At The College of Law Practice Management’s recent Futures Conference, a central theme emerged: to deliver more value to clients, law firms must shed outdated structures and embrace new approaches — including those inspired by how we use artificial intelligence.
The conference theme, Untether the Law, focused on breaking free from business structures and cultural norms that constrain innovation.
The College is a unique society of fewer than 300 Fellows drawn from across the legal ecosystem — judges, lawyers in private and in-house practice, legal ops executives, marketers, tech entrepreneurs, consultants, and academics. In this environment of leading practitioners who have positively influenced law practice management, it’s evident that we need new solutions for old problems.
Let’s Be Clear
In “The Newlywed Game” session, participants from law firms and legal departments reveal common misunderstandings with their counterparts. For example, one in-house legal executive says, “I want you to make the call,” a familiar complaint about receiving long, nuanced memos rather than clear guidance on what to do.
Corporate clients would get better results if they applied what they’ve learned about crafting effective AI prompts when giving directions to their outside counsel:
- Be specific about the goal and type of work product (e.g., analysis, advice, summary).
- Define the format, including length, tone, and style (e.g., bulleted or formal).
- Give examples or content to illustrate what the “good” output looks like.
- Encourage iteration and refinement as needed.
Clients can get what they want by giving specific directions and then insisting on their needs being met, even if they must reiterate them.
Let’s Engage
Both corporations and law firms are under competitive pressure to adopt AI. However, they often approach this independently rather than collaboratively.
Many corporate clients are issuing policies prohibiting law firms from using AI on their data. Instead of a restrictive approach, clients can join forces with their law firms, engage the right stakeholders, and select the right knowledge base and protections to assure data privacy.
Together, corporations and firms can develop AI governance strategies, ensuring compliance with ethical standards and maintaining transparency about AI usage.
The process of prompt engineering and AI innovation is iterative. By sharing costs and pooling expertise, both corporations and law firms will accelerate their progress toward common objectives.
Let’s Expand
In that “Newlywed Game,” one of the in-house counsel contestants said, “Law firms are too focused on ‘top of pyramid’ work; clients want help with the whole pyramid.” This is where alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) come in.
ALSPs use technology and data analytics capabilities to meet client needs and attract investors. The rapid growth of the ALSP sector underscores its value in delivering managed services for high-volume, lower-risk work in the middle and lower tiers of the pyramid.
Corporate legal executives can exercise their power as buyers of legal services by orchestrating ecosystems of law firms and ALSPs to improve legal services up and down the value pyramid.
Similar to crafting a good prompt, they should clearly define not only what they want, but also how and when, while remaining open to collaboration and iteration to advance an efficient, tech-enabled legal service delivery model.