How Will AI Impact Law Firms in 2025 and Onwards?
Whether you like it or not, AI for law firms is here to stay.
AI has been making waves in the legal landscape in recent years—be it for workflow automation, law firm marketing, customer service, or analytics.
In this post, we asked 11 lawyers about their experience with AI and their expectations come 2025.
AI to Gain a Foothold in Contract Management Automation
In 2024, legal AI tools have more than proven their value in terms of practicality.
Christopher Lyle, patent attorney and owner of KickSaaS Legal, has seen the impact of AI-powered automation firsthand:
One of our clients, a 100-year-old Tokyo-based conglomerate, realized a 25% reduction in procurement time by implementing automated contract-management solutions.
Doubling down on their adoption of AI for contract management, Christopher looks forward to the productivity benefits of automation in the industry.
“Looking towards 2025, I’m keen on expanding our use of AI technologies, such as generative AI, for drafting and negotiating contract language,” says Christopher. “This shift not only accelerates contract cycles but also reduces administrative burdens, allowing our team to focus on strategic consulting.”
AI has led to similar results for other lawyers, including Jonathan Feniak from LLC Attorney and founder of Feniak Consulting Group LLC:
Contract review has become exponentially faster, enabling a 50% reduction in time spent on this task, leading to cost-effectiveness.
The automation of routine tasks allowed my team to focus on complex issues, enhancing our service quality.
Lawyers like Mark Pierce, founder & CEO of Wyoming LLC Attorney, also project huge productivity gains from AI contract management:
For 2025, we aim to integrate AI in contract drafting by using AI tools to produce base drafts of complicated documents, such as limited partnership agreements and registration statements. This plan allows for a whopping 60% reduction in the manual workload.
AI Will Expedite the Entire Legal Research Process
While case-focused legal research is billable work, most lawyers still consider it a repetitive and time-consuming task—preferring to focus more on higher-level aspects of case preparation and meaningful client interactions.
Here’s Scott Distasio, founder of Distasio Personal Injury Law, sharing his experience with AI-powered legal research:
We started using AI-driven legal research tools, which helped us save around 30% of the time typically spent on case research, thus expediting case preparations. We also implemented predictive algorithms to aid case valuation for settlement purposes, which improved our accuracy rate by about 20% compared to traditional methods.
AI tools are also incredibly helpful in more specific tasks like searching for legal precedents and reviewing statutes.
With a quick glance at the industry, it’s easy to tell that more and more lawyers are catching on. Here’s employment lawyer Edward Hones on how this can benefit both lawyers and clients:
We intend to explore AI-driven platforms for legal research, which can provide us with deeper insights and relevant precedents more efficiently than traditional methods. In the long term, I believe AI will continue to reshape the legal industry by automating routine tasks, allowing attorneys to concentrate on more complex legal challenges and client relationships. This shift could lead to more accessible legal services, as firms can handle a larger volume of cases without sacrificing quality.
Jonathan Feniak shares Edward’s vision for streamlining legal research to boost productivity and bring down legal fees:
In 2025, I plan to integrate AI for the efficient handling of legal research, aiming for a 30% productivity increase. The long-term impact of AI in the legal industry, I believe, will be profound. It could democratize access to legal services, making it more affordable to a wider audience.
As for C.L. Mike Schmidt, personal injury lawyer and partner at Schmidt & Clark LLP, AI-powered legal research presents an opportunity to enhance case strategies and get more wins:
In 2025, we’re planning to expand AI use for legal research and case predictions, which could help identify trends and outcomes based on past cases. This will add another layer of insight, especially for case strategy, and allow us to fine-tune approaches even more effectively.
AI Will Take Automated Document Review Further
Andrew Pickett from Andrew Pickett Law explains the time-saving benefits of AI for document review:
AI-powered tools streamline tasks like document review and legal research by swiftly analyzing vast amounts of data that would otherwise take hours.
For instance, AI has reduced our document review time by nearly 40%, allowing us to allocate more resources toward client interaction and strategic planning.
Not only do AI tools speed up the document review process, modern solutions like Harvey AI also prove to be accurate in sieving out key information from a mountain of paperwork.
C.L. Mike Schmidt says this:
AI has certainly reshaped our workflow in 2024, with automation handling document review and discovery tasks that used to take hours. Now, case prep is noticeably faster, allowing us to dive into the details that matter for our clients without getting bogged down in repetitive paperwork. AI tools have improved accuracy in identifying key case information, and the turnaround time has decreased by around 30% on document-heavy cases.
J&Y Law founder Jason Javaheri also stresses the importance of AI tools in complex cases:
Implementing AI-powered tools to scan through medical records has significantly shortened our case preparation timelines, especially in cases involving extensive injury records like traumatic brain injuries. With AI assistance, our legal team can spend more time crafting tailored case strategies rather than manually reviewing repetitive data.
Lawyers Turn to AI-Powered Predictive Analytics
Aside from automation, AI also enables reliable predictive analytics to help you make sharper, data-driven decisions.
The question is, how reliable is AI-powered predictive analytics?
Andrew Pickett says:
We’re incorporating AI into predictive analytics to anticipate case outcomes with greater accuracy, which helps tailor our strategies.
By automating routine tasks, we minimize human error and gain time to focus on complex legal issues, enhancing overall efficiency.
You can also use predictive analytics to manage client expectations and improve overall client satisfaction. It’s all about ensuring the reliability of your data and how you’ll communicate insights with your clients.
To give you an idea, here’s Edward Hones discussing his firm’s current and future implementation of AI predictive analytics:
We’ve also started utilizing AI for predictive analytics to assess the potential outcomes of cases based on historical data, which helps in setting realistic expectations for our clients.
Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to further integrate AI into our workflow by investing in client-management systems that leverage machine learning to enhance our communication strategies.
Mia Mancinelli Cloud, founder of Cloud Law Firm, also aims to leverage AI predictive analytics to improve case strategies as well as bolster their client intake process:
By 2025, we’ll also be integrating AI in our workflow by deploying predictive-analytics tools, which will further give us insights that can enable us to predict the possible outcome in personal injury or disability cases as developed into the case strategy. We shall also look to improve the client intake process by using AI to streamline communication and gather initial case details more effectively so that we focus on the legal aspects of every case.
Mark Hirsch, co-founder of Templer & Hirsch, also plans to deploy AI solutions for both predictive analytics and workflow automation:
We plan to use AI even more in 2025 by using predictive analytics to predict how cases will turn out and automating routine administrative chores. This combination will help our clients make better decisions and run their businesses more efficiently.
AI Will Not Replace Human Legal Professionals
Mark Pierce warns about the dangers of AI overreliance:
I believe AI in the legal industry will empower attorneys to focus on strategy, negotiation, and client interaction—the human elements that AI can’t replace. However, it’s important that we stay vigilant to ethical considerations, as the confidential nature of our work necessitates a high level of data security. AI, while revolutionary, should be implemented thoughtfully and responsibly.
However, it’s worth acknowledging that all signs point to an AI-dependent, streamlined future in the legal industry.
The good news is, leveraging AI for your law firm doesn’t need to cost a fortune—thanks to the wide availability of cost-effective AI tools.
Legal AI consultant Jennifer Ballard explains this and why law firms need to embrace AI.
Clio recently published its Legal Trends Report, which included the insight that the top three AI solutions adopted by the legal industry are generic non-legal tools, AI tools like ChatGPT, AI-powered legal research platforms, and document-drafting tools.
All of the signs point to significant automation of legal tasks. Lawyers who bill their time need to confront this and consider how they can adapt their business models to remain competitive.
Despite the staggering advancements in AI technology, lawyers understand that AI tools are meant to increase the productivity of human legal professionals—not replace them.
Andrew Picket highlights the human qualities that AI can’t replicate:
AI will not replace human lawyers. While it can handle routine tasks with speed and accuracy, empathy, intuition, and creativity are unique to humans and crucial in the legal profession. Therefore, we plan to integrate AI into our workflow by leveraging its strengths while relying on our human skills for critical decision-making.
Finally, Mark Hirsch reminds that AI is valued for efficiency purposes and not to remove the human element from the legal business:
AI is expected to change the legal field by automating boring chores, lowering costs, and making legal services more available to more people. However, it’s important to balance incorporating AI and the irreplaceable value of human judgment and legal knowledge.
Final Thoughts
Ready to jump into the AI train?
Before you go, remember this last piece of advice from:
“Lawyers need to analyze their existing tech resources and areas for improvement to drive their decision-making on AI solutions to their problems,” says Jennifer Ballard. “There are plenty of AI solutions available for forward-thinking lawyers who take the time to identify and prioritize their unique organization’s greatest needs.”
Start by developing a growth plan for your law firm to identify the best improvement opportunities for you. Better yet, consider partnering with a law firm marketing agency (that’s us) to get the ball rolling.
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