When trying to get ahead of the pack, Am Law firms tend to look to one another for benchmarks. A current line of demarcation for firms pursuing the “innovative” label has emerged in the in-house development of client-facing technologies. But what about the widely accepted quantifying factor of success, the billable hour?

From the vantage point of Jackson Lewis, the impact of client-facing technologies on the billable hour has yet to be determined, but while clients expect technology, they’re “just not plain ready yet to talk to a robot to make a decision,” said the firm’s digital officer, Victor Barkalov.