{"id":166762,"date":"2026-11-04T15:50:39","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T23:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/04\/ai-may-speed-up-legal-research-but-that-doesnt-automatically-shrink-the-bill\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T15:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T23:50:39","slug":"ai-may-speed-up-legal-research-but-that-doesnt-automatically-shrink-the-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/11\/04\/ai-may-speed-up-legal-research-but-that-doesnt-automatically-shrink-the-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"AI May Speed Up Legal Research, But That Doesn\u2019t Automatically Shrink The Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Plaintiffs have not shown that defense counsel\u2019s use of AI rendered the hours that \u200bthey actually expended unreasonable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Judge Carolyn McHugh, writing for a unanimous Tenth Circuit panel, affirming a $114,663.11 fee award to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck after Flux Drive\u2019s trade secrets suit was dismissed. Flux Drive argued the firm\u2019s use of AI and online research tools should have reduced its fees<\/a>, but the court said the company pointed to no specific inflated billing entry. The panel acknowledged AI may reduce research time, while noting that lawyers still must verify their authorities and arguments. Brownstein partner Christopher Ottele<\/a> welcomed the ruling, saying AI \u201cis not a substitute for the judgment and analysis that attorneys still must exercise\u201d in court filings<\/em><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The post AI May Speed Up Legal Research, But That Doesn\u2019t Automatically Shrink The Bill<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Plaintiffs have not shown that defense counsel\u2019s use of AI rendered the hours that \u200bthey actually expended unreasonable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Judge Carolyn McHugh, writing for a unanimous Tenth Circuit panel, affirming a $114,663.11 fee award to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck after Flux Drive\u2019s trade secrets suit was dismissed. Flux Drive argued the firm\u2019s use of AI and online research tools should have reduced its fees<\/a>, but the court said the company pointed to no specific inflated billing entry. The panel acknowledged AI may reduce research time, while noting that lawyers still must verify their authorities and arguments. Brownstein partner Christopher Ottele<\/a> welcomed the ruling, saying AI \u201cis not a substitute for the judgment and analysis that attorneys still must exercise\u201d in court filings<\/em><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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

Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. Plaintiffs have not shown that defense counsel\u2019s use of AI rendered the hours that \u200bthey actually expended unreasonable. \u2014 Judge Carolyn McHugh, writing for a unanimous Tenth Circuit panel, affirming a $114,663.11 fee award to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck after Flux Drive\u2019s trade secrets suit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166762","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=166762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}