Source: Bloomberg Law by Roy Strom
KPMG sees an opportunity to grow its legal business by outspending major law firms on artificial intelligence tools.
The Big Four consultancy plans to invest “tens of millions of dollars” to help corporate legal departments streamline operations, including implementing generative AI, said Stuart Fuller, KPMG’s head of legal services, in an interview. The technology eventually will “take away part of the core business model” for law firms by handling tasks usually assigned to junior lawyers, he said.
“The most critical difference between a Big Law firm and the Big Four is the ability to have capital provided by the organization to invest in your own business,” Fuller said in an interview. “Creating technology-enabled solutions and investing in AI takes capital.”
The Big Four have intermittently been seen as a rival for Big Law firms since they began amassing lawyers and selling adjacent legal services more than a decade ago. Still, they have not proven to be a strategic rival for elite law firms, and they remain restricted from practicing law in the vast majority of the U.S.
Big Law’s business model has survived previous predictions of its demise. “Underestimate the strength of the law firm business model at your peril,” Fuller said.
He expects clients will force law firms to use generative AI for tasks it can do more cheaply and efficiently than work traditionally done by junior lawyers. That will cause stress on the traditional billable hour model, he said, and create tension between law firms and their clients.
Law firms will be seeking a return on their investment in technology, he said, but clients will be expecting to recoup some of the cost savings created.
Read full article: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/kpmg-looks-to-beat-big-law-at-ai-by-leveraging-size-and-capital
