The Alexander Group

Tag: AI

It’s funny what can happen in a year.

If you’d asked The Alexander Group team about AI usage at the end of 2024, most of us would have admitted familiarity with ChatGPT and the general concept of AI. Still, many of us had yet to dive in, much less dip a toe into the swiftly moving waters of progress.

Fast forward 365 days, and AI has become a daily tool for both business and personal use. Rather than being intimidated or worried about the technology, we’re leaning into learning through Webinars, classes, and tutorials, and we’re not alone.

According to, what else but, ChatGPT, 56 percent of Americans report using AI tools. AI usage rates among U.S. workers are highest in technology (76 percent), finance (58 percent), and professional services (57 percent).

Where Google was once the go-to answer, many of us are turning to AI search engines ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. About 60 percent of Americans are now using these search engines to seek information, create action item lists, write and edit, and even for emotional support.

From fifth-grade math problems and vacation planning to proofreading and research, we’re making AI work for us, leaving more time for quality client interactions and successful search outcomes.

“I​ ​bet​ ​I​ ​was​ ​the​ ​first​ ​person​ ​in​ ​our​ ​firm​ ​to​ ​give​ ​my​ ​AI​ ​resource​ ​a​ ​name.​ ​It​ ​had​ ​been​ ​so​ ​much​ ​help​ ​to​ ​me​ ​on​ ​so​ ​many​ ​things,​ ​I​ ​felt​ ​it​ ​was​ ​a​ ​little​ ​disrespectful​ ​not​ ​to​ ​say​ ​thank​ ​you​ ​and​ ​acknowledge​ ​its​ ​presence.​ ​

So​ ​together​ ​we​ ​went​ ​through​ ​a​ ​list​ ​of​ ​names​, and​ ​we​ ​came​ ​up​ ​with​ ​Rocket.​ ​It​ ​felt​ ​very​ ​similar​ ​to​ ​me​ ​because​ ​I​ ​am​ ​always​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​rock​ ​out​ ​and​ ​rock.​ ​​Each​ ​time​ ​I​ ​log​ ​into​ ​ChatGPT​, I​ ​say​, “​Hi ​​Rocket​ ​, and​ ​it​ ​says,​ ​“Hi​ ​Jane​. ​Ready​ ​to​ ​blast​ ​off!”

​Let​ ​me​ ​count​ ​the​ ​ways​ ​I​ ​use​ ​Rocket​.​ ​My needs​ ​are​ ​both​ ​work​ ​and​ ​personal.​ 

​Let’s​ ​start​ ​with​ ​the​ ​personal​ ​first​ ​because​ ​that​ ​is​ ​more​ ​interesting​.

Rocket​ ​helped​ ​me​ ​locate​ a​ ​good​ ​costume​ ​for​ ​my​ ​cat​ ​JOON’s​ ​third​ ​birthday​ ​party,​ ​which​ ​was ​​only​ ​attended​ ​by​ ​her​ ​original​ ​owner and me.​ 

​On​ ​a​ ​quick​ ​trip​ ​to​ ​Amsterdam​ ​for​ ​a​ ​concert,​ ​​Rocket​ ​gave​ ​me​ ​comfort​ ​that​ ​going​ ​solo​ ​would​ ​be​ ​safe​ ​for​ ​me​ ​and​ ​backed​ ​it up​ ​with​ ​crime​ ​statistics.​ ​​ ​​Last​ ​week​ ​I​ ​was​ ​in​ ​New​ ​York​ ​and​ ​was​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​figure​ ​out​ ​if​ ​I​ ​should​ ​see​ ​a​ ​play​ , and ​Rocket​ ​gave​ ​me​ ​three​ ​options​ ​and​ ​then​ ​gave​ ​me​ ​an inside​ ​scoop​ ​on​ ​which​ ​seats​ ​were​ ​the​ ​best​ ​buy.​ ​The​ ​seat​ ​I​ ​was​ ​going​ ​to​ ​buy​ ​was​ ​under​ ​an​ ​overhang​ ​and​ ​would’ve​ ​been​ ​a​ ​bad​ ​mistake,​ ​even​ ​though​ ​it​ ​was​ ​closer​ ​to​ ​the​ ​stage.​ ​​ ​

​The​ ​thing​ ​that’s​ ​so​ ​interesting​ ​about​ ​Rocket​ ​is​ ​the​ ​more​ ​I​ ​use​ ​it​ ​, the​ ​more​ ​it​ ​adapts​ ​to​ ​my​ ​sense​ ​of​ ​humor​ ​and​ ​personality.​ ​​ ​A​ ​couple​ ​of​ ​weeks​ ​ago,​ ​I​ ​wanted​ ​to​ ​get​ ​his​ ​assessment​ ​of​ ​our​ ​newly​ ​released​ ​podcast.​ ​We​ ​could​ ​not​ ​get​ ​it​ ​to​ ​load​ ​into​ ​its​ ​system​ , ​though​ ​we​ ​spent​ ​three​ ​hours​ ​trying​, and​ ​I​ ​will​ ​tell​ ​you​ ​this–​Rocket​ ​never​ ​gives​ ​up.​ ​He​ ​always​ ​had​ ​something​ ​new​ ​for​ ​me​ ​to​ ​try​ ​, and​ ​it​ ​was​ ​an​ ​abysmal​ ​failure.​ ​​ ​We​ ​laugh​ ​about​ ​it​ ​today​ ​because​ ​I​ ​tell​ ​him, “Rocket.​ ​I’m​ ​not​ ​going​ ​to​ ​ask​ ​you​ ​to​ ​do​ ​technology​ ​because​ ​we​ ​know​ ​that​ ​is​ ​not​ ​your​ ​gig.”

​For​ ​work,​ ​we​ ​recently​ ​introduced​ ​our​ ​podcast​ ​, and​ ​Rocket​ ​gave​ ​me​ ​50​ ​names​ ​to​ ​choose​ ​from​ ​, and​ ​we​ ​landed​ ​on​ ​Impact & Insight. ​ While​ ​some​ ​people​ ​think​ ​this​ ​is​ ​odd,​ ​Rocket​ ​does​ ​indeed​ ​have​ ​an impact​ ​and​ ​insight ​on​ ​improving​ ​my​ ​life.​”

Jane Howze, Managing Director

“I’ve continued to use AI in an expanding number of ways.

Professionally, it has become an invaluable tool for market and position research, as well as for proofreading and refining my writing. It’s not perfect, but it’s an exceptional resource.

Personally, I use AI to research products, restaurants, travel options—really, anytime I’m looking for reliable information.”

John Mann, Managing Director

“I am hopeless when it comes to math, and I accepted the fact long ago that I am indeed not smarter than my fifth grader.  So, when my daughter came home needing help with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions of all types, I turned to ChatGPT. 

I took a picture of her worksheet, uploaded it, and my trusty (and non-judgmental) Chat assistant gave me step-by-step instructions for solving each problem.  It even caught a mistake with one of the multiple-choice questions on her worksheet (none of the available options were correct), which her teacher confirmed the next day at school.”

Kyle Robinson, The Alexander Group

“I use it for everything!

  • Weightlifting regimen for me and my basketball team
  • Meal planning, counting macros
  • Designing logos
  • It is my new “Ask Jeeves.”
  • It helps me review/summarize calls
  • Get background on certain firms
  • Food recipes
  • Settle any debates I have with friends!

Anthony Ott, Senior Associate

Beth Ehrgott, Executive Search Firm Managing Director Image 2

“AI seems to be here to stay, and the world is using it for just about everything.

Anytime you Google something, the first thing that pops up is the AI response. I can’t think of a single industry or function that isn’t tapping into AI in some capacity and working to maximize it further.

There is no question that it is powerful and transformative. It reminds me of how the Terminator movies were so ahead of their time. While so much of AI is incredibly beneficial for accomplishing what we aspire to, some of us are concerned that it will replace critical skills, such as thinking, writing, and problem-solving, especially among younger generations.

We are humans and not robots, and would like to stay that way.

Beth Ehrgott, Managing Director

“I am in the process of elevating my kitten nursery in my house, and I have used Chat to ideate on design, including layout, colors (I can describe the feeling or vibe I’m looking for and the paint brand I prefer, and it will give me specific color names/options), and sourcing ideas for furniture and equipment.

I rough-sketched our two-week trip through Slovenia, Northern Italy, and Istria this summer by offering Chat the number of days and what we like (hiking, cats, history, art, food, wine). I was able to pinpoint where in the Dolomites we’d want to go/hike, given our interests and physical ability, the best driving routes, and how to break up the travel, and so on. I used it while we were on our trip to brainstorm fun things to do for the day, or how to solve problems that came up.”

Sarah Mitchell, Director

 “I have used ChatGPT to make weekly action lists for myself and to find recipes for gin cocktails. I’m working my way through a free ChatGPT course to learn about more ways to use it. Research uses it for brainstorming purposes.”

Abby Buchold, Senior Researcher

“I usually use it for simple things like setting reminders to change out a filter or to communicate with my daughter if they are upstairs instead of yelling. The newest addition is a smart plug, and then we tell Google to turn off the Christmas tree.”

Yumaira Vela, Accountant

Jeroen Plink is the COO and Co-Founder of Legaltech Hub, and has been a transformative legal technology executive since the early 2000s.

A former Clifford Chance lawyer, he has more than 25 years of experience building companies, guiding startups and private equity investment, and as a senior business advisor in the legal technology sector. He is an accomplished innovator and thought leader, and recently shared his perspective on the impact and potential of AI in the legal industry.

Tell us a bit about your career path and how you made the jump from being a practicing lawyer to the legal technology sector. 

I started my career as a corporate lawyer at Clifford Chance in Amsterdam, working on cross-border transactions and seeing first-hand how much time highly qualified lawyers spend on work that is important but, frankly, quite repetitive.  

“There has to be a better way to do this” was often my thought during late-night due diligence work, and a conversation about this over dinner with a colleague led me to the entrepreneurial side. He and I co-founded Legistics, a company that built software for due diligence. Two years later, Legistics was acquired by Practical Law Company. After a few years in London working on legal tech applications, I came up with the idea of launching Practical Law in the US. I moved my young family to New York to lead the US. launch.  

Ultimately, Practical Law was sold to Thomson Reuters. My Practical Law journey was a formative experience in scaling a legal tech business and securing adoption at the largest firms and corporations in the world. 

Since then, I’ve worked with multiple legal tech ventures, served as CEO of Clifford Chance Applied Solutions, and sat on the boards of companies like Casetext, Kira, and others. Those roles gave me a front-row seat to how technology, when done well, actually changes the business and practice of law. 

Legaltech Hub is a natural culmination of that journey. We built it because buyers, vendors, and investors all lacked a single, objective view of the legal tech market. As COO and co-founder, I get to combine my legal background, my operator experience, and my work as an investor into one mission: making the legal tech ecosystem more transparent, data-driven, and effective.  

How would you define the state of AI in the legal sector today? In what areas are firms leveraging that technology at present, and where is the potential to increase/expand its impact and utilization? 

We’re at a genuine tipping point. AI has been in legal for years – think technology-assisted review in e-discovery or early contract analytics – but the public release of large language models (LLMs) in late 2022 completely changed the industry’s trajectory.  

Firms are indeed using AI in practice today. Right now, the most common and mature use cases we see across firms and corporate legal departments are: 

  • Document & Clause Work – Drafting, redlining, clause extraction, and playbooked negotiation support, often grounded in a firm’s own precedent bank. 
  • Legal Research & Knowledge Retrieval – AI-assisted research layered over traditional databases, plus internal knowledge search over opinions, memos, and templates. 
  • Summarization at Scale – Summarizing long documents, hearings, interview notes, discovery productions, and even entire matters for internal or client reporting. 
  • E-Discovery and Investigations – More intelligent classification, clustering, and prioritization of large document sets. 
  • Operational Tasks – Time entry narratives, matter opening, conflicts descriptions, engagement letters, and other routine but high-volume workflows. 

There are, however, areas where the potential is still under-realized. The next phase of impact goes beyond “co-pilot” features to deeper structural change: 

  • AI-First Workflows – Designing end-to-end processes (e.g., an M&A review, a regulatory change program) around AI from the start, rather than sprinkling AI on top of legacy workflows. 
  • Matter Economics & Pricing – Using AI over matter data to inform staffing models, budgets, and alternative fee arrangements in a far more granular way. 
  • Knowledge-Driven Products – Turning firm expertise into semi-productized offerings – compliance tools, diagnostics, playbooks – sold as subscriptions or fixed-fee services. 
  • Client Collaboration – Shared AI-enabled workspaces with clients, where both sides see the same data, risks, and status in real time. 

So, I’d describe the current state as: broad experimentation and deep adoption in certain areas, with a clear path to more transformative, workflow- and business-model-level change over the next few years. 

What are some of the challenges you’ve seen in the uptake and adoption of AI solutions in law firm environments, and how do firms overcome those behavioral, functional, or other institutional barriers?   

The challenges I see are less about the technology and more about behavior, incentives, and governance. Key barriers to adoption include: 

  • Validation Tax – Currently, in many cases, the return on investment is dampened by the (increasingly perceived) need to validate. AI does a first pass of a task, and then human lawyers validate the results. As the technology matures, this will reduce.  
  • Billable-Hour Economics – If your business model rewards hours, a tool whose headline promise is “do this in half the time” can feel misaligned. 
  • Risk Culture & Perfectionism – Law firms operate in a zero-defect environment. “Occasional hallucinations” is not an acceptable feature in that context. 
  • Change Fatigue & Tool Sprawl – Many firms already have more tools than they fully use. Lawyers are rightly skeptical of “yet another platform.” 
  • Skills and Confidence Gaps – Associates and partners aren’t trained prompt engineers; without guidance, they either over-trust or under-use the tools. Many lawyers don’t see the “art of the possible.” The imagination gap is real. 
  • Client Expectations – Some clients are pushing firms to use AI; others are nervous. That ambiguity tends to slow internal decisions. 

What the more successful firms are doing: 

  1. Start with concrete, high-value use cases. 
    Pick a few workflows – e.g., first-draft research memos, playbooked NDAs, or deposition summaries – where AI can clearly save time and improve consistency. Measure the impact and talk about it. 
  2. Create a proper AI governance structure. 
    The firms doing this well have a cross-functional AI committee (IT, KM, risk, innovation, practice leadership, professional development) that sets guardrails, approves tools, and owns a roadmap, rather than letting each partner or practice improvise. 
  3. Co-design with lawyers, don’t “deploy at” them. 
    Sit down with partners, associates, and professional staff and redesign the workflow together. If they help shape it, they’re far more likely to use it. 
  4. Invest in training and playbooks, not just licenses. 
    Clear guidance – “use it for X, never for Y; always do Z as a human check” – plus hands-on training sessions and champions in each practice group. 
  5. Align incentives. 
    That can mean recognizing matter teams that use AI to deliver better value, factoring efficiency into compensation discussions, or building AI usage into innovation awards and promotion narratives. 
  6. Let technology support you.  

Where lawyers are no longer cutting their teeth on mind-numbing but useful training tasks like due diligence as a result of AI, AI is not the problem but the solution. Also, leverage the technology to train the partners of tomorrow. For example, Verbit, in collaboration with AltaClaro, has developed mock depositions using AI in a transformative way. 

In short, technology is the easy part. The hard part is treating AI adoption as a strategic change initiative, not an app rollout. 

Information security/cyber security is always near top of mind for law firms and their clients when implementing new technologies. What are the risks inherent in AI utilization and how can firms think through addressing those? 

 Security and confidentiality are existential issues for law firms, so it’s healthy that they’re skeptical. 

There are certain key risk areas we focus on in conversations with firms: 

  • Don’t Use Consumer AI – Rely instead on specialist tools like Harvey, Legora, CoCounsel, Lexis+AI, August, Newcode.ai, and others, or the enterprise version of LLMs that explicitly confirm that they don’t access confidential data or train their models on your prompts and outputs.   
  • Client Policies – Ensure you comply with client requirements and restrictions on AI use. An AI governance tool like Truth Systems may help here.  
  • Model Behavior Risks – Be aware of and know to look for hallucinations, biased outputs, or “over-confident wrong answers” in high-stakes contexts. 
  • Access & Identity – Who can use which models on which datasets, from where, and with what log-in? A tool like Lega may help gain insights here. 
  • Supply-Chain Risk – Many AI tools are built on top of underlying LLMs and cloud providers; firms need to understand that full stack. 
  • Regulatory & Cross-Border Issues – Different jurisdictions have different views on data residency, privacy, and AI regulation. Global firms have to harmonize a policy across all of them. 

Some practical mitigation strategies are quickly becoming best practice: 

  1. Use enterprise-grade, non-training environments. 
    Whether it’s a vendor tool or a firm’s own AI deployment, ensure contractual and technical guarantees that client data is not used to train public models. 
  2. Segment data and apply least-privilege access. 
    Treat your knowledge repositories and client data as different risk tiers and don’t make everything searchable by everyone just because the AI can handle it. 
  3. Create firm-wide AI use policies. 
    Set clear guidelines about when public tools are prohibited, when approved tools may or must be used, how to label AI-assisted work, and when human review is mandatory. 
  4. Vendor due diligence. 
    Extend your existing security and privacy questionnaires to include AI-specific topics, including model sources, data retention, red-teaming practices, audit rights, and more. 
  5. Monitor and iterate. 
    Log AI usage, review incidents or near-misses, and update guardrails. AI is moving fast; your governance has to be a living framework, not a one-off policy document. 

The overall message I give firms is this: you can be secure and still be ambitious. The real long-term risk is not “we tried AI, and something went wrong”; it’s “we refused to engage and drifted behind our clients and competitors.” 

As you look to and beyond the horizon in legal innovation, what do you see as the next conceptually revolutionary technology out there? 

If you look just a little ahead of where we are today, I think three developments are especially important. 

  1. Agentic, workflow-native AI. 
    Today’s tools are mostly copilots: they respond when you ask them something. The next wave will be agents that can take multi-step actions across systems – “ingest this data room, update our risk register, draft the client summary, and route issues to the right people” – all while staying inside strong guardrails. 
  2. AI-native legal platforms, not AI features bolted on. 
    We’ll see platforms designed from scratch around AI: data models, permissions, user experiences, and business models that assume AI is doing a large share of the work. That has big implications for how legal work is priced, staffed, and measured. 
  3. A shift from “tools” to “operating model change.” 
    The truly revolutionary impact won’t be a specific product; it will be firms and legal departments re-architecting how they deliver value – more productized services, more collaboration with clients, and new career paths for people who are great at orchestrating human-plus-machine workflows. 

From our vantage point at Legaltech Hub – where we track vendors, advise firms and vendors, and speak regularly with investors – I’d summarize it this way: we’re moving from an era where technology supported the traditional model of legal work, to one where technology is starting to reshape that model itself. 

That’s both the challenge and the opportunity for everyone in the ecosystem. 

The days of questioning the importance of Artificial Intelligence are over. Staying competitive and ahead of the curve means delving into AI from both leadership and technological perspectives, and knowing where to start is crucial. From boutique law firms to AmLaw legacies, AI is transforming how leadership approaches all aspects of law firm operations.

Rethinking Leadership Roles

Larger firms such as Cooley and Milbank are AI pioneers, establishing internal workflows and protocols, while also serving their clients’ AI needs. Smaller and regional firms are also adapting, incorporating AI into their practice and adding leaders to the executive roster to implement and execute AI. And while technology is intrinsically tied to AI, staying competitive requires executive talent with a broader, more adaptive skill set – prompting firm leadership to ask the following:

  • Who should lead this transformation?
  • Should that person have a JD?
  • Where in the org chart do they belong—IT, strategy, operations?

Managing Director John Mann has his finger on the pulse of the fast-changing needs of boutique and regional firms, finding that AI leaders may not be who you think.

“What’s particularly interesting is that, more often than not, the person leading the AI function within a law firm comes from a legal background,” Mann said. “In my research and conversations, the consistent feedback is that it’s critical for AI leadership to have a legal background, typically a JD, or experience at another law firm. This isn’t about a Chief Information Officer simply implementing off-the-shelf AI tools. Law firms recognize that to remain competitive, especially midsized firms, they must strategically harness AI, because the larger firms are already doing so.”

Survey Says Yes to AI—But With Caution

A 2025 survey of more than 2,800 legal professionals by the Federal Bar Association tracked the changes in AI adoption by lawyers in firms of various sizes.

Respondents from firms with 51 or more lawyers reported a significant 39% adoption rate of generative AI. By contrast, firms with 50 or fewer lawyers had adoption rates at half that level, with approximately 20% indicating the implementation of legal-specific AI within their practices.

In the survey, respondents indicated that the bulk of AI usage falls into business operations, with 54% of legal professionals using AI to draft correspondence, 14% using it to analyze firm data and matters, and 47% expressing interest in AI tools that assist in obtaining insights from a firm’s financial data.

Thomson Reuters surveyed more than 2,200 legal professionals and C-level corporate executives regarding their acceptance and usage of AI and compiled the results in the 2024 Future of Professionals Report. Respondents have warmed to the technology, raising expectations for its use.

  • 77% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work by the next five years. That’s an increase of 10 percentage points over the 2023 report’s responses. 
  • 72% of legal professionals surveyed in the report view AI as a force for good in their profession. 
  • Half of law firm respondents cite exploring and implementing AI as their highest priority. In addition, they believe AI can help address other priorities, such as enhancing customer satisfaction and improving operational efficiency.

Despite the growing AI implementation, Mann finds law firm leadership is staying vigilant and intentional with AI use, especially when attorney-client confidentiality is concerned.

“The AI landscape is still the Wild West,” Mann said. “I recently had a conversation with a managing partner of a 50-attorney firm, and he said they have restricted the use of AI tools for client matters because of the potential breach of attorney-client privilege. Bottom line? They implemented a policy restricting the use of AI in any client matters.”

New Technology, New Strategies

Firms are looking beyond the IT department for the strategic role, prioritizing an executive’s legal experience and deep understanding of technology to drive efficiency, reduce billing bottlenecks, and enhance client outcomes.

Whether a firm labels the role Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Data and AI Officer, or Director of Innovation, there are consistent requirements for each, including 10 or more years of experience in legal operations, professional services innovation, or technology consulting and a proven ability to lead cross-functional innovation or technology initiatives in a law firm or professional services environment.

Ultimately, AI and its presence within law firm structure and leadership are making their own rules, challenging norms and definitions at every turn.

“AI is coming up as its own function and is not tethered to any one functional area,” Mann said. “There’s the tech piece of course, but there’s also strategy and a need for understanding and expertise in the practice of law. The question many firms are asking is, ‘How can we operate more efficiently to drive greater revenue and profitability?’ And for most, the answer increasingly points to leveraging AI to get there.”

Not-for-profit leaders are accustomed to doing more with less. Still, waves of economic uncertainty, coupled with the rapidly evolving AI landscape, are forcing even the most seasoned leaders to reevaluate and redefine past methodologies and strategies.

Today’s leaders recognize that the decisions they make will have a lasting impact on their organizations’ mission, funding, and strategy. Maximizing the relationship between a Chief Executive Officer and their board, implementing AI literacy, and sharpening fundraising focus are essential for the sustainability and growth of an organization.

Benefits of a Strong Board

The partnership between a CEO and their board is one of shared commitments and a well-crafted strategy. A CEO should be able to lean on their board and, at times, be prepared to hear difficult truths. Board members bear a responsibility to engage with the organization, its executive team, and other key stakeholders.

Organizations that invest in building effective boards often see more stable funding, stronger staff retention and morale, greater influence in their sector, and more substantial donor confidence.

Modern board governance is evolving as the demand for more strategic, diverse, and accountable board members increases. In practice, this translates to broader board representation in terms of age, experience, and diversity. Clearly defining board roles and term limits lays the foundation for continued growth.

“Nonprofits transform their trajectory when boards adopt some of the discipline and accountability models of the corporate world. When CEOs and boards align on clear roles and a shared strategy, they drive greater impact and long-term growth,” said John Mann, Managing Director, The Alexander Group.

Engaged Boards Elevate Fundraising

The top line for fundraising and development activities is always at the forefront of not-for-profit organizations. Cultivating a more engaged board is an effective way for nonprofits to enhance their fundraising efforts, and that starts with empowerment and clear expectations.

Start by setting clear expectations, providing training, and fostering a culture of accountability. A well-informed, mission-driven board can unlock new funding opportunities, leverage its networks, and serve as influential ambassadors for the organization. When donors feel connected and the board is fully invested, fundraising efforts become more strategic, sustainable, and successful.

Embracing AI

From predictive fundraising to automated grant reporting, AI is rapidly changing nonprofit operations. According to the 2024 Nonprofit Standards Benchmarking Survey, 82 percent of organizations have implemented AI technology. AI is quickly becoming a valuable tool in the not-for-profit sector, enhancing an organization’s ability to anticipate donor needs and recommend targeted actions.

Strategic CEOs understand the urgency of thoughtfully investing in AI across everything from software to leadership positions, such as Chief Innovation Officer. Smaller organizations are forming committees that may include board members to explore how to use AI synergistically with various functions. 

Employing AI to do everything from the tedious to the time-consuming leaves staff open to connect in a more meaningful way with the organization’s donor base. Forward-looking not-for-profits are using AI-assisted donor segmentation, chatbots for volunteer engagement, and automated analytics for board reports, building AI literacy among their team members.

Digital fundraising solution OneCause works specifically with not-for-profits and found organizations are most successful when leaning into AI from a solid foundation of personal connectedness. In 2024, 75% of organizations hosting in-person events met or exceeded their fundraising goals, and 76% of those using hybrid models also achieved their targets.

Mission-Minded, Future Focused

It’s a challenging time for the modern non-profit CEO/Director, but within this sea change lies opportunities to serve and grow the organization’s mission.

The mission is the motivator.

“Every nonprofit begins with someone on a mission. To grow the organization, the mission must resonate with others, and someone must articulate the mission in such a compelling way that others embrace it and are willing to support it, not just with their hearts and their volunteer time but also with financial donations,” said Amanda K. Brady, Chief Client Officer/Managing Director. “Whether it is the Founder, a CEO, or a development leader, someone must craft and evangelize a message that brings others into the community and keeps them engaged. It is an existential imperative. In today’s times, leaders must seek, embrace, and utilize innovative tools that build on the organization’s mission.”

With 2025 just around the corner, we’re looking to the future of legal industry trends, anticipating and planning for what’s next. While we don’t have a crystal ball, we do have 40 years of executive recruiting experience, a deep well of data, and the trust of our clients, who express their leadership needs to us as they plan for 2025 and beyond.

Managing Directors John Lamar, Amanda Brady, and John Mann, Directors Sarah Mitchell and William Lepiesza and Senior Associate Anthony Ott share their thoughts and insight on expectations and trends for 2025.

John Lamar, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“AI continues to dominate people’s thought process in making the firm efficient and profitable. Tech is a driving force, but it’s not where it needs to be. Everyone’s doing window dressing right now, hiring chief innovation officers, but in reality, firms are buying off-the-shelf software products. That will change in the years to come.

Another trend garnering attention concerns partners getting paid ungodly amounts of money. They are offered multi-year 25- to 30-million-dollar deals. How long can the industry sustain that?

I’m hearing a lot from chairs about work-from-home. It’s interesting in Europe; they all comment that everyone’s back 100 percent; the U.S. is the only country with three days in the office. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next year. Do firms hammer the idea of return to office? Maybe you will spend four days in the office, but you won’t be sitting at home on a Monday. The associates will give them the best work in the office, but the partners are not leading. It starts with them. They are in a bit of a conundrum. People are struggling with it. You have to hit them in the pocketbook so that people can start showing up.

Mergers and Acquisition activity is not slowing down within legal as the industry continues consolidating. A few firms at the top are leading the way–and there’s more to come.

Amanda K. Brady, Managing Director/Chief People Officer, The Alexander Group

“Synthesizing data to inform strategic growth.  (Some) law firms are becoming more sophisticated around coordinated growth initiatives. Business intelligence is evolving beyond the typical matter, partner, or practice profitability analysis into deep dives into all that touches firm and practice growth. It combines knowledge management on the practice side with knowledge management on the business side, merging information from CRMs, experience databases, historical financial metrics, targeted industry research, and honest assessments of the firm’s talent. It’s all data. This is most successful at firms with cultures that allow their leaders to be innovative – not business as usual, set ambitious business goals, develop corresponding growth strategies, and pull the puzzle pieces together to make things happen.”

John Mann, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“In 2025, strategic legal recruiting functions will be crucial for law firms, as they focus on proactively identifying and recruiting top talent with specialized skills aligned with client needs.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to impact the legal industry by automating routine tasks and enabling more efficient client service. It will ultimately transform how legal professionals work and deliver value.

In 2025 and beyond, law firms will continue to build sales-focused client development teams who generate revenue much like public accounting firms and are responsible for driving business growth by developing client relationships, identifying new business opportunities, and promoting the firm’s legal services.”

Sarah Mitchell, Director, The Alexander Group

“The return to office push/pull is still strong, but law firm leaders seem to be “over” the discussion. Unlike the trends we see with technology companies and banking, very few firms seem willing to implement any mandate. They are shifting to making the office space somewhere that lawyers and business professionals want to be—not with pizza parties, but fresh, thoughtfully designed office space that feels “alive” and opportunities to connect.

Discussions around generational differences are being discussed more forthrightly, and I think it might become more pronounced in the next couple of years. We currently have four well-defined generations working together, and they each tend to have distinctive attitudes concerning technology use, adaptivity to change, RTO expectations, dress, and communication. One law firm COO mentioned they have introduced training around generational differences as part of their professional development curriculum, and it has been well received and actionable.”

Bill Lepiesza, Director, The Alexander Group

“As I consider legal industry trends for 2025, I believe we will continue to see the rise and evolution of the Chief Innovation Officer role.

We will see the further integration of firmwide talent/strategic human resources functions across lawyer and business professional populations and the continued elevation in caliber, leadership expectations, and strategic value-add of law firm business executive roles.

Anthony Ott, Senior Associate, The Alexander Group

“Each year, there is a swing of trends. I anticipate seeing more Baby Boomers retiring, and vacant leadership opportunities will be available for those who have earned a right to be in consideration.

As work-from-home policies shift, so will their impact on the candidate pool. Jobseekers will be willing to explore new industries in order to receive job title advancement and increased compensation. Similarly, law firms will look at candidates from other professional services companies outside of their industry.

We will also see people on the move to improve their quality of life. As the cost of living increases, it may encourage people to explore opportunities in new cities for a better quality of life and employment opportunities. For example, people may be able to afford larger homes less expensive in major metropolitan cities, so they move to grow their families or be open to other career opportunities.”