“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Two recent studies, one by LexisNexis and one by LawPay-MyCase, looked at the use of AI and Gen AI at two ends of the legal market. The LexisNexis study, entitled 2024 Investing in Legal Innovation Survey, looked at very large law firms and businesses. LexisNexis talked to 266 managing partners and c-suite leaders at AmLaw 200 law firms. LexisNexis also spoke to 50 legal professionals at Fortune 1000 companies and large law firms outside the AmLaw 200. The survey was done between December 6, 2023, and January 9, 2024, so it’s pretty recent.
The LawPay-MyCase Survey, entitled Legal Industry Report 2024, looked at the other side of the market. This survey was of more than 2600 legal professionals at smaller firms. 44% of which were solos, and the rest were primarily from firms of less than 20 lawyers. Like the LexisNexis Survey, it was conducted relatively recently during August and September 2023.
Use and Familiarity
Half of the AmLaw 200 firms surveyed by LexisNexis reported having already purchased Gen AI tools (only 20% of the larger firms outside of the AmLaw 200 had).
The larger law firms and companies surveyed are using Gen AI tools (close to 50% for both). Quite a few of these firms and companies will have a dedicated budget for legal AI tools in 2024. But of those, most will spend only 1% of their