Our latest Legal Trends Report 2026 highlights a striking paradox. While law firms are investing heavily in modern tools, with 64% of legal and compliance leaders reporting that they plan to accelerate investments in legal technology, many are still struggling to translate innovation into meaningful operational progress.

Legal Tech challenges of 2025 are vastly different from those that shaped the development of much of today’s software. Despite this, law firms seeking to upgrade their technology often default to like-for-like replacements, swapping one Practice Management System (PMS) for another.

Generative AI has moved past the experimental phase and is now a structural necessity for legal operations. However, as any Knowledge Management (KM) professional knows, an AI is only as capable as the data, workflows, and guardrails supporting it.

Recently, a federal judge in Mississippi made headlines by sanctioning both a lawyer and his client for AI hallucinations in a disability case, holding them jointly liable for opposing counsel’s fees.

Generic AI produces average results because it lacks the specific judgment hidden in your firm’s private deal history. The real value comes from using an intelligence layer to connect these tools to your own past work, turning years of negotiation data into actionable contract intelligence.

You’ve made the case. Leadership agrees a modern CRM is essential. Now comes the question every firm asks: How do we actually do this without the year-long implementation nightmare? 

It is often the first real interaction someone has with your firm, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. In practice, this early stage is where unnecessary friction often appears.

Turning satisfied clients into vocal advocates is one of the most effective and sustainable ways for mid-sized law firms to grow. By deliberately improving the client experience, strengthening communication, and resolving concerns early, firms can increase client satisfaction, deepen loyalty, and unlock powerful referral momentum.

In the legal sector, mergers tend to come with a big moment. A new name. A confident visual identity. Carefully crafted positioning that explains what the combined firm now stands for. There’s usually a proper launch plan behind it, and rightly so. A merger is a major shift and the brand has to signal that clearly.

Law firm valuation is often seen as something you deal with only when a major event is coming up. A merger, a partner exit, or a succession plan usually brings the topic to the surface. But in practice, a firm’s value is shaped much earlier.

Litera, a global leader in legal AI technology solutions, introduces enhanced Kira upgrades, driving the next evolution of its AI‑powered contract intelligence solution.

What 200 lawyers across the globe reveal about the patterns, gaps, and opportunities defining the next era of legal productivity.

In this episode of Studio A, Will Ayers sits down with Aderant President and CEO Chris Cartrett for an in-depth discussion of the evolving landscape of legal technology.