14
The Very Real
Promise of Artificial
Intelligence to
Recapture Lost
Billable Revenue
B Y R YA N S T E A D M A N
C
orporate law departments have
a very clear message for the law
firms they employ: "We have fully
embraced technolo-enabled efficiencies and
cost controls in our workflows, and we expect
a comparable level of accountability and
performance from the outside firms we hire."
If this message has not already captured the
attention of law firms and their technolo
committees, it should. The recent emergence
of comprehensive alternative legal service
providers like the Big Four, Accenture,
UnitedLex, Axiom and others, only drives
home the point that a reactive mindset
toward technolo is untenable in today's
hypercompetitive legal marketplace.
Many firms are attempting to respond
to the marketplace's digital challenge by
investing in a variety of tools to speed up
workflows and create new efficiencies.
The ever-increasing array of available
applications presents a different set of
challenges, however. Besides the difficult
choices in selecting the appropriate software,
there is then a learning curve that users
must navigate. Moreover, the constant
transitioning from one tool to another can
be a major distraction for lawyers – so much
so, that investing in more applications than
a firm is able to support can become an
unfortunate example of the reactive approach
to technolo that the profession needs to
move beyond.
The practice of adopting point solutions
to address specific operational bottlenecks
does little to boost revenue growth in the
long run, suggest the authors of "Navigating
a New Reality in the Client-Empowered Era,"
a report on a recent global survey of 300 of
the world's top law firms conducted by Intapp
in collaboration with The Lawyer. "Although
driving growth is a strategic focus of law
firms, to date they have primarily invested in
technolo to drive operational efficiencies,"
the report's authors point out. "While every
law firm in the survey considered intelligent
automation and data-driven insights to be
highly important, there is a significant gap
