IBA 2018 – Observations from Rome
Dear friends,
Thank you again for taking the time to meet with us during the IBA Annual Conference in Rome. We hope that you all returned safely and conveniently back home.
As we have done already for a couple of years, also this year we had a standard set of questions we asked many of you whom we met with.
This year our questions related to 1) growth or emphasis areas in your firm, 2) the use of AI tools, and 3) fee structures. As usual, we had a lot to talk about in our meetings, so it is possible that we did not have time to go through all questions in all meetings. We hope for your understanding on this point.
We are happy to share with you some statistics on how you answered these questions.
Regarding growth or emphasis areas, we asked if you can identify three key areas where you think you will see growth in the near future or where you otherwise currently put emphasise on. Areas mentioned most often were Litigation & Arbitration (mentioned 21 times), Compliance & Data Protection (mentioned 17 times), and Technology & Intellectual Property (mentioned 15 times).
What are the three key growth / emphasis areas for your firm?
Number of times mentioned as a key area:
In relation to AI, it still seems that many firms have tested or are currently testing AI tools and that a minority is actively using such tools. Altogether 56% of the firms said that they either are testing or have tested AI tools and 20% said they have used AI tools in actual assignment work, though in very few law firms AI seems to be a daily tool for an ordinary lawyer. 24% had neither tested nor used any AI tools.
Testing / using AI software(s) for assignment purposes.
Out of the brands of AI tools either used or tested, 33% of the firms said that they have tested or used Luminance, 13% had used or tested Kira Systems, whereas 6% had tested or used iManage RAVN. Altogether 24% of the firms had either used or tested other brands or developed their own systems.
Testing / using AI software(s) for assignment purposes by brand.
Finally, on the question on what are the most commonly used fee structures, pure hourly billing was mentioned in 32% of the answers, and correspondingly, some type of alternative fee structure was mentioned in 68% of the answers. In all but a few law firms, however, the hourly rates are the basis, albeit with caps, uplifts and downlifts.
In the subset of non-hourly billing, capped or fixed fees were mentioned in 56% of the answers, followed by estimated fees (19%) and success fees or closing bonuses (12%).
Hourly fee vs. other fee structures.
The subset of other fee structures.
We hope this summary is helpful for you, and we look forward to catching up with you during the year or, at the latest, during next year’s IBA Annual Conference in Seoul.
Best regards,
Team Hannes Snellman