In this series, the Lexington team - Moray McLaren, Katie Dignan and Paul Browne - discuss how AI is reshaping the economics of legal services. → How AI is changing the way firms price their work → What clients now expect around value and transparency → Whether the long-predicted shift away from the billable hour is finally accelerating → What does all of this mean for the law firm partnership model in the years ahead? As annual growth and increased profits continue to be

Why the firms that win the AI transition do so on structure, not software. Picture the legal market around two years on from the arrival of ChatGPT. Leadership at many firms decided it was time to take the technology seriously. An AI steering committee was formed, with a respected partner as its sponsor. A pilot was commissioned to test the leading legal AI platforms: Harvey and Legora. The early feedback was positive. There was genuine interest, a flurry of internal momentum

Artificial intelligence is prompting many law firms to ask the same question: will AI simply make legal services more efficient, or will it fundamentally change how clients access legal advice? History suggests that technology rarely stops at efficiency. Across multiple industries, it has removed intermediaries from the value chain, forcing established organisations to rethink the value they provide. The Lesson from other industries Financial services offers a powerful exampl

Lexington Consultants and IE Law School recently brought together leaders from some of Europe's top independent law firms—Arendt & Medernach, Garrigues, Lenz & Staehelin, Pérez-Llorca, Sorainen, Thommessen, Van Doorne and VdA—for a Leadership Circle in Madrid. The big question on the table: what happens when AI starts changing not just how lawyers work, but where the real value gets created? AI tends to get talked about as a tech story, but the conversation made one thing cl

Lexington has been quoted by Law.com in coverage examining the growing debate around salaried partner tiers and the future of the traditional partnership model in global law firms. Read full article in Law.com here (subscribers only) The article explores how more than 90% of the Am Law 100 now operate multi-tier partnerships, with firms such as A&O Shearman considering whether to reintroduce a salaried partner tier after previously moving to a pure equity structure following

Una reciente solicitud de propuesta (RFP) de una empresa a un despacho de abogados planteaba una pregunta aparentemente sencilla: ¿cómo incentiva el modelo de compensación la colaboración dentro del despacho y cómo se traduce esto en un mejor servicio al cliente y rentabilidad para el despacho? En realidad, la pregunta abre una grieta en el centro del modelo tradicional de firma. Los clientes esperan equipos integrados, pero muchos despachos siguen organizándose y compensando

AI is only one of the areas driving change in legal services, but it is forcing elite lawyers and their firms to answer some difficult questions. In this article, Professor Moray McLaren looks at how AI will be reshaping law firm economics and the delivery model in the years ahead From commoditisation to disaggregation During a strategy discussion with partners of an elite law firm, one asked how many assistants Leonardo da Vinci had. I didn’t know. He explained that da Vinci

Lexington has been quoted by Law.com in coverage examining the decline in partner promotions in Spain within international law firms. Read full article in Law.com here (subscribers only) Spain has fallen out of favour in international law firm partner promotions this year, with around half of the firms that have announced so far promoting fewer people there. Across 11 firms that have announced their annual promotions round for 2026, six promoted no people in Spain, while no f

As part of the Lexington Insights: All About Clients series, Mari Cruz Taboada and Katie Dignan, return to a familiar frustration for law firm leaders: business development continues to underperform despite growing investment, larger teams and increasingly sophisticated tools.

Lexington´s Moray McLaren was a speaker at the launch of The Future of the Indian Law Firm: Structure, Market, and Reform , hosted by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in New Delhi. His full comments are available here At the launch event, senior participants noted that the profession’s current structure may constrain growth at a moment when India has significant geopolitical and economic momentum. The opportunity for Indian firms is substantial. Many have built impressive

Lexington has been quoted by Law.com in coverage examining the proposed transatlantic combination between Ashurst and Perkins Coie Read full article in Law.com here (subscribers only) The proposed merger would create a three-continent firm spanning the U.S., UK and Australia, with approximately $2.7bn in revenue and 3,000 lawyers across 23 countries. The departure of some Perkins Coie partners has already sparked a debate over the joint opportunity. In the article, Moray Mc

Stephen Revell and Moray McLaren, explore a question that law firm leaders return to time and again: What is the perfect partner remuneration system?

Lexington Consultants contributes in the Latin Lawyer research on year-end partner promotions in Latin America which fell by 33%.

Following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January, Latin Lawyer reports on the sudden shift in the country’s business environment, with Moray McLaren commenting on the implications for local and regional law firms. Read full article in Latin Lawyer here (subscribers only)

Mari Cruz Taboada comments on the results of LACCA´s latest Diversity & Inclusion survey

Moray McLaren moderated a senior leadership panel at the Sandpiper Partners Global Law Firm Leaders event in London, bringing together managing partners and firm leaders to discuss the strategic, governance and leadership challenges facing international law firms.

India’s legal landscape is undergoing an institutional shift as top law firms move away from individualistic "eat-what-you-kill" compensation. Moray McLaren is quoted on how Indian law firms are rethinking profit-sharing.

With the clock ticking toward Winston Taylor’s merger vote and two more ballots on the horizon for Hogan Lovells-Cadwalader and Ashurst-Perkins Coie, experts break down the high-stakes strategies at play. Moray McLaren is quoted on the complexities of Big Law mergers.

The results of Latin Lawyer’s inaugural Law Firm Support Function survey reveal that law firms prefer to keep accounting and finance services in-house, but outfits are less unanimous in their strategy towards how much staff and budget the department needs. Read on to benchmark your firm and learn what consultants advise.

As law firm partnerships head into another remuneration season, Moray McLaren reflects on why disputes about pay are rarely really about money, and what partner reviews reveal about trust, judgment, and governance inside the firm