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Legal Industry Observers See GenAI Driving Change in 2025 and Beyond

Media weigh in on latest in-house leadership survey

by Petra Pasternak

Reading Time — 4 minutes

Most legal professionals think generative AI, though still unproven, will be a boon – and observers are starting to game out the strategies to make best use of the technology.

In a recent survey, 475 CLOs, GCs, in-house attorneys, and legal ops professionals told Everlaw and the Association of Corporate Counsel that they’re mostly optimistic about GenAI’s potential – while acknowledging the uncertainty that can come with these new tools.

The report, GenAI and Future Corporate Legal Work, has made waves with writers at more than a dozen legal industry and business publications, from Bloomberg Law and Law.com to CEO World and Forbes, with industry observers speculating on what a GenAI era means for the legal world.

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In-House Strategy: More GenAI and Fewer Law Firms

Writers from ArtificialLawyer, Forbes, and a string of other publications looked at the anticipated impact of generative AI tools on relationships with outside counsel. 

Fifty-eight percent of survey participants said they will likely rely less on legal service providers. The percentage is more than double the 25% who said they’d reduce the number of law firms to save money in last year’s survey and quadruple the 12% saying the same in the 2022 survey. 

“Providers that can fill this void will benefit from huge, unmet, and urgent market demand.”

A shift by in-house legal teams to handle more work internally would have the greatest impact on firms that focus on routine matters, wrote Richard Tromans for Artificial Lawyer in “58% of Inhousers ‘Expect Reduced Reliance’ On Law Firms.” 

“If they’ve been helping with elements of repeat contract handling, then this may well be displaced as in-house use of genAI tools play an ever-greater role,” Tromans speculated. However, he said that legal teams will likely continue to lean on outside counsel for the more complex and risky work.

Others see an even bigger challenge for law firms. With only one in four in-house legal professionals saying their department is ready for the workforce changes that GenAI will bring, there’s an opportunity to fill a gap in the market. 

“Providers that can fill this void will benefit from huge, unmet, and urgent market demand,” Mark Cohen explained, covering the survey findings in Forbes's “The Enigma Of Big Law Innovation.” Forward-thinking law firms should consider partnering with top business consulting firms or major tech companies that are equipped to take on “digital core and change management work” as organizations move to modernize, he wrote. 

Read more from the publications that focused on the survey findings on the evolving relationship between corporate law departments and their law firms:

The report makes it clear that in-house legal professionals see GenAI as a new technology they can’t ignore. Most survey respondents (59%) said they rolled out organizational AI policies and about half engaged employees in beta testing (49%) and provided education (48%). 

But when it comes to their own teams, legal professionals feel the need to do more to prepare. Less than a quarter believe their legal department is ready for the talent challenges to come, noted LawFuel in “The Dramatic Impact of Generative AI for Corporate Law Departments.” 

CLOs and other legal department heads should clearly define the expectations and rewards for GenAI proficiency on their teams and provide training, LawFuel wrote.

“Ten years from now, the changes are going to be momentous. Even though there's a lot of uncertainty, don't use it as an excuse to do nothing.”

Josh Kubicki's BrainyActs newsletter recommended readers explore the full ACC/Everlaw report for the career advancement tips it provides. It includes lists of skills for attorneys and legal ops professionals to develop in coming months, such as basic AI literacy, data analysis, and proficiency with AI tools.

“Each of these skills can be developed through continuous learning, hands-on practice, and collaboration with others in your organization,” Kubicki noted.

See other publication’s take on the career implications of GenAI:

Prepare for Greater GenAI Impact in Years to Come

Of respondents who are using GenAI for legal practice, 25% said they’re already seeing reductions in operational expenses. And there's even more optimism about the future, with about half (49%) saying they expect AI to yield savings in coming years, LawyersWeekly’s Jerome Doraisamy wrote in “GenAI Helping Law Departments Cut Costs, Research Says.”

Greg Andrews and Trudy Knockless at Law.com also took a long-term perspective in “Just 11% of Legal Departments Predict Gen AI Will Be 'Transformative,' as Its Honeymoon Phase Fades.” They pointed out that while only a small percentage of legal professionals in this survey said they expected GenAI to be transformative, people tend to underestimate change over the long run. 

"If I came back here two years from now, we'll see some changes, to be sure. But will they be dramatic? Will they be industry-changing developments? I think the answer is no,” Suffolk University Law School Dean Andrew Perlman said at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium annual conference, as quoted in Law.com. 

“But if you come back 10 years from now, I think the changes are going to be momentous. Even though there's a lot of uncertainty, don't use it as an excuse to do nothing.”

Download your copy of the full report for these and other insights shared by in-house legal leaders and a step-by-step career guide for succeeding with GenAI over the next nine months.

Petra Pasternak

Petra is a writer and editor focused on the ways that technology makes the work of legal professionals better and more productive. Before Everlaw, Petra covered the business of law as a reporter for ALM and worked for two Am Law 100 firms.