AI’s Impact on the Changing Business of Law
How AI is reshaping the law firm model, from how work gets done to how value is defined.
The legal industry has spent years debating the potential of AI. Now, AI is no longer a future-facing experiment; it’s actively reshaping how legal work is done, and in turn, what clients expect from those who deliver it.
This brings a fundamental question to the forefront: What is the business model of law, when the way legal work gets done is no longer anchored solely in human effort? At Harvey FORUM in London, Richard Tromans (Founder, Artificial Lawyer), Hilary Goodier (Partner and Global Head of Ashurst Advance, Ashurst), and Chris Tart-Roberts (Partner, Addleshaw Goddard) explored a shift that goes well beyond technology adoption.
In addition to accelerating legal work, AI is also impacting the very architecture of law firms, from how matters are staffed to how value is priced and delivered. As Goodier put it, “the strongest firms will treat AI as a redesign opportunity, not just a staffing exercise.”
For decades, the traditional law firm model has relied on leverage: a pyramid of junior lawyers performing high-volume work that underpins profitability. AI destabilizes that foundation. As routine, repeatable tasks are increasingly automated, the “base” of the pyramid transforms. What emerges in its place is a more complex model where value is created not only by lawyers, but by technologists, data, workflows, and AI platforms working in concert.
Rethinking Where Value Lives
This shift challenges one of the profession’s most deeply embedded assumptions, which is that legal value is tied to time. As AI compresses the effort required to deliver outcomes, billing by the hour becomes increasingly misaligned with the value clients actually receive. In its place, firms are being pushed — by both economics and client expectations — toward pricing models that reflect outcomes, impact, and multidisciplinary expertise. Tart-Roberts captured this succinctly: “Our clients are not coming to us and saying, ‘We want six minutes of time,’ they’re coming to us for outcomes.”
Clients are also no longer simply asking whether firms are using AI, but how, and why the benefits aren’t being reflected in pricing. Many are building their own internal capabilities, redrawing the boundary between in-house and external work, and even asking firms to help them automate tasks they once outsourced.
Yet, for all the disruption, the session made one point clear: This is not a story about the replacement of lawyers. It’s about the redefinition of their role. Human judgment, strategic thinking, and domain expertise remain critical — but they are increasingly layered on top of technology-driven workflows rather than manual processes.
The firms that will lead in this new era won’t simply adopt AI tools, but instead treat AI as an opportunity to redesign how legal services are delivered from end to end. That also means rethinking training, moving beyond traditional volume-based learning and building adaptability as a core skill. Ultimately, it points to a shift from selling effort to delivering outcomes.
