The survey found that law firms have reversed a recent trend in law library personnel and associated costs, taking what had been a 4.7% decline between 2017-2022 in the number of library and research personnel as compared to the rest of the firm, and turning that into 5.3% growth in personnel over the past year. In fact, of all the individual roles measured by the survey, knowledge management professionals (+26.3%) and library & research management (+9.8%) saw the largest year-over-year growth in terms of full-time equivalent employees.

On the other hand, however, there is the looming influence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which is set to transform how the legal profession operates, by even the most modest accounts. And part of that transformation means automating and productizing some law firm tasks, including those undertaken by law librarians and information professionals. This transformation will necessitate that law library professionals learn new, more tech-driven skills to adapt to how work processes will transform across their organizations.

So where does that leave the law librarian community? The Hot Topic: Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Law Libraries session at the聽 (AALL) conference attempted to chart two potential futures 鈥� the best- and worst-case scenarios 鈥� and describe how to prepare AALL membership for success.

The vicious and virtuous

The panel presented the results of AALL鈥檚 Future of Law Libraries: Artificial Intelligence, Opportunities, and Advancement initiative 鈥� a series of roundtables held at various institutions throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. At each of these roundtables, participants tackled various parts of law libraries and how AI will impact their growth and operations into the future.

In each of these areas, participants were asked to envision two separate futures: a virtuous cycle, in which law libraries are able to thrive in the age of GenAI; and a vicious cycle, in which technology hampers or even causes the demise of the modern law library. Then, participants were asked to consider how law libraries would potentially arrive at each of those points.

The panel stressed that law librarians need to be advocates, both for themselves and for the necessary technology to position law libraries as a trusted resource for technological knowledge and execution.

Here is what those roundtable participants considered the best and worst-case scenarios for various aspects of law libraries:

Staffing 鈥� The vicious cycle occurs as law libraries begin to cut staff again as AI replaces their capabilities. In a particularly dire scenario, this could even mean dropping down to just one employee in a library, which is overall managed by AI. The panel participants said libraries may land in this future if librarians don鈥檛 get out in front 鈥渁nd make a case for the value of the library.鈥�

In the virtuous cycle, librarians do just that, finding a way to leverage AI to demonstrate their value. And indeed, in this scenario, librarians are valued by their institutions and receive institutional support to be proactive and a leader in AI. It鈥檚 important, the panel said, to 鈥渉ire and train our staff specifically to be the experts in these areas.鈥�

Services 鈥� In the vicious cycle, less expensive, automated tech does things that look similar to human beings, but at lower quality. This causes stakeholders to decide librarians and their services aren鈥檛 worth the cost. Law libraries could end up in this scenario if they 鈥渇ail to show our value on top of technology.鈥�

The virtuous cycle, meanwhile, pairs law libraries with technology for even greater services than previously thought imaginable. Librarians use GenAI to eliminate drudgery and streamline workflows. They also become experts in the use of GenAI, becoming a hub for the organization and 鈥渟howing people why it鈥檚 not scary.鈥�

Space 鈥擳he vicious cycle envisions a world in which law libraries themselves are largely underutilized. Similar to trends following the introduction of eBooks, AI may reduce physical foot traffic, leading to fewer resources for the library. This could also result in community disconnect if fewer people are coming in-person to the library 鈥� a scenario described by one participant as 鈥渁 dystopian hellscape.鈥�

While there may not necessarily be unlimited space in the virtuous cycle, it is, more importantly, optimized space. Here, librarians are seen as experts and can create spaces for those in their organizations to learn about AI and get guidance. Librarians can also utilize technology to create flexible spaces, using libraries in a variety of ways to strengthen and support community connections.

Instruction 鈥� The vicious cycle has AI doing what they librarians do to instruct their charges, but on a larger scale. In this future, print media is dead, so there is no need for information curators because content providers are offering their services directly to subscribers. User standards are downgraded as long as the product is good enough, AI models that are tough to build and maintain eventually break down, and libraries can鈥檛 right these wrongs.

On the other side, the virtuous cycle sees librarians spending time learning about AI and translating their knowledge for their organizations. Librarians learn the difference between hype and reality, and let AI do what it does well while perfecting other tasks like creating niche content. This allows for reallocation of resources rather than losing them, transitioning from being storehouses to creators and curators of information. As one panelist said, 鈥淥wn the AI, and don鈥檛 seed the critical considerations.鈥�

Needs and seeds

With those potential pathways in mind, the AALL panel laid out what it called 鈥渘eeds and seeds鈥� 鈥� the tasks that today鈥檚 law librarians need to undertake to achieve a virtuous future, and the takeaways that will help them accomplish those tasks.

For the needs, the panel first stressed that law librarians need to be advocates, both for themselves and for the necessary technology to position law libraries as a trusted resource for technological knowledge and execution. Law librarians should seek to be part of decision-making processes for any AI implementation, panelists said, adding that librarians also should advocate for legal research instruction at all levels, and for preserving and advancing the profession of law librarians as critical thinkers and evaluators of legal information.

The [GenAI] transformation will necessitate that law library professionals learn new, more tech-driven skills to adapt to how work processes will transform across their organizations.

The panel also stressed the importance of working throughout the organization on AI initiatives. Law librarians should team with privacy experts to seek proactive and ethical privacy policy development, advance technology, and ensure its proper usage. Teaming with finance colleagues, law librarians should push for increased financial support and resource allocation. This includes resources not just for AI implementation, but also for training and ensuring that librarians and the organization as a whole are upskilled. Finally, law librarians, acting with the organization as a whole, should promote their own expertise, letting IT departments, legal counsel, leadership committees, and other groups know what鈥檚 going on and why libraries are an important resource.

To that end, the panel also viewed collaboration as a seed, a key tool in librarians鈥� belts to be a part of the future. Law librarians have the ability to not only use data effectively, panelists explained, but to create new and unique data that will be a crucial part of the future. Even today, librarians can spearhead tasks like converting print publications into formats that can be ingested, collaborate on research and pro bono centers, and begin to build democratized models that can spread to all.

Finally, as was a theme throughout the conference, the panel urged AALL attendees to keep this discussion going, both in private conversations and in public proclamations such as annual reports from the library. Given the growing impact of GenAI, time is of the essence, panelists added. 鈥淲e need to do this now. The difference in discussions between the October and May roundtables was incredible. If we wait six months, we鈥檙e going to be left behind.鈥�

Indeed, from 2017 to 2022, the ratio of support staff to lawyers of several support staff function areas 鈥� broader groups of individual support staff roles 鈥� were in decline, including:

• • • secretarial & word processing roles, which declined by 4.7% per year on average;
    • operations roles, which declined by 4.4% per year on average; and
    • library & research roles, which declined by 2.3% per year on average.

In parallel with the overall trend in support staff鈥檚 ratio-to-lawyers declining year after year, another significant trend has been an overall increase in the compensation for support staff on a per-lawyer basis, commonly called cost per lawyer. This metric measures the total compensation of a function area and divides that by the number of lawyers at a firm, showing the cost of that specific function area, per lawyer.

Data from 成人VR视频 most recent Staffing Ratio Survey shows that support staff costs per lawyer have increased very consistently at the same time that the ratio of support-staff-to-lawyers has declined. This likely demonstrates that law firms are increasingly turning to more specialized and more expensive support staff professionals, while requiring a relatively smaller number of those professionals per lawyer. Over the last seven years there have been consistently sharp reductions in lower-cost support staff FTEs (particularly in the largest support staff function areas like secretarial & word processing and operations staff), simultaneously with extensive cost increases in smaller, more specialized staff function areas.

Are we witnessing a pivot in strategy?

Since 2017, library & research roles have largely followed the overall trend seen among total support staff, as one of the four major function areas experiencing declines in the ratio of staff-to-lawyer headcount. Library & research roles have also experienced the third-slowest cost-per-lawyer growth rates over this period, suggesting that these roles have potentially been less specialized and expensive relative to other support staff roles like finance professionals or practice group operations professionals.

However, in 2023 we saw a reversal of this trend with library & research roles growing by 5.3% in terms of FTEs-per-lawyer and growing 12.9% in terms of cost-per-lawyer. This function area led all others in both of these metric categories, although library & research tied with recruiting & talent in FTEs-per-lawyer growth. Even so, this is a very unusual development that requires a closer look into the key driving forces.

There were significant shifts seen in terms of what roles make up the overall library & research function area, and significant changes in firms鈥� desires for those professionals. Before going into that, it should be noted that the library & research function area primarily consist of the following roles: legal research, library & research management, knowledge management, and library clerks.

Legal researchers as well as library clerks saw their FTEs-per-lawyer ratio decline in 2023, and also saw significant reductions as a proportion of total library & research FTEs. On the other hand, knowledge management and library & research management saw rapid increases in their ranks. Knowledge management in particular experienced a 26.3% increase in their FTEs-per-lawyer, and a 31.8% increase in their cost-per-lawyer.

As a result of this increase and the aforementioned declines in legal research and library clerks, knowledge management increased its proportion of total library & research FTEs by roughly 4 percentage points. These roles now make up 18.2% of total library & research FTEs, compared to making up 14.3% in the previous year.

Overall, no other function area saw a greater shift in role proportions than library & research, meaning that, in some way, this function area clearly has undergone the greatest shake up over the last year compared to any other function area.

It should be noted however, that library & research overall only makes up 2.5% of total support staff and the average firm only employs 10 FTEs in this support staff function. For this reason, year-to-year changes can be magnified if there are any substantial changes in headcount or compensation. Additionally, as this function area has traditionally been one in decline, achieving a positive growth rate is easier given a more favorable baseline. For these reasons, we are not expecting to see this elevated level of FTE-per-lawyer or cost-per-lawyer growth every year going forward.

For more on the 成人VR视频 Staffing Ratio Survey, listen to

That being said, the changes in direction and the magnitude of cost increases within knowledge management and library & research management roles are significant. These changes in 2023 echo the broader support staff trend that has law firms investing in roles that are highly specialized and not easily automatable. Instead, we believe that firms will continue to focus on hiring specialized roles that can utilize advanced knowledge management and research management systems.

What may be happening is that the growth in knowledge management and library & research management roles is in preparation for increased use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. As firms get their data in order, they start to gather and clean the training data that they will soon be using with AI workflows. The elevated cost-per-lawyer growth that comes from these advancements is already evident as firms鈥� research tools require a more sophisticated set of skills to fully be utilized.

Firms increasingly focused on data security

In line with the acceleration in firms鈥� investment in more specialized and expensive FTEs, IT & technology was the third-fastest growing area in FTEs-per-lawyer at 2.3%, and the sixth-fastest growing area in terms of cost-per-lawyer at 6.7%.

This function area makes up a much larger proportion of total support staff (14%) compared to a smaller function area like library & research, so the movement within IT & tech affects the overall makeup of support staff to a greater degree. Additionally, growth in this area could be considered to be more indicative of where firm priorities lie given that year-over-year growth is expected to be less impacted by outlier firms or favorable baselines from the previous year.

What we saw in 2023 within IT & tech staff once again tells us that firms are investing in higher-paid professionals with more advanced skills. The growth in cost-per-lawyer and FTEs-per-lawyer for four of the main roles under IT & tech shows a substantial gap between the two growth rates. Indeed, the gap between these two growth rates essentially measures per-role compensation increases, or the cost pressures that firms face when they hire an FTE in each of these roles.

Networks & security professionals in particular saw a rapid increase in their pay, with the greatest gap between their cost-per-lawyer and FTEs-per-lawyer growth. This trend in compensation growth is expected to continue as firms increasingly adopt cloud-based infrastructure and incorporate GenAI into their work. Security, for instance, is quickly becoming one of the top operational priorities for many law firms, and it is very likely that this will result in these roles being increasingly well paid.