Output vs. Process: When Attorneys Should — and Shouldn't — Use AI

Clients have pushed back on what they are willing to pay for since long before anyone heard of a large language model. AI is the latest chapter in a long story about legal fees. But it introduces a wrinkle that prior tools did not.

10 minute read May 01, 2026 at 12:15 AM

Michael William Ott

Output vs. Process: When Attorneys Should — and Shouldn't — Use AI

Two attorneys receive the same deposition transcript on the same Monday morning. The first feeds it to an AI tool and has an accurate summary by lunch. The second spends two days reading, highlighting, and writing by hand.

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