{"id":35803,"date":"2025-09-19T04:17:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T04:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=35803"},"modified":"2025-09-19T04:17:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T04:17:28","slug":"law-firms-try-on-new-role-as-tech-consultancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=35803","title":{"rendered":"Law firms try on new role as tech consultancies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>A number of law firms have rushed to introduce generative artificial intelligence systems in their workplaces faster than their clients\u2019 own legal departments. <\/p>\n<p>This head start in adopting new tools has prompted some of them to start or redouble efforts to market themselves as legal tech consultancies.<\/p>\n<p>The potential for this business line to become lucrative remains unknown, as a number of clients have so far proved reluctant to pay for it.<\/p>\n<p>However, by donning tech consultant hats, the law firms have been able to pitch tech-based services to clients\u2019 top decision makers, and some have secured paid assignments.<\/p>\n<p>Chief legal officers generally open their doors when their external law firms offer to share tech expertise, says Alex Brown, head of technology, media and telecoms at UK-based Simmons &amp; Simmons. In-house legal departments in many businesses are at \u201cthe bottom of the queue\u201d for technology resources, he explains.<\/p>\n<p>Generative AI has accelerated the growth of Madrid-based Ecija\u2019s legal tech consultancy unit, which the firm set up in 2021 and now includes more than 20 professionals, a number expected to grow to 30 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Alejandro Touri\u00f1o, Ecija managing partner, identifies legal tech consultancy, as distinct from general business advice, as an important opportunity for the firm, which employs more than 1,000 lawyers across more than 30 offices in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Few other legal tech providers market aggressively in those regions, he explains<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/iberianlawyer.com\/ntt-data-and-ecija-forge-strategic-alliance-to-drive-ai-innovation\/\" data-trackable=\"link\">January,<\/a> the firm announced an alliance with digital technology group NTT Data in a joint initiative to market AI-powered services to corporate legal departments across these geographies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the first half of 2025, sales figures were already four times higher than those of the same period in the previous year,\u201d says Touri\u00f1o.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"b5ec2894-3628-4083-90ff-d671533c3da8\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b5ec2894-3628-4083-90ff-d671533c3da8\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2290\/1288\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Legal tech services still account for only about 5 per cent of Ecija\u2019s total global revenues, he concedes. But the profit margins for tech consultancy work match those of \u201cother high-demand legal practices\u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Touri\u00f1o predicts that revenues in this area of work will grow at the same time as income streams from other tasks decline \u2014 such as routine compliance reviews and contract management, and certain labour law filings, that can be done more efficiently with AI tools. Many legal teams have been able to absorb such tasks in-house thanks to better and more user-friendly legal tech becoming available, he points out.<\/p>\n<p>Ecija says it has worked with one corporate client\u2019s technicians to help its in-house legal teams to integrate Microsoft applications, including Copilot, in order to set up a system for tracking reviews of more than 1,000 agreements.<\/p>\n<p>The firm also set up an AI-powered platform for the same client so that managers can analyse and compare its relationships with outside suppliers, including law firms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Noerr, a Germany-based firm that employs more than 500 lawyers, has set a fixed price range for generative AI tech consultancy of \u20ac20,000 to \u20ac30,000, says<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noerr.com\/en\/professionals\/thalhofer-thomas\" data-trackable=\"link\"> Thomas Thalhofer,<\/a> a partner who focuses on digitisation of businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The firm \u201cwas experimenting\u201d when it set that rate, he says. \u201cWe tried to get a price that was not too high, to motivate clients to work with us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"n-content-pullquote o3-editorial-typography-pullquote n-content-pullquote--no-image\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<p>We tried to get a price that was not too high, to motivate clients to work with us<\/p>\n<footer class=\"o3-editorial-typography-pullquote__author\">Thomas Thalhofer, Noerr<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To develop Noerr\u2019s offering, which includes customising guides for AI prompting, tailored to an in-house legal department\u2019s needs, Noerr has so far hired around 15 AI experts and data scientists, Thalhofer says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A \u201ccouple of clients\u201d have licensed the product and another 10 to 15 have shown \u201cserious interest,\u201d he says. The firm has not yet hit the break-even point for its investment in AI. But \u201cit is not far off,\u201d Thalhofer predicts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Simmons &amp; Simmons, which employs about 1,180 lawyers worldwide, has designated 3 per cent of them as \u201cAI champions\u201d, with each expected to devote 300 hours a year to acquiring expertise in the new technologies.<\/p>\n<p>The firm has not yet organised \u201ca staple offering\u201d of tech consulting packages and it is \u201cdoing quite a bit for free,\u201d Brown says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Drew Winlaw leads Simmons Wavelength, formed after the acquisition of his legal engineering consultancy in 2019, which has focused on developing a range of in-house tools for the firm.<\/p>\n<p>His team is now working on exploiting large language models and has not explicitly charged some clients\u2019 in-house legal departments to develop prompting skills. But in two instances, because of the extensive amount of the work, the firm has received payment for those services. \u201cThey\u2019re paid because they\u2019re larger scale,\u201d Winlaw says.<\/p>\n<p>At Baker McKenzie, the US-led international firm, which employs about 4,500 lawyers, Danielle Benecke leads a team of around 10 lawyers and tech engineers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-layout-name=\"card\" data-layout-width=\"inset-left\">\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__container\">\n<h3 id=\"more-on-ft-com-best-practice-case-studies\" class=\"n-content-heading-3 o3-editorial-typography-subheading\">More on FT.com: Best practice case studies<\/h3>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__slot\">\n<p>Read the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe \u2018Best practice case studies\u2019, which showcase innovations in the legal sector:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/96385d3c-e83c-4cb6-8d8b-a2d4a355c520\" data-trackable=\"link\">Practice of law<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/029f714e-8d94-4a79-b265-9c3b97bcb79e\" data-trackable=\"link\">Business of law<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e4609b0a-15f1-4256-8056-3364d991ec59\" data-trackable=\"link\">In-house<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The team aims to help Baker McKenzie\u2019s practice groups to develop AI tool-driven approaches to address clients\u2019 needs. \u201cWe see AI as a paradigm shift, not just for the profession, but for the wider market, and our role is to help clients navigate that,\u201d Benecke says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her team recently worked with the firm\u2019s IT experts in responding to a client\u2019s cyber security breach. They used AI tools and created workflows that analysed the client\u2019s data to comply with requirements to report data breaches across jurisdictions worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They then updated their advice as the client reported more, and revised, information about the breach. Within minutes, the Baker McKenzie cyber experts could respond to \u201cnew facts\u201d and amend the assumptions embedded in the AI tools\u2019 logic, Benecke says. She declines to discuss pricing.<\/p>\n<p>Such reticence is not surprising, given the lack of clarity at this stage of how AI-powered legal tech will alter relationships between law firms and corporate clients as it continues to develop. \u201cIt\u2019s not simply making faster and more efficient existing services, it\u2019s adding depth of insight,\u201d says Benecke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019ll definitely be a shift in the market where clients will undoubtedly use AI with their in-house teams to do more and empower their people more,\u201d says Brown at Simmons &amp; Simmons. \u201cOf course, they would. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he adds: \u201cThey are also interested in us doing that in a much more sophisticated way, and getting more and better out of us. And so they should be. That really is where much of the conversation is with clients right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/84a9cb24-0464-4670-a038-cff74eeb2152\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of law firms have rushed to introduce generative artificial intelligence systems in their workplaces faster than&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}