Why in-house teams need different legal tech metrics

I won't comment on the controversy around Harvey's usage last week. But this post from Rob Beard hits the nail on the head -- in-house teams should not accept law firm tech metrics (or VC metrics) as the right ones. Vendor metrics focus on retention rates, seat utilization, revenue growth. Here's what in-house teams need to be tracking: - Time to contract completion - Outside counsel spend reduction - Strategic work enabled - Hours reclaimed for higher-value activities - Business deals accelerated Our success should depend on your efficiency gains, not our expansion.

Excellent article and I'd recommend this for any in-house lawyer interested in the types of metrics that are relevant to quantifying the impact of Legal AI tools, including reductions in time to contracts, reductions in outside counsel dependency and time for non-core matters, and the creation of in-house capacity to focus on higher value strategic matters.

Real Estate Legal Tech Can Reduce LegalBS Thru ↓  → Document Intelligence [Deterministic software executing legal algorithms to generate legal grade documents with less LITL {Lawyer-In-The-Loop}. Legal Tech is not useful and cannot scale legal knowledge if it is does not produce deterministic outcomes.] → Transaction Management [streamlined deal workflow + stakeholder communication] → Entity Management [data management + automatic generation of company documents and org charts] → Digital Deal Execution [E-signing designed for real estate] → Data Management [Data tagging + structuring incorporated into each element of the tech stack]  → Legal Engineering [Building legal algorithms using a science-based approach to ensure that the legal knowledge of experienced lawyers is the foundational part of all documents and processes.] → Legal Ethics [Legal Tech must ensure that client data is managed and utilized in compliance with attorney-client privilege and ethical rules governing lawyers. Legal ethical rules were created to protect clients. Clients should not have their protections eliminated by Legal Tech.] Legal Tech Alone is Not Enough Given the status quo of real estate deals, Legal Tech is only part of the solution. To fundamentally change real estate → Legal Tech needs to be an end-to-end solution focused on streamlining the entire transaction process. Legal Tech needs to meet clients and lawyers where they are today while helping them continue to build to meet future challenges and opportunities as the industry evolves. One of the hardest lessons I have learned as a lawyer building and using legal technology is that change comes in increments through iteration. No matter how great you think your technology is, people resist doing things differently. Everyone hates the daily flood of email, but resist attempts to eliminate it. Adoption is achieved by helping clients and lawyers determine how to integrate Legal Tech into their workflow today → at their own pace in a meaningful way. Adoption accelerates as clients and lawyers experience the results. In adopting Legal Tech → client’s and lawyers should ask fundamental questions - “What am I trying to accomplish? What problem am I trying to solve?” Legal Tech needs to be useful. Client’s want deals done faster. Client’s want → faster legal at a lower cost. Faster Legal at a Lower Cost → that is a problem that Real Estate Legal Tech needs to solve. #OldvsNewLegal #LegalTech #Proptech #UsefulLegal #ReduceLegalBS #SeedJura #SOWplatform

While talking to one legal team about Ad Idem, a senior in-house lawyer told me they don’t need to rely on tech for predictive analytics. They can predict seasonal surges in disputes from a particular region or product line. I’m sure they’re right. Years of experience sit behind that instinct. But what happens when this person leaves, or takes a vacation? This is the gap between tribal knowledge and institutional knowledge, and it taxes legal teams more than they know. Knowledge capture is a significant problem for disputes teams. 1. Key personnel rotate out. 2. Work passes through fragmented tools - emails, filings, notes, and orders sit in different places. 3. In dispute-heavy organisations, the sheer volume hides signals and patterns. You only see the pattern if you were around the last few times it happened. There’s a real business cost to letting that drift continue. 1. New hires take longer to become effective. 2. Early-warning signals arrive late, so costs go to outside counsel to resolve disputes instead of in-house dispute prevention. 3. Often, the only actor with a continuous view of the org’s disputes is the org's external law firm. None of this is about effort or talent. It’s about the absence of a single source of truth. I don’t mean a better cloud file storage provider. I mean a single place where matters, filings, outcomes, and counsel notes live with the context that gives them meaning. A disputes system-of-record. Capturing tacit knowledge isn’t easy but there are methods. Short after-action notes on closure force the team to distill what mattered and why. Key decisions get a rationale and a link to the source. Quarterly reviews with Ops, Product, and CXOs transform war stories into playbooks. Once a structure is in place, predictive analytics can step in to replace crystal-ball gazing. This path requires some key decisions. Legal Ops is an underrated role, which engages with this problem natively. The org should invest in a platform that supports a matter graph and timeline view, source-linked notes, and a precedent library. It should also ideally talk to the systems that generate disputes in the first place: ticketing, CRM, claims. AI can help, but it’s not a shortcut. For instance, Ad Idem can summarise a complex casefile for a new team member in minutes, with source-linked traceability. But answers must always be reviewable and reviewed (and are, with Adidem). The human in the loop doesn't go away. The end goal is the ability for a new lawyer to step in mid-crisis and act with the same confidence as the veteran who “just knows,” because the reasons for knowing are right there in the record. A proper single source of truth turns a person’s instincts into an organisational capability, and it keeps working even when the person who built those instincts finally takes that long vacation.

We’re already thinking in next-level Legal Tech dimensions – but let’s face it: classic legal drafting will remain part of the job for quite a while. 📌 A well-known challenge: A rising caseload typically means a linear rise in processing costs. Those handling high-volume litigation know this all too well. The equally well-known solution? Scalable legal services. 💥 But here’s the catch: Those who reduce “scalable” to “just use LLMs” quickly hit a wall. AI hallucinations, loss of precision and erosion of client trust are very real risks. (Looking at you, hallucinated case law.) And don’t worry – we won’t flood your feed with prompting slides. Prompting can be fun. But legal precision demands much more. 💡Our answer is a sophisticated, modular system that selects the right solution for every standardizable and automatable legal step – tailored to the highest standards of quality and control. A precisely orchestrated tech setup that avoids both - human errors and AI hallucinations. Because both are avoidable. Over the next few weeks, we’ll dive deeper into the options. But here’s where we start: The most overlooked – and most secure – building block: a rule-based system. ✅ Law is structured and open to rule-based solutions. We translate legal problems into code and structured decision logic. Exactly where legal clarity enables controlled automation, allowing us to avoid starting from scratch with every brief. → No loss of control. No compromise on legal responsibility. 100% grounded in legal expertise. ✅ Our modular system isn’t a prototype – it’s in productive use. ✅ Built to grow with your needs – dynamic, customizable, and self-engineered for fast, high-quality adjustments. Because when you build your own systems, you build in adaptability. ✅ The result: Cost savings, yes – but more importantly, freeing up legal minds to focus where depth is truly needed. But what if rule-based automation hits its limits? About that we will talk in our next posts. 👉 Follow us for the next post in our series: “Safe Legal Automation”

The Future of Law Just Launched at ClioCon 2025 Jack Newton’s keynote at ClioCon 2025 may mark the most transformative moment in legal technology since the cloud. This was not speculation. It was a live demonstration of code that is already shipping, showing how artificial intelligence is changing every layer of legal practice. Clio now supports more than 200,000 legal professionals worldwide. The next decade is about expansion, not only for solos and small firms but also for large firms and corporate legal departments through Clio for Enterprise. The vision is to bring the same clarity, efficiency, and intelligence to organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees. The acquisition of VLEX, the largest in Spanish technology history, added a global legal database of over one billion documents across 110 countries. That data powers Vincent, Clio’s legal AI engine trained on actual law. Vincent joins Clio Operate under the enterprise division and now serves as the AI foundation for all Clio products. The keynote highlight was Clio Work, a unified, context-aware workspace where legal management and AI meet. Clio Work reads filings, drafts motions, analyzes opposing counsel, syncs deadlines, transcribes depositions, and drafts client updates, all within the Clio ecosystem. It amplifies lawyers rather than replaces them. At $199 per user per month, Clio Work delivers world-class legal AI that was once $399 per month and limited to large firms. Jack Newton also announced the evolution from a system of record to a system of action. Clio’s new AI products no longer just track tasks; they perform them. The lineup includes: Manage AI – a legal assistant and billing teammate that anticipates and executes. Grow AI – an automated intake specialist that screens clients, schedules consultations, and manages follow-ups. Draft AI – a drafting teammate that converts documents into intelligent, reusable templates. Together with Clio Work, these tools form the Intelligent Legal Work Platform. It unites the business and practice of law within a single, connected system powered by embedded AI. Seventy-seven percent of legal problems worldwide go unaddressed. The remaining twenty-three percent already represent a one trillion dollar market. With AI, Clio envisions unlocking that unmet seventy-seven percent, those unserved, expanding the total legal market to four trillion dollars and beyond, while improving access to justice and amplifying the impact of every legal professional. Jack Newton closed with a message that captured the moment: “This is not the end of the story. This is the beginning of a new one. This is convergence. This is uniting brilliance. This is the moment where everything we have built begins to work as one, and the next chapter of legal begins.” For years, each wave of technology has advanced the profession. This one will too. The Intelligent Legal Work Platform is here, and it is already transforming how legal work gets done.

LawyerOnline.live – Transforming Legal Access in Pakistan with AI and Smart Case Management --- In today’s fast-paced digital world, technology is transforming every field — and the legal profession is no exception. LawyerOnline.live is an innovative Pakistan-based platform built to make legal access smarter, faster, and more transparent. It connects lawyers and clients in a seamless online environment where technology supports case management, AI-powered analysis, and automated legal documentation. LawyerOnline.live allows lawyers to register, create verified profiles, and showcase their expertise, experience, and qualifications. Clients can easily find and connect with lawyers according to their specific legal needs — whether civil, criminal, family, or corporate matters. The platform introduces advanced AI tools such as: AI Case Analysis – helping users understand the strengths and weaknesses of their cases AI Document Generator – automatically drafting basic legal documents within minutes Smart Case Manager – providing reminders about hearings, fees, and upcoming deadlines The vision behind LawyerOnline.live is to digitize Pakistan’s legal ecosystem by making justice and legal consultations more accessible for everyone. It empowers both lawyers and clients through a secure, transparent, and user-friendly system — promoting professionalism and accountability in the legal community. As Pakistan embraces digital transformation, LawyerOnline.live stands at the forefront of legal innovation. It represents a major step toward a modern, AI-assisted legal referral and management system that brings convenience, efficiency, and trust to the justice process. 🔗 Visit: www.lawyeronline.live LawyerOnline.live continues to evolve with new features that enhance efficiency for both lawyers and clients. It demonstrates how technology can strengthen justice delivery, improve transparency, and connect Pakistan’s legal professionals like never befor.

This guy made legal history - for the right reasons. Meet legaltech visionary and Clio founder, Jack Newton. Clio just made the largest acquition in legaltech history with its US$1 Billion purchase of vLex. Caught up with Jack at Clio’s Innovate Legal Summit today. Jack is a believer that AI means lawyers have a great opportunity to expand their TAM - Total Addressable Market. He quoted a statistic that 77% of legal problems don't receive legal support. Jack considers AI will enable better access to justice by reducing the cost of certain types of legal support. I agree. I think TAM will become far more important for lawyers as AI will reduce law firms’ Existing Profit in three ways: - Client’s AI will do more of the work they used to outsource - Competitors’ AI will put downward pressure on fees - Law Firm’s Own AI will improve productivity which is not great for profit when you are selling hours. However a law firm’s AI can help the firm expand their TAM and therefore find New Profit. Until I co-founded Lawpath, the only Tam I knew was the one that followed Tim. Lawpath is now 12 years old and is the world's first & largest (with more than 500,000 customers) AI-native law firm. We are super-focussed on TAM. We have expanded our TAM by: 1. Radically lowering the price point of legal support to open up a previously un-served legal market in the SMB space. I suspect most of the 500,000+ who have used Lawpath would not have paid the fees to use a lawyer accessed via traditional channels. 2. Expanded our service offering beyond legal. Now Lawpath offers accounting, tax and company secretarial support as well as being one of the largest company incorporation platforms in the country. Today Clio announced a remarkable number of AI-enabled product enhancements and their drive into the large law firm space via “Clio for Enterprise” (accelerated by their recent purchase of ShareDo). Jack also gave us a new term - forget Prompt Engineering, it’s time for “Context Engineering”. Thanks to Jack and the Clio Team for a great event, especially Ronnie Gurion and Adriana Amato. Also great work MCing by Sarah O'Carroll. #innovatelegalsummit

Following up my last discussion of the 2025 Clio Report on Legal Trends for Solos and Small Firms about AI adoption, I want to tackle the Report’s take on Flat Fee Billing. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 For decades, the billable hour has been the backbone of law firm revenue. But according to the 2025 Report, this era may finally be coming to an end. While the majority of solo and small firms still rely on hourly billing, flat fees are rapidly gaining traction. Clients are demanding transparency, predictability, and value-based pricing. Flat fees are the preferred way clients want to pay for legal services, with over 50% of potential clients indicating they’d rather work with lawyers offering modern payment models, including flat fees or subscriptions. Despite this need for solos and small firms to meet their clients’ preferences, the larger firms are leading the way in experimenting with alternative billing models, including subscriptions and all-inclusive pricing. In short: solos and small firms are 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 about innovation, but bigger firms are 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 it. Despite client preferences, many solos and small firms still rely heavily on hourly billing for understandable reasons; cash flow predictability, case complexity, and resource constraints. But as AI and automation enter the picture, this model becomes increasingly fragile. This discussion of the increase of flat fee billing ties directly into AI and the explosion of automation. The 2025 Report notes: “[g]enerative AI could put $27,000 of annual revenue per lawyer at risk for every lawyer who sticks to hourly billing.” Why? Because AI reduces the time it takes to complete tasks; however, if you charge by the hour, efficiency actually costs you money. Flat fees, on the other hand, reward efficiency. This assumes, of course, you are able to ethically capture that efficiency. ABA Formal Opinion 512, its first comprehensive discussion of AI released in July, 2024, is wary of lawyers’ ability to charge the same flat fees pre-AI than post-AI based on increased efficiencies. NC’s treatment is similar. Fortunately for our firm, with two of our three offices being located in VA, LEO 1901 (passed by the VSB and pending adoption by the VSC), explicitly rejects this analysis by recognizing the investment of time in learning and implementing AI. With one of our largest practice areas being family law, we have explored a few times over the years implementing a tiered flat/fixed fee framework instead of hourly billing; however, the effort to get it right was always too high a barrier. With our strategic efforts to integrate AI into our practice, we’re revisiting with renewed dedication – sticking with hourly billing will have an ever-increasingly negative financial and client impact. For your litigation work, are you shifting away from the hourly model (or have you already done it)?

Today, Eudia announced the acquisition of Out-House, a trusted legal services partner led by former Fortune 500 General Counsel Lynden Renwick. Out-House earned its reputation by helping some of the world’s largest companies operationalize their legal functions, including standardizing playbooks, managing outside counsel, and driving measurable ROI. Together, Eudia and Out-House are building the next evolution of legal delivery: one where human expertise and AI combine to deliver faster cycles, cleaner risk profiles, and more strategic alignment between Legal and the business. Read more about how this milestone accelerates our mission to empower in-house teams everywhere:  https://lnkd.in/gZ2nGbuT