Legal consulting company Altman Weil surveyed managing partners and chairs of 320 US law firms with 50 or more lawyers. The survey found that although in 63 per cent of law firms, partners aged 60 or older control at least one quarter of total revenue, only 31 per cent of law firms have a formal succession planning process. It’s not clear who or what will replace them, as around 60 per cent of responding firms said that they expect first-year associate classes to continue shrinking.

New competitors

Non-traditional competitors are also actively taking business from law firms and the threat they pose is believed to be growing. Sixty-seven percent say they are losing business to corporate law departments that are in-sourcing legal work, while a further 24 per cent see this as a potential threat. Furthermore, 24 per cent responded they are currently losing work to client technology solutions, with another 42 per cent viewing this as a potential threat to their firms’ business.

Increasing belief in AI

The report also suggested an increasing belief in the ability of technology to perform work currently done by people. Only 20 per cent of those surveyed this year insisted computers could never replace human practitioners, while the figure was 46 per cent in 2011. Sources: Bloomberg BNA; Altman Weil