Wickard reposted this
Co-Head of AI Practice Group @ Holtzman Vogel | Editor-in-Chief, AI & the Law @ The National Law Review | Founder @ Wickard.ai
Below is my article "Large Language Models Can Drive a SaaS Shift for Big Law Firms" published by Bloomberg Law today. In this article, I write about how the future of BigLaw may see a fundamental shift toward a software-as-a-service (SaaS) legal services model. Alternatively, "we may see a future where lawyers develop their own personal LLMs that capture and mirror their unique knowledge, experiences, and workflows, potentially licensing these models directly to firms and clients." Some key highlights: - "Though the idea of law firms becoming software providers may seem far-fetched, current market and technology trends suggest it’s a realistic possibility." - "Across Big Law, law firms are hiring dedicated AI experts and leadership and establishing dedicated AI practice groups." - "Second, legal AI companies are rapidly improving their AI products by training their foundational LLM models on legal-specific data." - "While legal AI companies are building new data sets, the most valuable data already exists within Big Law firms. Such firms sit on legal documents, templates, case law research, and legal analyses spanning decades and created by great legal minds." - "By fine-tuning foundational models on proprietary data sets, Big Law firms could create custom LLMs that reflect their unique style, structure, and best practices." - "The ability to capture the processes and intangible practices of top lawyers is another edge Big Law firms have in creating custom legal-specific LLMs." - "[T]he shift likely will be driven by economic pressures stemming from AI’s enhanced efficiency, the move away from billable hours, emerging revenue opportunities, client-driven pressure, and even state bar ethical guidelines on client data protection and privacy." - "The potential of firm-specific LLMs extends beyond reactive legal services. Integrated within clients’ operations, these models could provide proactive monitoring, identifying potential legal issues before they arise—similar to cybersecurity monitoring software." - "Fully operational legal intelligence isn’t yet achievable . . . . But rapid improvements for reasoning tasks and recent advancements in cross-platform “agentic” functionality of LLMs suggest law firms eventually will overcome technical obstacles to a SaaS-model shift." - "Still, ethical impediments may arise. For instance, is it ethical for law firms to train their internal LLM models on past client work product?" - "If law firms aren’t the first movers, individual lawyers might take the lead. We may see a future where lawyers develop their own personal LLMs that capture and mirror their unique knowledge, experiences, and workflows, potentially licensing these models directly to firms and clients." Thank you to the editors at Bloomberg Law, including Daniel X., Jada Chin, Alison Lake, Jessie Kamens for their great work! #AI #AIandtheLaw #LegalAI #BloombergLaw #LegalSaaS https://lnkd.in/geZKJJpg