In the world of generative AI, two years is a long time.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4, Anthropic’s Claude and their competitors came out in 2023, the same year law firms began trialing AI tools like Harvey and CoCounsel.
What will law firm AI adoption look like in 2027? Firms may not know just yet, but they’re currently facing decisions over how many first-year associates they’ll want by fall 2027 as they prepare to open portals for 2026 2L summer associate roles.

In the world of generative AI, two years is a long time.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4, Anthropic’s Claude and their competitors came out in 2023, the same year law firms began trialing AI tools like Harvey and CoCounsel.
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As quantum machines become more powerful, today’s uncrackable encryption schemes may become trivial to break. Opinions vary as to how soon that moment, so-called “Q Day,” will arrive, but the threat is real.
How do you communicate when you know the harm before you know its cause? For law firms, it comes up both when advising a client and when explaining an incident of their own.
The gap between what a firm bills and what it collects is not a collections failure. It is a design flaw in how the whole revenue cycle is wired, and clients armed with AI are now exploiting it faster than firms can respond.