Back from #CGI24 โ€“ insp๐—”๐—œring as always

2,300 participants, 2 from Germany, over 100 conversations, 95 sessions, parties, lack of sleep, met the President Jenn McCarron.

๐—ข๐—ฏ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€

โžก๏ธ The entire legal operating and commercial model changes; I expect to see at least 5 business models (see below).

โžก๏ธ CLM tools without โ€œbuilt-inโ€ AI are obsolete; meticulous due diligence on suppliers is crucial.

โžก๏ธ New AI solutions that act as connectors โ€œin-betweenโ€ systems.

โžก๏ธ Tons of use cases under development and real-life โ€“ some of them far beyond the โ€œfirst mileโ€.

โžก๏ธ The really hard thing: Project Management, Change Management, Training, Implementation and Adoption.

โžก๏ธ Standardization of data thanks to Damien Riehl (SALI) will expedite standardization of work types and data exchange.

โžก๏ธ Multidisciplinary teams (MDT) are becoming standard. Managing culture and change is a top priority for leadership. I will discuss this further in โ€œDie Zukunft der Rechtsberatungโ€.

โžก๏ธ My favorite topic: how legal departments and law firms are already experimenting with ๐——๐—”๐—ง๐—” โ€“ some of the use cases will rebalance the inhouse/law firm relationship, others the positioning of legal departments to move up the ladder from Business ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ to Business ๐—–๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ. Data opens up entire ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜„ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐˜„ ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐˜€.

๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป

๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€. Some market participants are beyond the ideation phase: legal departments are aiming to cut their external spend by >50% on selected work types, Equity Partners worry about a significant drop of their Profit, Law Firms add Chief Data Scientists to their Board.

I expect the following segmentation of the legal market:

โœ… Traditional Law Firms
โœ… Legal ops driven suppliers (aka ALSP, MDT)
โœ… Tech driven suppliers (AI et al.)
โœ… Consulting (on legal ops)
โœ… Legal Shared Service Center (Outsourcing)

Itโ€™s uncertain whether traditional law firms are ideally structured for tech/data-driven/Consulting models.

Nevertheless, the rules are changing, and with them supply and demand.

๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป

Iโ€™m in Legal Ops since 2018, have been to
#CGI multiple times, what Iโ€™ve seen this year follows patterns of tech-driven change in other industries in which I was allowed to work: Some may remember that booking a flight once required some sort of coding skills in a CRS, specialized knowledge of a select group of people. Need a Website? Years ago you had to hire an agency, nowadays a question of 1h from ideation to go-live for 2 EUR/month. Less travel agents? Less coders? Less Webdesigners? No, companies transformed themselves, roles changed, new services have been developed.

AI is an opportunity as well as a risk, itโ€™s just a question of perspective.

๐—ฉ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐˜€: ๐—œโ€™๐—น๐—น ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ.