Extract from Petra Pasternak’s article “Setting Expectations for GenAI Usage and Pricing with Outside Counsel”
The GenAI story in 2025 was adoption. The recent survey of in-house legal professionals by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Everlaw confirmed what many leaders were already experiencing: Generative AI is increasingly more common in corporate law departments, although the technology’s inroads at law firms is less clear. The story in 2026 will be the conversations that lead to greater transparency, new baseline expectations, and a reconsideration of cost and value.
In corporate legal departments, comfort levels are rising, experimentation is giving way to fully adopted processes, and early efficiency gains are real.
This year, we’ll see expectations and best practices begin to evolve. In particular, the survey identified growing tensions in the relationship between clients and their outside counsel. A majority of respondents reported limited transparency into law firm GenAI use and uneven indications of cost savings. A debate is also percolating about how AI efficiency gains should affect pricing and delivery models.
