‘We Get Nothing From Law Firm AI Use’ – Client

2026-02-12 · Source: Artificial Lawyer · Field: Legal & Regulatory — Legal Technology (LegalTech), Corporate Law & Business Legal Services · Depth: Intermediate, medium

Summary

A senior in-house lawyer at a global company, speaking at the Miramis (formerly Pocketlaw) Inhouse conference in Stockholm, stated that law firms' use of AI provides zero benefits to clients, with legal fees for routine work continuing to rise. This sentiment was implicitly agreed upon by other General Counsels present. The article highlights a growing frustration among in-house legal teams who are increasingly adopting AI themselves for tasks like contract review, compliance checking, and drafting. While law firms may use AI to reduce non-billable time or speed up fringe work, they are not passing on cost savings to clients. This disparity is expected to lead to clients pushing back on law firm billing practices, potentially as early as this year, by increasing internal work, seeking alternative suppliers, or engaging AI-first law firms. Filip Hinteregger Von Grienholzegg from Google also presented on mapping AI capabilities to legal work complexity.

Key takeaway

For in-house legal leaders evaluating external legal spend, your growing internal AI capabilities provide a strong basis to challenge traditional law firm billing. You should prepare to initiate direct conversations with managing partners this year, demanding transparency on how AI efficiencies translate into client value or adjusted fees. If firms resist, consider shifting more work in-house, exploring AI-native legal providers, or re-evaluating your supplier panel for routine tasks.

Key insights

In-house legal teams are leveraging AI at scale, creating a disconnect with law firms not passing on AI-driven cost savings.

Principles

• Businesses maximize profits relative to market.
• Buyers respond to perceived value discrepancies.

Method

In-house teams can map AI capabilities to legal work complexity, from basic prompts for junior associate tasks to proactive responses for senior partner-level needs.

In practice

• Increase internal work using AI.
• Shop for AI-first law firms.
• Improve triage of outsourced work.

Topics

• Legal AI Adoption
• Inhouse Legal Technology
• Law Firm Pricing
• AI-First Law Firms
• Legal AI Agents

Best for: Entrepreneur, Legal Professional, Executive, Consultant

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Artificial Lawyer.