Why Would Law Firms Adopt AI If They Bill by the Hour?

Jacob Lauritzen says large firms are adopting AI because the hourly model is already under competitive pressure, not because billing by the hour rewards speed.

When the company was still called Lea, he told the founder that legal tech had never worked for this reason: a firm that finishes faster earns less money. That was his objection to the whole category. What changed is that firms see the size of the shift and expect rivals to move. In the United States, lower-end work is already leaving the hourly rate. Small reviews are priced as a project fee, a flat rate, or, in some cases, done for free. The money, in his account, sits in the strategic work, including litigation, and in the client relationship. A firm can keep doing low-fee or free work to hold that relationship without the old cost of throwing a team of people at it.