Credit: Dieter Holstein/Adobe Stock AI Might Kill Off the Billable Hour Someday, But It Will Be a Slow Death
"The people who regulate the profession are the profession. They are judges and members of the bar. So what incentive do they have to give away that control to the machine?" said Foster Sayers, vice president of legal ops at health tech company symplr.
February 14, 2024 at 08:08 AM
7 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Corporate Counsel
What You Need to Know
- A new report from Lex Mundi has reinvigorated the debate over the fate of the billable hour.
- It was based on insights gleaned from general counsel who attended the law firm network's summit in Milan in October.
- Attendees said generative AI will make legal departments less reliant on law firms for basic advice.
The legal industry's deeply entrenched pricing model—the billable hour—isn't going away any time soon, though generative artificial intelligence may chip away at its dominance for certain types of work, in-house counsel and legal industry experts say.
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