In 2025, law firms will be making strategic decisions on AI integration as they consider both the potential rewards and risks associated with its adoption. Legal professionals are eager to embrace the transformative power of AI but are cautious about being left behind.
Industry leaders have shared their thoughts on how AI will be fully integrated into UK law firms in 2025, offering insights in the report “AI in the Legal Sector: AI Will Replace Admin, Not Legal Advice.”
Stu White, the Product and Engineering Director at Access Legal, a leading provider of software solutions for the legal sector, plays a key role in helping law firms integrate AI into their case management systems. White’s focus has been on understanding which AI integration features are most relevant to legal practices and how they can best enhance operational efficiency and client service.
He believes AI can really help leverage a law firm’s productivity by reducing the time employees spend on admin: “As more AI tools become available, it will become clear to lawyers that the technology is not a substitute for legal advice, and nor should it be. The power of AI is in its ability to reduce the hours of tedious admin which detracts from the time which could be spent providing legal advice. Far from the lawyer being replaced, they’ll be freed up to deliver more invaluable advice and legal expertise to clients.”
Other analysis comes from Such Amin, a solicitor and Senior Partner at Aequitas Legal, as well as founder of inCase – a market leading app for lawyers; Stephen Mayson, a barrister and honorary professor at London’s UCL and David Sparkes, CEO & Founder of Millbourn Ross.
Each of the experts have years of experience working within the legal sector. They agree that in 2025, law firms need to consider how they will embrace AI to avoid the risk of being left behind and share how legal workers can use AI effectively to improve their workflows and productivity, while also enhancing their customer service and client relationships.
Such Amin, who is also a former president of the Manchester Law Society, believes firms run the risk of making mistakes further down the line if they avoid adopting AI now: “If law firms don’t implement AI in a considered and strategic way now, they’ll be forced to adopt it quickly to avoid being left by the wayside in the future, which is far more risky. AI can feel like uncharted territory for many law firms – with the lack of AI legislation in the UK, and currently no defined rulebook from the SRA, but that doesn’t mean they should shy away from it.”
Stephen Mayson says law firms need to adopt a ‘strategising mindset’ to continually review the benefits and risks of using AI: “All firms could benefit from using AI to make routine processes faster, cheaper and more predictable. To do so successfully, they need an AI strategy.”
Clare Bonsall, head of product at Access Legal, also shares the potential uses of AI within law firms: “Where AI can deliver genuine value is in targeting the routine tasks that take up fee-earners’ time so that firms can improve both employee and client experiences.”
Recent research carried out by Access Legal found that eight in 10 legal workers believe their law firm could benefit from using AI technology more, while 44% of those surveyed said they are already using AI for work. The study was conducted to understand how AI is being used across different industries and the behaviours of employees using it.