A new survey by LexisNexis of lawyers’ views on legal tech has found that ‘failure to embrace AI’ could lead to 11% considering leaving, which rose to 19% at larger law firms. The results indicate frustration building up inside some firms at the pace of change.
Moreover, the survey – which covered 887 lawyers and legal support staff in the UK and Ireland – found that 25% of all lawyers said a lack of investment in AI tools would negatively impact their careers. This rose to 36%, i.e. over a third, at larger law firms.
The question then is: why?
The answer is multi-part, at least from Artificial Lawyer’s perspective. While some law firms are moving cautiously and some perhaps are worried about how AI may impact their business model, the reality is that the world has moved on. Clients are using AI tools. Lawyers and their friends and family are using AI tools at home and outside of their core work. It’s embedded now, it’s normalised now.
Moreover, younger lawyers and support staff, perhaps just joining the legal workforce will potentially have been using AI tools, whether ChatGPT or others, during their studies – given that it arrived in November 2022, and we’re now into 2025.
Again, that’s normalisation, a sign of the ground shifting in terms of what tools any professional would expect to have at hand.
When you really know you can do X task 10 times faster with the help of a tech tool, but your firm doesn’t have it, or won’t allow it – even if perhaps you have something similar (albeit not a legal tech-customised tool) on your phone – then frustration may build.
That can start to impact one’s sense of work/life balance. Lawyers and the staff within firms expect to work hard and do long hours. That’s part of the sector. But, when you’re doing something that is very laborious and slow, but doesn’t need to be, that can really play on your mind.
Then there are the economic and client reasons. Clients, as noted, are using genAI tools in their professional and personal lives as well. Their expectations are shifting. While junior associates won’t be having to deal directly with client frustrations at how work is done, more senior lawyers who are on the other end of the call will get those messages, whether subtle or not-so-subtle.
And that can’t be fun, i.e. to have to say to a client: ‘Well, yes, of course I understand what you’re saying about using AI on this task, and yes, I appreciate that you’ve used similar tools inhouse to do similar tasks yourself, and so you understandably want us to do the same….well……we can’t. Why? You ask why? Well, we haven’t got round to it yet for a whole host of reasons.’
All of that leads to lawyers starting to feel they’d be happier elsewhere – and so would their clients.
–
The survey also found that clients primarily want their external advisers to be cost effective (75%), with just 48% saying a top demand was specialist expertise. That’s a 180 degree shift from usual. Most law firms will normally tell you clients use them because of their expertise, and that overrides cost. Hmmm….interesting. Is this a shift in sentiment? Or just the sample, i.e. UK-centric, or was it just the law firms saying this, or the clients themselves? Also, if clients care so much about costs, why do they agree to such massive hourly rate rises every year? More to explore here for sure.
The survey then found that the ‘slowest-moving areas’ in law firms was on implementing legal tech, especially AI-related tools. And this tallies precisely with the data above about frustrated lawyers.
Laura Hodgson, AI Lead at Linklaters, who provided a comment for the report, said: ‘There needs to be a mind shift to recognise that law firms have more to offer than the knowledge in each lawyer’s head: institutional data and new workflows can transform the value provided to clients.
Stuart Greenhill, Senior Director of Segments at LexisNexis UK, concluded: ‘To remain competitive, firms will need to deliver a superior, data-driven legal service, at the same cost or lower, and at pace – and to keep clients informed of any legal or regulatory developments.
‘Achieving all this without the help of modern technology will be difficult. To secure client relationships, firms will need to invest in a streamlined, data-driven client offering.’
Overall, this shows that law firms cannot ignore what’s happening now. Or rather they can, but it may impact lawyer retention and perhaps client engagement.
—
You can find the full report here.
