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

𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

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

➡️ CLM tools without “built-in” AI are obsolete; meticulous due diligence on suppliers is crucial.

➡️ New AI solutions that act as connectors “in-between” systems.

➡️ Tons of use cases under development and real-life – some of them far beyond the “first mile”.

➡️ The really hard thing: Project Management, Change Management, Training, Implementation and Adoption.

➡️ Standardization of data thanks to Damien Riehl (SALI) will expedite standardization of work types and data exchange.

➡️ Multidisciplinary teams (MDT) are becoming standard. Managing culture and change is a top priority for leadership. I will discuss this further in “Die Zukunft der Rechtsberatung”.

➡️ My favorite topic: how legal departments and law firms are already experimenting with 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗔 – 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 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗿 to Business 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿. Data opens up entire 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝘄 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

𝗔𝗜 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. 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:

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

It’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.

𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

I’m in Legal Ops since 2018, have been to #CGI multiple times, what I’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, it’s just a question of perspective.

𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘀: 𝗜’𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.