If you have ever watched a fee earner wrestle with a manual conveyancing quote, you will know the feeling. The spreadsheets. The emails. The quick checks with colleagues. The back-and-forth that takes longer than anyone wants to admit.

Associate career paths in large law firms are at a turning point. Changing expectations, persistent retention challenges and emerging alternative models are forcing firm leaders to rethink how they attract, develop and retain senior associate talent while maintaining profitability and client service excellence.

Move seamlessly from document intake to polished outputs with legal agents, scalable review tables, and in-platform Word editing.

Automation has become a defining priority for the legal sector, driven by rising client expectations, economic pressure, and rapid advances in legal technology. Yet, as our Legal Trends Report 2026 highlights, many firms remain caught between ambition and execution, struggling to turn investment into impact.

Law firms are investing more than ever in brand. New positioning. New visual identities. Refined tone of voice. Confident launches. And then, quietly, things start to wobble. Not because the strategy was wrong. Not because the design wasn’t strong. But because no one really talked about what happens next.

Law firms continue to invest in technology to improve intake, billing, reporting, and operational control. The systems are capable. The challenge is adoption.

Intapp and our partner Epiq showcase the Horizon Release of Intapp Time – a next-generation solution rebuilt from the ground up with AI-powered productivity tools, instant compliance validation, and a modern user experience that works the way lawyers do.

Over the past year, Boomi has rapidly established itself as one of the most powerful and flexible integration platforms on the market. With major vendors such as Intapp recently moving to Boomi, the platform has firmly cemented its place at the centre of modern legal and professional services technology stacks.

Leading AI solution providers Intapp and Harvey today announced a strategic partnership to bring industry-standard ethical wall enforcement directly into Harvey’s platform.

NetDocuments has added seven new AI-powered apps to its ndMAX Studio. There are now more than 25 ready-to-use apps in NetDocuments’ repository of ready-to-use AI tools, building on the 12 foundational tools it launched in 2025.

Reputation plays a decisive role in how large law firms attract lateral talent and whether those lawyers choose to stay. In a transparent, highly networked market, reputational signals shape recruitment outcomes long before formal discussions begin.

Most law firms already hold their most valuable knowledge inside their document management system (DMS). For many, that system is iManage or NetDocuments. Precedents, playbooks, checklists, clause banks, client guidance, and approved templates all sit inside the DMS.

Thomson Reuters, a global content and technology company, today announced one million professionals have chosen CoCounsel, the company’s professional-grade AI technology, across 107 countries and territories.