lawyers, not magically fix the system overnight, but give under-resourced legal professionals better tools to serve more people.

Want to watch this episode of Between the Briefs instead? Get the full video on YouTube.

About the Contributors

Adrian Cea

Adrian Cea is Steno's Social Media Manager, leading content strategy, audience engagement, and digital brand-building across platforms. He also produces and co-hosts Between the Briefs, Steno's podcast covering the intersection of legal technology, court reporting, and the future of litigation. With a background spanning content creation, field marketing, and sales at companies like Sell Better and Chili Piper, Adrian brings a multi-disciplined lens to making complex legal tech topics accessible and engaging.

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Joe Stephens

Joe Stephens, J.D., is Steno's Director of Legal Solutions as well as a Clinical Lecturer at Texas Tech University School of Law. With over 15 years of experience in criminal defense and public service, he founded and led Texas' largest rural public defender office, which serves a 12-county area. A graduate of The University of Texas School of Law (cum laude) and Vanderbilt University (B.A.), Stephens currently serves as a Board Member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association (TCDLA) and sits on multiple State Bar of Texas committees. His expertise spans the intersection of legal practice and technological innovation in the justice system.

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