Panel 1: The Business of Running a Law Firm in 2027: AI, State of the Market, Strategic, Investment, Capacity

We will discuss the forces shaping the economics of the legal industry and what they mean for the next generation of business operations.

A. Executing Strategy with AI

• Looking ahead to 2027: revenue, profitability, demand, and cost pressures.

• The growing cost of talent, technology, and operating infrastructure.

• Competitive differentiation, growth strategies, and the changing economics of scale.

• Client expectations for efficiency, transparency, service delivery, and value.

• Where law firm leaders see the greatest opportunities to improve operating performance.

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B. Business Operations Management

The strategic and operational leadership perspective: As AI becomes embedded in business operations, firm leaders face increasingly complex decisions about technology, investment priorities, operating models, and organizational responsibility.

• How firms are prioritizing AI investment across business and administrative functions.

• Evaluating the business case: cost, value, feasibility, readiness, and implementation.

• Moving from isolated applications to integrated workflows across departments.

• Build, buy, or partner: evaluating technologies, capabilities, and delivery models.

• Standardization, shared services, outsourcing, and the changing structure of business operations.

• Who owns transformation when AI-enabled processes across multiple departments?

• AI Governance: data security and privacy, cybersecurity

 
Panel 2: The Economics of Business Operations Management and AI: Financial Performance, Risk and Revenue

The financial and commercial perspective: Business services affect more than operating costs. Finance and operations leaders examine how changes to processes, technology, and service delivery can influence profitability, cash flow, and the client relationship.

• Risk, governance and performance

• The revenue cycle: time capture, pre-bills, e-billing, collections, and cash realization.

• Using AI and process improvement to reduce errors, delays, write-offs, and administrative effort.

• Understanding the cost of delivering business services and the opportunities for productivity improvement. Where should firms reinvest the capacity and savings created by operational improvements?

• How changing client expectations and alternative fee arrangements influence operating requirements.

• The relationship between service quality, attorney productivity, client satisfaction, and profitability.

• Establishing performance baselines and measuring efficiency, accuracy, quality, and business impact.

• Demonstrating meaningful returns on AI investment.

 

Panel 3: Transforming the Business Services That Support Scaling AI for Law Firms

The practical perspective: An examination of how AI is being applied to the firm business functions that support lawyers, clients, and the firm's day-to-day operations.

• Administration and office support: service requests, workflow routing, scheduling, reporting, and coordination.

• Document production and legal support: drafting support, formatting, quality control, and document-intensive workflows.

• Marketing and business development: RFPs, pitch development, content production, client intelligence, and experience management.

• Finance and billing: invoice review, compliance checks, reporting, and collections workflows.

• Knowledge and information management: finding, organizing, governing, and reusing institutional information.

• What distinguishes applications that deliver measurable operating improvements from those that simply accelerate individual tasks?

 

Panel 4:  AI and The Changing Workforce: Talent, Capacity, and the Future of Business Operations Management

The people and organizational perspective: AI is raising fundamental questions about how firms structure their support functions, develop talent, and balance internal expertise with external capabilities.

• How AI is changing the skills, responsibilities, and composition of business services teams.

• Redesigning roles and workflows rather than simply automating existing tasks.

• Building new capabilities through upskilling, recruitment, and external expertise.

• Balancing internal teams, centralized services, outsourced resources, and specialist partners.

• Maintaining quality, institutional knowledge, accountability, and employee engagement as work changes.

• How firms can increase capacity and responsiveness without proportionally increasing headcount.