Chambers NewLaw 2024 guide: Innovation in alternative legal services and LegalTech

«This guide, which emerges from the unification of the previous “ALSP” and “LawTech” guides, provides insights that enable decision-makers to secure the right talent for their needs for innovative advice on efficiency and technology issues»

On June 12, the prestigious international directory Chambers and Partners published a new guide: Chambers NewLaw 2024, a tool that identifies and ranks the most innovative organisations in the alternative legal services and LegalTech markets. This guide, which emerges from the unification of the previous “ALSP” and “LawTech” guides, provides insights that enable decision-makers to secure the right talent for their needs for innovative advice on efficiency and technology issues.

The Chambers NewLaw 2024 guide covers the following areas:

Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs): including flexible legal staffing, contract management services, litigation services and ALSPs such as Konexo or Peerpoint.
LawTech: Technology consultants and software providers for law firms and in-house departments.
Legal Transformation Consulting: Focused on strategic consulting for legal functions.

In addition, it presents two market-specific league tables for Spain and the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting a global approach.

Relevant figures

In the webinar, the Chambers editorial team shared interesting figures, which reflect the growing interest of the market in these categories:

Increase in submissions: 41% increase compared to the previous year.
Department rankings: A 20% increase in team/department rankings.
Unique firms ranked: 8% increase in unique firms ranked.

The results, as well as all rankings’ publications in this directory, are based on interviews with potential ‘rankers’, their clients and market experts, analysing technical ability, client service and value of advice, among other points.

Market trends

It is also interesting to mention the most relevant trends presented as a result of the research conducted by the directory:

Use of AI: “AI” was the most commonly used term in interviews, reflecting the growing integration of artificial intelligence into legal services. Generative AI is lowering entry barriers for LegalTech providers and users, enabling small firms to start with accessible tools like ChatGPT. Clients are seeking ways AI can benefit and enhance collaboration with providers. They are asking: “What are you doing with AI, how does it benefit me, and how can we work together on this?” It’s a positive change that clients are embracing and demanding.
Legal Transformation Consulting: Legal transformation consulting is gaining rapid relevance due to the increasing pressure on General Counsel to do things differently and more efficiently. These projects map the work, analyse processes, recommend technologies and determine the division of labour between what is internal and what can be outsourced.

What can we expect for the next guide, to be launched in 2025?

More regional rankings: Chambers expects to publish regionalised rankings for Latin America and other key territories.
Global market leaders: There will be a special focus on the use of artificial intelligence by global market leaders.

The Chambers NewLaw 2024 guide provides comprehensive coverage aligned with market and industry trends on innovation issues for the legal sector. With this new guide, in-house legal teams can find outstanding providers to support them in the use of technology and outsourcing to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, achieving a ranking in these categories will be crucial for attaining a distinguished position among sector competitors.

The complete guide published by Chambers and Partners on June 12, 2024 can be consulted at the following link: https://chambers.com/legal-guide/newlaw-94