“It’s a game changer when the game has changed.”
Richard Tromans.
There has been a lot of speculation lately about the significant impact large language models (LLM) will have on the future of law practice. The theory goes that these models will tremendously reduce the time lawyers spend on many tasks. This reduction, in turn, will force lawyers and law firms to rethink the financial business models upon which the firms have primarily been built. Law firms will be forced to change what they do, especially when clients demand it. And many pundits think this sea change will happen quickly.
Richard Tromans, a thought leader in the industry, writer of the blog artificiallawyer and the force behind the well-known and ground breaking Legal Innovators conferences, reccenlyt weighed in on these theories.
In a recent podcast interview and an excellent subsequent article, he analyzes change in the legal industry and what has to happen for real change to occur. Tromans concludes that change in legal will not come easily. Or quickly. (Tromans is hosting the U.S. version of Legal Innovators conference in San Francisco on June 7-8, at which the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and LLMs on the legal industry will no doubt be a topic of substantial discussion.)
Never underestimate the power of lawyers to resist change
I agree that any change in the current model for paying for legal services will likely be slow. I say this in part based on history: over and over, we have been told that something will upset the apple cart in legal. Over and over, it hasn’t, or at least only a little bit. Never underestimate the power of lawyers to resist change.
And when you look at the payment method and how ingrained it is, you can
