Each week, the Law.com Barometer newsletter, powered by the ALM Global Newsroom and Legalweek brings you the trends, disruptions, and shifts our reporters and editors are tracking through coverage spanning every beat and region across the ALM Global Newsroom. The micro-topic coverage will not only help you navigate the changing legal landscape but also prepare you to discuss these shifts with thousands of legal leaders at Legalweek 2025, taking place from March 24-27, 2025, in New York City. Registration will be opening soon.

The Shift: The Techification of the Law Firm C-Suite

When it comes to viewing law firms as businesses, most have long followed a fairly typical model. The law firm C-suite historically comprised the traditional roles like CEO and CFO, and possibly even CTO (chief technology officer). A handful of firms started adding the CINO (chief innovation officer) role more recently, but it was far from universal.

Enter generative AI. While many were busy focusing on how the technology that took the industry by storm would impact the practice of law, its shockwaves were reaching all the way to the venerable Big Law C-suite. The past year-and-a-half has seen the proliferation of new, tech-centric management roles at firms that are looking to gain a competitive edge by getting the most out of generative AI.

The Conversation

The earliest movers in implementing law firm AI leadership pulled no punches when it came to stressing the importance of not just the technology, but its oversight as well. One of the earliest notable AI hires, DLA Piper Chief Data Scientist Bennett Borden, put it bluntly in March 2023: "I don't see how any firm that doesn't fully invest in these kinds of systems can remain competitive, even in the next three to five years. The analogy that I use often is that lawyers who don't understand this technology and use it are like the dinosaurs the day before the meteor hit: they're extinct. They just don't know it."