Is AI finally going to kill the billable hour?

People have been predicting its death for decades. Maurice Tunney thinks this time might actually be different.

David Woolstencroft had a great conversation with Maurice, Director of Technology and Innovation at Keystone Law, about AI, technology and the very different platform model behind Keystone.

Maurice has worked in legal for 25 years and has heard the “death of the billable hour” conversation throughout his career. But with AI now dramatically reducing the time needed for certain types of legal work, his view is that something fundamental has to change. If the time required to do the work is being slashed, can firms really keep charging for time in the same way?

They also talk about Keystone’s unique operating model, building technology around how lawyers actually work, practical AI adoption, and one lawyer who has grown his practice by around 60–70% with AI helping, under close supervision, with drafting, analysis and chronology work.

A fascinating conversation about what AI might really change inside a law firm, beyond simply adding another tool to the tech stack.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:31 Meet Maurice
3:46 The 15% Referral Incentive
5:06 The Happiest Law Firm
6:22 Why Lawyers Join
8:14 Building From Scratch In The Cloud
13:00 Choosing The Tech Stack
17:40 The AI Pressure
19:43 Keybot And Secure ChatGPT
23:00 When Clients Use ChatGPT
24:44 The Death Of The Billable Hour
27:42 AI As The Junior
28:45 Picking The Big AI Tools
30:31 Rolling Out AI Without Overload
32:29 A Year From Now

Guest: Maurice Tunney, Director of Technology and Innovation, Keystone Law
Host: David Woolstencroft

People in Legal — where legal leaders and legal technology meet.
https://www.peopleinlegal.com/
Powered by Novum Global