Solvaire on the Cutting Edge: How AI Is Transforming e-Discovery
AI Anxiety: Is It Real?
AI Anxiety: Is It Real? A recent post from Attorney at Work explores a growing concern in the legal industry: AI anxiety. While generative AI (GenAI) adoption among law firms and in-house legal teams continues to make headlines, hesitation remains.
According to a recent Thomson Reuters survey, 85% of respondents believe adopting AI will require learning new skills and taking on new roles. Additionally, 71% recognize that integrating AI demands adapting to change. The reality? There’s no turning back when it comes to GenAI. The good news: The article offers practical tips to make the transition to AI smoother and less stressful. Feeling comfortable with AI starts with understanding the unique challenges law firms and corporate legal departments face—and how AI can help resolve them. As the author aptly states, “𝐴𝐼 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢.”
When legal professionals become comfortable infusing their work with AI, discussions about its role and potential become more natural and productive. Like any new technology, success with GenAI hinges on providing proper training. One essential focus area is developing proficiency in prompt writing to engage with GenAI successfully. The article introduces BARCODE, a helpful acronym designed to support legal professionals in crafting effective prompts.
AI is here to stay—understanding how to work with it, not against it, is the way forward.
Attorney at Work Post Link: https://lnkd.in/eXnkBYht
From Internet 101 to AI Fluency: A New Literacy Era
Last week’s insightful Fast Company article discusses the rise of AI literacy. It explores how consumers, educators, employers, and even legislators push for a greater understanding of AI. The article suggests that the goal isn’t to “fix” AI but to understand its shortcomings and use it effectively. Sound familiar? It’s like the early days of the internet, where we learned to evaluate sources like Wikipedia. Experts suggest starting with AI tools in your field to recognize their potential and limitations. Pair hands-on experience with guidance from trusted, unbiased sources, and you’re on the path to AI fluency.
Article Link: https://lnkd.in/djasPUq6
Thomson Reuters Releases 2025 ALSP Report: Growth, Trends, and What’s Next
Thomson Reuters’ “Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSP) 2025 Report,” the latest in a series of biennial reports by the Thomson Reuters Institute tracking the evolution and growth of the ALSP market, is now available for download. https://lnkd.in/d_dWRBPx
The 2025 edition of the ALSP market report reveals that the industry has expanded to an estimated $28.5 billion, marking an 18% growth compared to 2023. Currently, 57% of corporate law departments leverage ALSPs for various services, from flexible resourcing to e-discovery and litigation support. However, many in-house teams continue to adhere to traditional models.
Law firms increasingly integrate ALSPs into their service delivery, particularly those operating their affiliated ALSPs. Notably, firms with affiliated ALSPs are far more likely to engage with independent ALSPs—62% of such firms do so, compared to 23% of firms without affiliates.
For corporate law departments, the primary motivation for turning to independent ALSPs remains cost efficiency, as expense management remains a key pain point that ALSPs help address.
The 31-page report also explores Generative AI trends and highlights emerging market opportunities for law firms and ALSPs.
Stay tuned; we’ll explore key findings further over the next few weeks.
AI in Contract Review: 75% Growth Signals Major Shift in Legal Ops
It’s no surprise that legal departments are rapidly adopting AI for contract review. LegalOn Technologies’ 2025 State of Contracting Survey cites a technology transformation in its early stages, with contract review AI usage rising 75% year-over-year. Many in-house teams seek ready-to-use solutions with pre-built playbooks, while others want to turn their playbooks or templates into AI review. With nearly half of legal teams maintaining formal contract review playbooks, the opportunity to save time and increase productivity is tangible. 69% of all survey respondents see considerable time savings, faster turnaround times, and reduced tedious work due to leveraging AI in contract review. 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝟖-𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://lnkd.in/gic82mjM
Evolving Legal Tech: How AI and Spatial Computing Are Redefining the Profession
Spatial computing is merging the physical and digital world in unprecedented ways, opening up new possibilities for training. For lawyers and legal professionals, this technology could allow junior lawyers to hone their skills in a risk-free environment, leading to improved real-world performance.
The legal field continues to refine its use of AI. Law firms are shifting away from large language models to smaller, more specialized models trained on limited internal data sets, often drawn from their document management systems.
The demand for IT talent remains challenging for companies, including law firms and in-house legal teams. As noted at a recent CES session, “As both traditional and generative AI capabilities grow, every phase of tech delivery could see a shift from ‘human in charge’ to ‘human in the loop.'” This evolution demands a new role and skill set for legal IT professionals.
According to Deloitte, AI empowers businesses to quickly retrieve and analyze key information about clients, costs, and revenue. Legal departments must invest in AI to maximize the value of their internal data and optimize their core business functions.
AI Dominated Legal Tech Headlines in 2024—What’s Next for 2025?
Late last year, the popular legal tech blog LawSites published its annual “40 Most Popular Legal Tech Stories of 2024″ post based on article clicks. Per author and industry luminary Bob Ambrogi, 24 of the top 40 stories involved generative AI in some way—”whether they were stories about gen AI products, gen AI studies, or gen AI screw-ups, they drew readers’ attention and interest.”
Headlines about major AI products, such as CoCounsel and Harvey, made the list. Notable AI studies, such as Stanford’s analysis of AI legal research tools and Clio’s trends in AI adoption, were also included. Beyond AI, other popular stories included Clio’s record-setting raise of $900 million, an article series on the consolidation of ownership of law practice management products, and essays on the justice gap in legal tech. Ambrogi also explored whether a gen AI divide exists between larger and smaller law firms.
What legal tech trends do you think will dominate 2025?
Post link: https://lnkd.in/gSBaNpPW
LawSites: https://www.lawnext.com/
2021 in Review: Through Solvaire’s LinkedIn Posts
12 months ago, we introduced our “new and improved” website to better reflect how the Solvaire team helps companies with their diligence, discovery, and document challenges … and has been for the past 22-plus years. Along with the site, we vowed to increase our LinkedIn presence and managed to share 50-plus posts in 2021, roughly one post per week, ranging from insightful #ALSP related reports to industry survey results and #inhouse thought leadership.
As we kick off 2022, we wanted to share our Top Five LinkedIn posts based on popularity (most likes, comments/overall reaction):
- Association of Corporate Counsel Chief Legal Officer Survey post: 21% of CLOs say significant transactions including M&As, spin-offs, divestitures, and other business combinations will require additional resources. See the full survey here. Assisting corporations with M&As and buy-side diligence specifically is Solvaire Technologies’ core competence and what got us going in the #ALSP business 22+ years ago.
- ILTACON ’21 connects with “redefining the delivery of legal services” panel discussion: Among the 90-plus sessions that caught our attention at ILTACON was a #legaltechnology roundtable focused on “redefining the delivery of legal services,” featuring Shearman & Sterling Chief Knowledge & Client Value Officer Meredith Williams-Range and SixFifty CEO Kimball Dean Parker. The two attorneys talked about the accelerated focus of #ALSPs on core and commodity type work, and how their firm is forging partnerships with #ALSPs to deliver client value and compete for new business. Read the full post here.
- Legal tech spending trending upward … just ask Gartner: The legal and compliance practice arm of Gartner predicts that 12% of in-house budgets will be devoted to legal tech by 2025, compared with 3.9% in 2020 and 2.6% in 2017. This coincides with trends of legal departments hiring less in the years ahead and looking to better leverage technology and alternative staffing models offered by Solvaire and other ALSPs. Read the full post here.
- Smart Business Network chats with Solvaire Technologies President Christian Farmakis on the world of ALSPs and how their use can enhance in-house legal posture. Read the exclusive feature article here.
- Pandemic opens digital initiatives flood gates: A recent McKinsey & Company global CEO survey underscores the popularity of technology use in-house. Leaders are more “pro tech” than ever, as evidenced by survey results discovering that technology and digital initiatives have accelerated by an average of three years during the pandemic. Read the complete post here.
Based on our “Year-One” LinkedIn success, we’ll continue to provide industry insights and commentary, hopefully on a weekly basis. Please join us in the conversation if you haven’t already.
Corporate Counsel ALSP Article Features Solvaire Leaders
ALM Media’s Corporate Counsel digital magazine, required reading for both in-house lawyers and law firms, covers business issues, legal affairs, and reports on the latest developments in the corporate world. The June issue features an in-depth article on the challenges faced by Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) — owned and operated by law firms (so called captive ALSPs) — compared to independent service providers not associated with the law firm. One such challenge centers around pricing and if/how ALSPs run by law firms can be price-competitive with their independent counterparts. Chris Farmakis and Chuck Rile, President and CTO respectively of Pittsburgh-based Solvaire, are prominently featured in the article sharing their experience of running a successful ASLP for the past 21+ years with a keen focus on providing pricing value through something they have coined “price certainty.”
“We offer clients flat fees and other alternative fee arrangements to give them full transparency when it comes to budgets, timelines, and our services,”said Farmakis.
The Law.com article points out that, in many instances, captive ALSPs charge higher fees. According to Farmakis and Rile, fueling those higher prices is a law firm billing model that hinders a captive ALSP from reaching peak efficiency and truly slashing prices. For firms that are tied to a traditional pricing model, it’s difficult to transfer those hours to the ALSP model because under that model those hours get billed at a significantly lower rate.”
“There’s more value for the client, but less margin for the firm. Being unable to break from this conventional firm billing model and mindset can inhibit a captive ALSP’s ability to match an independent vendor’s pricing,” Farmakis said. “I think the independent ALSPs have performed better than the captive ALSPs because they’re singularly focused on that value proposition and don’t have that inherent conflict.”
Click here to read more of Solvaire’s commentary, as well as hear from other legal leaders on the captive ALSP pricing topic.
How Alternative Legal Service Providers Can Add Efficiencies, Create Value
With companies consistently scoring law firms an average of just 2 to 3 (on a scale of 10) on the value they receive for legal services, businesses and firms alike are increasingly employing the value-added services of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs). Smart Business spoke with Christian Farmakis, shareholder and chairman of the board at Babst Calland —and president of its affiliated ALSP, Solvaire — about how ALSPs can help businesses get more value from their legal providers.
Click here to read the entire Smart Business article and interview with Christian.
Article Link: https://lnkd.in/efUxjxN5