Cooley CEO: Big Law won’t survive if it treats AI as just an efficiency tool

Rachel Proffitt is partner and chief executive officer of Cooley LLP.

AI is altering the course of nearly every industry in the world. It is a particularly pivotal moment for those of us in the legal industry because we are a profession that has been defined by stability for decades. Our core business models, pricing structures, and career paths have endured largely unaltered, even as other industries evolved around us. Compensation, billing practices, and growth strategies have moved in parallel, reinforced by high visibility across the market. It is a model built on consensus and precedent rather than innovation, and for a long time, it has worked.

But the way Big Law has always operated will not survive. AI is forcing a reckoning. We are in the throes of disruption, the likes of which this industry has never experienced.

This is not another incremental advance in technology or a problem to be solved with scale or spend. It is a seismic shift that goes directly to the foundation of the industry – and it is unfolding faster than almost anyone could have predicted. The implications will not be evenly distributed, nor will the successes in responding to this new reality.

Some seem to be predicting an upheaval that will undermine the entire industry. I think they have it wrong. Law firms that treat AI merely as an efficiency........

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