Ropes & Gray LLP  have captured headlines in recent weeks for permitting AI experimentation to contribute towards 20% of first year billable hours targets We've seen tentative, small steps in this direction over the past 5 or so years, but they've tended to be low single digits of total hours targets, and possibly diluted with other non-billable activities such as BD R&G's 20% equates to 380 hours, out of a 1,900 annual target and is a significant step change. The targeting o

Law firms are increasingly nervous about the impact of GenAI on their business models One of the trends that stood out to me in PwC 's 2025 UK Law Firm Survey is the shift in sentiment illustrated on p16 Now, the step change from net positive to net negative actually happened from 2023 to 2024, where 69% anticipated a positive impact on revenue and margins in 2023, that flipped to 60% anticipating a negative impact in 2024 There's a further darkening of the mood in 2025 (now

The commentary around Mazur v CRS tends to fall into one of two camps: It changes nothing It changes everything But there is little that...

In early 2023, when we were building out FleetAI at Dentons , one of the incredibly innovative things we did was speak directly to the...

It is entirely possible that GenAI is both a useful technology and a bubble waiting to pop This is a thought that's been niggling away at...

The post-covid mess that keeps on giving... We should all be questioning the sanity of mandating workers to return to desks that don't...

Betteridge suggests no... To take a worked example - if a lawyer works 20 hours on a matter and charges £500 an hour, then they bill the...

Darren and I were delighted to kick off the 2025 season on Fringe Legal podcast discussing all things Legal MBA and Legal Tech. Host Ab...

There are echoes for law firms in the problems articulated in this FT article for audit firms, particularly the challenges around...

For Episode 12 of the Empowering Law Firm Leaders podcast , Darren and I joined Amy Bruce – host and Marketing Director at Osprey...

Last week I posted an approach to improving law firm lockup, using a Lean process improvement methodology I thought it worth highlighting...

Lockup is a perennial issue within law firms, with the most recent PwC survey showing deterioration in the amount of time it takes law...

In fact, it's often a significant cost in both £ notes and time Put aside the watering down through pilot to rollout of 'this will...

At some point the penny drops When going through any change programme that requires an element of standardisation (think, 5 different...

I've gone back and forth on this over the years working with law firms. Over-centralised decision making can mean firms are slow to react...