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LEAP Legal Software has published research on how AI and automation affect law firm profitability, with the findings showing a sharper divide in the United States and Canada.
The study, based on a survey of 700 legal professionals across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, found that administrative work remains a major drag on firms’ finances, even though most respondents said there was room to improve profitability.
Across the global sample, 93% of legal professionals said their firms had fairly strong profitability potential. Yet 44% identified administrative burden and excessive manual work as key drivers of cost pressure.
Routine tasks featured heavily in the results. Some 42% of respondents said they spend two to five hours each day on administrative work, while 6% said they spend more than five hours a day on such tasks.
That lost time appears to be shaping investment priorities. Asked which technology spending would be most valuable for improving profitability, 43% pointed to automating repetitive workflows and tasks.
AI was also linked to margin improvement in a specific area of legal work. Document review and analysis was identified by 42% of respondents as one of the leading areas where AI could have the greatest effect on profitability.
US Focus
The North American segment of the survey painted a more complex picture. Respondents in the United States and Canada reported the strongest focus on profitability, but also the highest levels of platform fragmentation among the regions surveyed.
About 21% of respondents in that group said they use five or more platforms each day. Even so, the region also reported the strongest level of integration effectiveness, with 58% saying their technology was mostly integrated with add-ons.
The survey also found that respondents in the US and Canada had the highest share of mostly office-based workers, at 45%. In AI deployment, 29% identified client communication and correspondence as a priority use case.
The findings suggest firms are balancing two competing pressures: managing a growing patchwork of software tools while reducing the amount of fee-earner time absorbed by administration.
That matters because law firm profitability depends not only on billing rates and client demand, but also on how much of the working day can be spent on chargeable legal work rather than internal processes.
The report examined profitability through strategy and revenue, people and retention, technology and operations, and AI adoption. Participants included firm leaders, partners, senior practitioners and operational decision-makers from a range of firm sizes and practice areas.
While the survey covered several markets, the North American data stands out because firms there appear to be managing more systems while still reporting a relatively high level of integration. That may help explain why the region is showing both stronger interest in profitability and greater pressure to streamline operations.
Legal technology suppliers have increasingly focused on tasks such as document drafting, case management, billing and review work, where repetitive actions can consume a large share of lawyers’ and support staff time. The survey indicates that respondents see document review as the clearest current opportunity for AI to improve margins.
That does not mean broader adoption is uniform. Instead, the figures point to a market in which firms are still working through fragmented systems, mixed work patterns and differing AI priorities by region and workflow.
For firms that have already connected multiple tools, the next step may be less about adding new software and more about reducing duplication and manual handoffs between systems. For firms with less integrated technology, the challenge may be more basic: cutting the amount of daily admin that limits fee-earning work.
“The legal profession is at a major turning point,” said Poppy Bale Dyer, chief executive officer of LEAP Legal Software. “Legal professionals see profitability potential ahead, but they’re also spending a significant portion of their day on admin tasks that could be automated. Our research shows that automation and AI, especially in areas like document review, will be essential to reducing that burden and building more efficient, resilient and profitable practices.”