INDUSTRY REPORTS: CLI FUTURE OF LAW
BUILDING A PROFESSION-WIDE BASELINE ON AI, PRACTICE AND CAPABILITY
AI is moving fast and the legal profession has strong views on innovation and technology. What is less clear is how those views translate into day to day practice across different roles, organisations and jurisdictions.
The CLI Future of Law Report is designed to close that gap by building a shared, evidence led baseline on how AI is being adopted, governed and experienced across the legal profession.
This is not a prediction report or a vendor showcase. It is an independent, profession wide snapshot of what is happening now, grounded in the realities legal professionals are navigating every day
WHY THIS REPORT STARTS WITH YOU
Legal professionals are making decisions about AI in environments defined by risk, regulation, resource constraints and professional responsibility. Those decisions look very different depending on where you sit in the system.
This survey was designed to capture insights across the full profession, not just one role or one corner of the market. In house counsel, partners, associates, government, academia, legal ops and adjacent practice roles all see different realities.
Each of those perspectives forms part of the bigger picture. Without them, the profession is left relying on anecdote, surface level commentary or narrow datasets that do not reflect complexity.
Those responses now form a stronger, more complete picture of how the profession is navigating AI.
WHY A SHARED BASELINE MATTERS NOW
AI adoption across the legal sector is increasing, but not evenly. Some organisations are experimenting at speed, others are cautiously piloting specific use cases, and many are still navigating risk, governance and capability questions before taking any steps at all.
Without a shared baseline:
- It is difficult to understand where risk and governance maturity truly sit
- Capability gaps remain fragmented and poorly defined
- Conversations about “readiness” quickly lose practical relevance
This baseline is designed to be returned to over time, allowing the profession to track movement, maturity and emerging pressures as AI continues to evolve.
Your input does not sit on a shelf. It feeds into how the profession prepares, how it connects and how it develops capability for the future.
By taking part, you will help build a baseline the profession can use, including :
on how organisations are approaching AI adoption and governance today
where governance, risk and trust are sitting in practice
on the skills and readiness the profession needs to invest in now
that help shape what CLI builds next through practical research and profession-wide conversations
HEAR WHY THIS REPORT MATTERS
Watch The People in Legal Interview below where Roni Millard, Founder and Health & Wellness Consultant at The Wellbeing Edge sat down with Alison Laird, Director of the Centre for Legal Innovation, to unpack one of the biggest questions facing the legal industry:
Are we actually preparing lawyers for the future of legal work?
Alison Laird shares insights from the Future of Law Report to better understand how legal teams, law firms, students, and the broader profession are navigating rapid change.
What you WEIGHED in on
The survey asked the questions legal professionals are already grappling with and turns them into a shared baseline the profession can use.
Rather than asking abstract or hypothetical questions, the survey focused on lived experience across roles and organisation types.
You were asked about:
- What challenges are shaping your work right now
- How your organisation is approaching and adopting AI
- Where governance, risk and trust sit in that approach
- How capable you and your team are when it comes to AI
- What skills and capabilities current and future lawyers will need to succeed
- What AI is changing in practice and what you think it will change next
These insights make it possible to distinguish between perceived risk and actual experience.
The data gathered helps inform how the profession connects around these issues, through evidence‑led industry roundtables across the CLI network later this year.
Privacy and confidentiality
The credibility of this report depends on trust.
The CLI Future of Law Report has been compiled with support from independent research partner, Matter.
Results are reported at an aggregate level only, and no personally identifiable information is shared. The purpose is to establish a trusted, neutral baseline that moves beyond anecdote, vendor driven narratives and fragmented snapshots.
Participation has enabled the profession to speak with evidence, without compromising individual or organisational confidentiality.
WHAT PARTICIPANTS RECEIVED
Participants who opted in will receive a copy of the final CLI Future of Law Report.
Most importantly, your input has helped build a credible baseline the profession can return to over time, grounded in what legal professionals are experiencing in practice.