HOW THE ROBOT ATE THE LARGE LAW FIRM
HISTORY REVOLUTION CHAOS ADVANCEMENT AND "#AI will Save Law!"
Predictive Legal - Law Firm Trends
The new "alligator teeth" form of law practice will dominate the market including large legal going forward.
With the pandemic changes shattering irl, physical, accoutrements and trappings,
Having clients demand more value for less,
The rise of generative and experimental #Ai and so many new offerings,
The decline of the billable hour (attorney's time set by attorney) as the dominant metric for services valuation and exchange,
The softening of economy, in particular items hard-hitting to large law (such as interest rates and commercial debt, insurance, banking, commercial real estate),
The new nearly magical multi-abilities for both clients and lawyers to do simply amazing (and sometimes catastrophically dangerous) things,
The large funding in legal technology as a de facto (if not de jure) replacement for legal work,
The adoption of same by "the bigs" (the prominent firms which lead the market....Goldman Sachs in finance, KPMG (in accounting and now each more more so into "electronic legal"), SEE HERE also HERE
These non-law practice adopters "the bigs" are eating out the entire substance of what was always the twin drivers of law firm revenue: big corporate and big compliance (they still have litigation for now),
The nadir of "the expert" as a concept culturally, sociologically, and socially in the wake of 2020+ eccentricities, egregiousities and excesses,
ALL THESE COMBINE
To take an axe to what Harvard Business School once called "the most successful profit center in human history"
>>> the large pyramidal law firm structure which trades admittedly replaceable units of work below for ownership and cash for above...
>>>which was fueled by the billable hour and trappings and authority and exclusivity and finery and presence now gone...
"Parallel collaboration" is the watchword for law now and going forward. This is because in the wake of this mass reconfigurement all things are new and knowledge of technology and "data fluency" and especially #AI drives performance now and not the billable hour anymore.
Peers will find peers and win.
In different firms.
Even in large firms working with "small firms" many of whom will have a brand new 'edge' in knowing and adopting and having great facility in the new "quant law" (h/t AI Counsel) space race.
In fact many "small firms" -- accustomed as they are already to working alongside and with peers will have a strategic advantage in the 'we can all win' abundance mindset,
while many of the "old guard" will seek to shore up a privacy exclusivity scarcity model, and it will not work.
Yet since our large firm lawyers are no dummies, their pyramids will become inverted -- being able to earn more if they figure it out (and most are spending big on AI right now)
yet will not require an army of laboring associates to make the machine work as they continue to deliver in a new way on their well-earned reputations.
But its gonna take some time and also be…
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