Above the Law · October 20, 2026 · On the brief until November 3, 2026

The Defense Bar In The Age Of AI: Running A Red Queen’s Race?

LawManagement

THE AI ANGLE

Shifting litigation profit advantages toward contingency fee firms

Large plaintiffs' firms are investing heavily in artificial intelligence to speed up case work. This shift expands profits for contingency fee practices while reducing billable hours and revenue for defense firms. Legal managers and insurers now face pressure to replace hourly rates with value-based fee models.

Summary written by AI Business Lens with an AI model from the article at abovethelaw.com. It is not the article, and the publisher has not reviewed it. For publishers.

THE TEACHING ANGLE

Hourly billing penalizes defense firms for adopting technological efficiency while contingency fee structures reward plaintiffs for the exact same adoption.

Read the original at abovethelaw.com Generate teaching or study materials

Instructors get discussion guides, assignments, and mini-cases. Students and readers get a plain summary, points to raise, an exercise, and a self-check. All built from the full article. A free account saves stories and gives you three generations. Stories stay on the brief for 14 days. After that this page keeps the link to the original.

The Defense Bar In The Age Of AI: Running A Red Queen’s Race?

More in Law