Ep. 135: Build Your Own Legal Tech: No-Code, AI Research & What's Next with Chris Hammond

In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Chris Hammond — immigration attorney, founder of Chris Hammond Law Firm, and creator of Passim AI — for one of the most exciting origin stories in legal tech right now.

Chris didn't set out to build a company. He set out to make his own immigration practice better. In November 2025, he downloaded Claude Code, built a database of Texas native plants for his garden, and realized he could do the same thing for immigration law. Nine months later, he's a legal tech founder being recognized as an innovator by the American Law Institute, running a product used by immigration attorneys across the country, and still practicing law.

What we explore:

✅ The No-Code Revolution for Attorneys: Why the barrier to building your own legal tech has essentially disappeared — and why domain experts, not software engineers, are now the ones building the most useful tools. If you can describe what you want in plain English, you can build it.

✅ How Passim AI Works: A legal research tool that plugs directly into your Claude or ChatGPT subscription and gives your AI access to a comprehensive database of immigration law — BIA precedent decisions, statutes, regulations, USCIS policy manuals, unpublished BIA and AAO decisions, and more. At $29/month versus $400/month for Westlaw or LexisNexis.

✅ The Research Math: A brief that used to take two to three weeks of associate time and billing can now be researched overnight, with a memo waiting for you when you wake up — with clickable links to the original sources. Everyone wins.

✅ Why Build for the AI Agent, Not the Human: The key insight that separated Passim from other tools — designing the database and the tooling to be searched efficiently by an AI agent, not a human with a search bar.

✅ Start With Your Hobby: Chris's advice for attorneys who want to get into these tools but feel intimidated — start with something low-stakes and personal. Build something for a hobby. Let the machine teach you how to use it. Then bring it into your practice.

✅ Where the Profession Is Heading: Why AI native law firms are already here, why solo and small firm practice is about to get a major upgrade, and why the attorneys who use these tools to provide better service — not just cheaper service — will be the ones who thrive.

📌 Connect with Chris Hammond:

Website: passimai.com

Note: Search for "BIA Edge" in ChatGPT or Claude connectors until the Passim AI rebrand is complete.