Not Futuristic: Big Law Clones Star Partners, Then Sell Subscriptions for Access to Their Services

 The perfect storm of cost-efficiency, changing client demand, ramped-up competition and AI is dooming the billable hour in professional services, ranging from management consulting to law. 

Emerging models to replace that are struggling to be born. One could be the introduction of fixed-fee subscriptions for services. And one possible version of that, already gone live, is cloning the partners. 

At New Jersey mid-sized law firm Vorys, 19 partners have been replicated using AI. Mostly for right now those twins are for internal use. Instead of the time-consuming back-and-forth by associates on assignment with partners, the assistants can simply activate the twin. That would cover everything from typical strategy with examples to nuances of style. 

It isn't much of a leap in a sector driven by Profits Per Equity Partner to push cloning to the next level. That would be developing the specs to construct the model so that it can be positioned and packaged for fixed-fee subscriptions for access to star partners. 

At Paul, Weiss bankruptcy twinkler James Sprayregen and Wall Street/Sports heavyweight strategist Brad Karp can be made available 24/7. The would be for answers to questions, prompts on strategy options, sorting through variables such as jurisdictions and judges and an invitation to make an appointment for an in-person consultation, billed the old-fashioned way: by the hour. 

Given how human the AI tone and content have become since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, the clone can embody the empathy and earnestness of an actual meeting with your lawyer. In addition, since AI has a memory feature, the artificial access retains you, everything from your emotional set to perspective on problems to stomach for risk-taking. Thus, customization will be standard. 

Expected will be the roll-out of the subscriptions with a variety of pricing options. The more dazzle the star exudes the higher the rate. A deep level of customization access would only be available at a premium fixed fee.

None of this is futuristic. Already Big Law is caught up in neck-spinning change. So over are lockstep, revenue per lawyer as a key metric and loyalty. To max Profit Per Equity Partner it makes good financial sense to repackage star partner services with much wider access. 

In addition, imagine the power we non-billionaires would exude if we could say, "I'll be checking if this is legal through my lawyer Brad Karp at Paul, Weiss." That's even through the review would be conducted through a subscription. 

In coaching, I guide resets. That includes myself. As a result of being selected for training as a facilitator in the National Alliance on Mental Illness the target markets for my services have been expanded significantly. 

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