Your Biggest Competitor May Not Be Another Law Firm, Warns Legal Futurist Richard Susskind

As artificial intelligence transforms legal services, Professor Richard Susskind has warned that law firms risk focusing on productivity while overlooking a far greater threat: AI-empowered clients.

Speaking at the International Bar Association's Annual Conference in Copenhagen on 6 October, Susskind challenged the profession to reconsider how legal services will be delivered over the next decade.

While many firms are investing in AI to accelerate research, drafting and document review, Susskind argued that the real disruption could come from businesses and individuals using AI to solve legal problems themselves.

“AI-empowered people and AI-empowered businesses are actually probably the biggest competitors of law firms in the future,” he told delegates. 

His warning goes beyond technology adoption. Susskind suggested that traditional hourly billing could increasingly give way to models built around licensing legal knowledge, digital systems and outcome-focused services.

He also urged firms to prepare for the possibility of artificial general intelligence emerging during the 2030s, while acknowledging uncertainty around its development and timing.

The implications extend to the next generation of lawyers, whose careers may increasingly involve designing, supervising and auditing AI systems alongside providing traditional legal advice. 

LawUno Insight

For decades, law firms have competed on reputation, expertise and relationships. AI could fundamentally change that equation. The question is no longer simply whether lawyers can work faster with AI. It is whether clients will continue paying for services they can increasingly access themselves.

The firms that succeed may not be those using AI to deliver the same services more efficiently, but those willing to rethink what legal services should look like altogether.