Lawyers don't resist change because they're stubborn.

Their brains are literally working against them.

Dr. Larry Richard joined me on Legal Innovation Spotlight this week.

He's spent 30+ years studying lawyer personalities with clinical-grade tools.

What he shared about the neuroscience of change resistance explains why change is hard for everyone but especially lawyers.

Every brain has threat circuitry scanning for danger 24/7.

Your amygdala fires when you encounter a threat (like a tiger) to protect you from danger.

This same circuitry fires when you encounter change like a new legal tech tool.

When it does, it hijacks cognitive resources.

If you're a gardener, no big deal.

But if your value depends on sharp analytical thinking, that hijacking hits different.

Distracted. Irritable. Depleted. And you don't know why.

Often the real culprit is the brain burning energy on uncertainty.

Now layer AI on top of that.

Lawyers score in the 90th percentile on skepticism and the bottom 10% on resilience.

That's a brutal combination when change goes vertical.

The firms that navigate this won't have the best tech strategy.

They'll understand the psychology of the people they're asking to change.

You know where to find the link.