{"id":113250,"date":"2025-04-03T07:36:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/03\/its-an-alsp-world-and-were-all-just-living-in-it\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T07:36:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:36:26","slug":"its-an-alsp-world-and-were-all-just-living-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/03\/its-an-alsp-world-and-were-all-just-living-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s An ALSP World And We\u2019re All Just Living In It"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one point, early in the generative AI era, I wondered if developing this technology to essentially take over first-pass review and hand senior lawyers who view computers much like the Supreme Court views voting rights access to interrogate discovery materials might deal a devastating blow to the alternative legal service provider sector. ALSPs long thrived on managing brute force tasks and nuanced eDiscovery issues that generative AI was poised \u2014 or at least being promised \u2014 to replace. With enough AI power, the technology could go beyond ALSPs and even supplant outside counsel in whole areas of practice, providing in-house legal departments the juice to handle more matters in-house. Everyone\u2019s answer was always no, but I couldn\u2019t figure out at the time what room vendors expected to leave for ALSPs if all their AI projections came to pass. <\/p>\n

As it turns out, a lot. <\/p>\n

Part of it is that AI didn\u2019t<\/em> end up delivering everything the tech world promised. But it did successfully replace a lot. And the ALSPs now seem more important than ever. They\u2019ve got the revenue to prove it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These providers are thriving precisely because AI isn\u2019t magic as much as a mess. A powerful, wonderful, efficiency-driving mess of constantly evolving technology that requires full-time professionals just to keep up with the best tools for the jobs at hand.<\/p>\n

AI can<\/em> save time\u2014so long as someone knows how to implement and supervise it. That someone is usually not a law firm partner who\u2019s also handling litigation strategy, client management, and wondering if their 2020 home office deduction is finally coming back to haunt them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA typical call with a chief legal officer is\u2026 \u2018I\u2019ve got more and more to do, more regulatory pressures, more litigation pressures, and while that\u2019s going on the CFO is saying please spend less next year,’\u201d Roger Pilc, president and general manager of the global legal solutions business at Epiq<\/a> told me. \u201cThen the CLO has got this plethora of tech vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While firms marveled at the shiny new buttons, ALSPs were out there pressure-testing LLMs, running side-by-side model evaluations, and actually understanding what happens to your data when it gets fed into a vendor\u2019s \u201cproprietary\u201d tool. They\u2019ve become the guides through the AI wilderness \u2014 equal parts translator, pilot, and compliance officer.<\/p>\n

That generalized expertise in technology transcends eDiscovery. Renee Meisel, CEO of UnitedLex<\/a>, told me that the company has worked to figure out \u201chow to use its muscles across the entire department.\u201d From contract review to incident response ALSPs deliver \u201ctech experience for clients,\u201d a task they\u2019re suited to provide because they\u2019re \u201cmore nimble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why bring in outside support when the senior associate can now talk to their documents like it\u2019s \u201cHer\u201d<\/a>? But the truth is, having the tools isn\u2019t the same as knowing how to use them. ALSPs have become the go-to resource for making sense of AI\u2019s capabilities, risks, and implementations in a world where the stakes (and the fines) keep going up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see many folks, both enterprise and law firms, say \u2018you\u2019ve got to find a way to use this correctly,\u2019 rather than \u2018oh there\u2019s a risk, there\u2019s exposure\u2026 it might hallucinate,\u201d Subroto Mukerji, CEO of Integron<\/a>, told me. \u201cWe\u2019re hearing much less of that and much more of \u2018how do we use this?’\u201d<\/p>\n

As the adage goes, put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket<\/em>. Especially these days. <\/p>\n

Outside consultants are uniquely capable of watching that tech basket.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post It\u2019s An ALSP World And We\u2019re All Just Living In It<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one point, early in the generative AI era, I wondered if developing this technology to essentially take over first-pass review and hand senior lawyers who view computers much like the Supreme Court views voting rights access to interrogate discovery materials might deal a devastating blow to the alternative legal service provider sector. ALSPs long thrived on managing brute force tasks and nuanced eDiscovery issues that generative AI was poised \u2014 or at least being promised \u2014 to replace. With enough AI power, the technology could go beyond ALSPs and even supplant outside counsel in whole areas of practice, providing in-house legal departments the juice to handle more matters in-house. Everyone\u2019s answer was always no, but I couldn\u2019t figure out at the time what room vendors expected to leave for ALSPs if all their AI projections came to pass. <\/p>\n

As it turns out, a lot. <\/p>\n

Part of it is that AI didn\u2019t<\/em> end up delivering everything the tech world promised. But it did successfully replace a lot. And the ALSPs now seem more important than ever. They\u2019ve got the revenue to prove it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These providers are thriving precisely because AI isn\u2019t magic as much as a mess. A powerful, wonderful, efficiency-driving mess of constantly evolving technology that requires full-time professionals just to keep up with the best tools for the jobs at hand.<\/p>\n

AI can<\/em> save time\u2014so long as someone knows how to implement and supervise it. That someone is usually not a law firm partner who\u2019s also handling litigation strategy, client management, and wondering if their 2020 home office deduction is finally coming back to haunt them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA typical call with a chief legal officer is\u2026 \u2018I\u2019ve got more and more to do, more regulatory pressures, more litigation pressures, and while that\u2019s going on the CFO is saying please spend less next year,’\u201d Roger Pilc, president and general manager of the global legal solutions business at Epiq<\/a> told me. \u201cThen the CLO has got this plethora of tech vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While firms marveled at the shiny new buttons, ALSPs were out there pressure-testing LLMs, running side-by-side model evaluations, and actually understanding what happens to your data when it gets fed into a vendor\u2019s \u201cproprietary\u201d tool. They\u2019ve become the guides through the AI wilderness \u2014 equal parts translator, pilot, and compliance officer.<\/p>\n

That generalized expertise in technology transcends eDiscovery. Renee Meisel, CEO of UnitedLex<\/a>, told me that the company has worked to figure out \u201chow to use its muscles across the entire department.\u201d From contract review to incident response ALSPs deliver \u201ctech experience for clients,\u201d a task they\u2019re suited to provide because they\u2019re \u201cmore nimble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why bring in outside support when the senior associate can now talk to their documents like it\u2019s \u201cHer\u201d<\/a>? But the truth is, having the tools isn\u2019t the same as knowing how to use them. ALSPs have become the go-to resource for making sense of AI\u2019s capabilities, risks, and implementations in a world where the stakes (and the fines) keep going up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see many folks, both enterprise and law firms, say \u2018you\u2019ve got to find a way to use this correctly,\u2019 rather than \u2018oh there\u2019s a risk, there\u2019s exposure\u2026 it might hallucinate,\u201d Subroto Mukerji, CEO of Integron<\/a>, told me. \u201cWe\u2019re hearing much less of that and much more of \u2018how do we use this?’\u201d<\/p>\n

As the adage goes, put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket<\/em>. Especially these days. <\/p>\n

Outside consultants are uniquely capable of watching that tech basket.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At one point, early in the generative AI era, I wondered if developing this technology to essentially take over first-pass review and hand senior lawyers who view computers much like the Supreme Court views voting rights access to interrogate discovery materials might deal a devastating blow to the alternative legal service provider sector. ALSPs long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Headshot-300x200-ydxHxe.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}