Final week, authorized tech shares in firms like Thomson Reuters and RELX (Lexis’ father or mother) plummeted in response to Anthropic’s launch of legal plug-ins for its AI product, Claude. In response to TechCrunch, the plug-ins will deal with specialised duties like doc assessment and contract drafting, and produce extra constant outcomes. Right here at Above the Legislation, Stephen Embry predicted that GenAI giants like Anthropic will gobble up massive chunks of the enterprise authorized tech house. However within the solo and small house, I don’t see an actual upset to the established order any time quickly.
For starters, non-legal tech instruments have at all times competed with specialised authorized tech merchandise within the solo and small agency house. Solos have at all times had entry to cloud-based platforms like Google Drive, Basecamp, Monday, Airtable, and even Outlook to run their practices. Many of those general-purpose instruments really preceded the launch of Clio and MyCase, immediately’s market leaders in cloud-based apply administration software program. In reality, each version of my ebook on beginning a legislation agency, Solo by Choice, since 2008 has included a devoted part evaluating the professionals and cons of non-legal tech instruments with legal-specific platforms. Briefly, the concept a giant tech firm would possibly provide a less expensive different to authorized tech isn’t precisely breaking information for this phase of the market.
But though basic function instruments (first apply administration and now AI) have at all times been obtainable to the solo/small agency market at decrease price, inertia has persistently pushed solos towards authorized purposes. In spite of everything, most solos and small corporations, particularly simply beginning out, get the majority of their details about authorized merchandise from resource-constrained bar associations that depend on hefty sponsorships from authorized distributors in alternate for member entry. A lawyer launching a legislation agency immediately goes to listen to about Clio or MyCase at a CLE or by means of a bar affiliation low cost program lengthy earlier than they stumble throughout a YouTube video exhibiting how one can deploy Gemini or Claude in authorized apply. Bar affiliation additionally conveys to authorized merchandise an imprimatur {of professional} legitimacy and trustworthiness. Simply as nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM, many solos and smalls imagine that nobody ever was disciplined for counting on Westlaw/Lexis/fill within the clean. [Author FYI: That’s no longer true when it comes to hallucinations.]
And there’s the tech capability problem. Solo and small corporations don’t sometimes have a deep tech bench. For a lot of, the enchantment of a legislation apply administration platform is that proper off the shelf, it does 80 p.c of the duties legislation agency house owners want, from consumption types, cost processing, calendaring, shopper portals, and even authorized analysis with Clio’s vLex acquisition. As highly effective as Claude’s Authorized Expertise could also be, they’re additionally a strictly DIY operation. Claude expertise are open-source recordsdata hosted on GitHub that must be downloaded into Claude Cowork, which itself must be put in and configured. For solos who haven’t even opened up a chat window on ChatGPT, that’s a reasonably large stretch.
Now that’s to not say that basic function AI instruments gained’t ever make in-roads within the solo/small agency house. There’s a spot for basic AI at both finish of the solo progress curve. Beginning out, each cash-strapped and tech-savvy solos will go for basic over authorized AI both as a result of they’ve the talent to deploy it or lack an reasonably priced different. Down the street, for these small corporations that edge in direction of 10 or extra crew members, a number of seats can grow to be price prohibitive or authorized platforms could show too inflexible to accommodate a agency’s distinctive workflows and protocols. At that time, some corporations will look past Clio or MyCase to discover basic AI options or to construct customized instruments and implement extra agentic workflows. However considerably, by the point a agency reaches that stage, it sometimes has the sources to convey on a developer or advisor. Most often, it’s not the top of the agency who’s configuring plug-ins and tinkering with markdown talent recordsdata at midnight.
Don’t get me unsuitable. Proper now, basic AI instruments are cheaper and extra highly effective (to not point out equally secure) as their authorized tech counterparts. Solo and small agency legal professionals who don’t take the time to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of basic AI instruments are lacking out on great price financial savings and high quality enhancements. However having been within the solo and small agency house so long as I’ve, I do know that on the finish of the day, bar associations wield extra affect over expertise decisions than economics or markets. The selection between gen AI versus authorized AI is simply the most recent chapter in a seamless saga of cheap-but-DIY versus pricier-but-turnkey options. And the ending is at all times the identical: some legal professionals will innovate however the overwhelming majority will stick to authorized instruments. In different phrases, they’ll select IBM.
Carolyn Elefant is likely one of the nation’s most acknowledged advocates for solo and small agency legal professionals. She based MyShingle.com in 2002, the longest-running weblog for solo practitioners, the place she has revealed hundreds of articles, sources, and guides on beginning, operating, and rising impartial legislation practices. She is the writer of Solo by Alternative, extensively considered the definitive handbook for launching and sustaining a legislation apply, and has spoken at numerous bar occasions and authorized conferences on expertise, innovation, and regulatory reform that impacts solos and smalls. Elefant additionally develops sensible instruments just like the AI Teach-In to assist small corporations undertake AI and she or he persistently champions reforms to degree the taking part in discipline for impartial legal professionals. Alongside this work, she runs the Legislation Workplaces of Carolyn Elefant, a nationwide power and regulatory apply that handles selective complicated, high-stakes issues.
