You're not behind on AI. You're just missing an R&D department.
Solo and small-firm lawyers can't keep up with AI alone. They don't have to.
Most lawyers I talk to think they’re behind on AI.
They’re not behind. They’re just missing a piece of infrastructure that big firms have, and small firms don’t: an R&D department.
What R&D is
In a big company, someone gets paid to test new tech and report back. They try tools. They compare notes. They figure out what improves operations and what’s just noise.
That’s all R&D is — structured curiosity with a job to do.
Big firms have people whose full-time role is to test what’s new. The firm pays them to separate hype from signal so the partners and associates don’t have to waste time doing it themselves.
What solo and small-firm lawyers don’t have
Most solo and small-firm lawyers are trying to do their own R&D on the side of a full-time practice.
No time to test tools systematically
No team to compare notes with
No way to confirm whether a tool’s marketing claims hold up in a real law practice
Meanwhile, the tech options keep expanding. The Hype Fest keeps getting louder. And the gap between “I know I should be doing something with AI” and “I’ve figured out what’s worth doing” keeps getting wider.
Why consultants don’t fill this gap
Consultants sell things. That’s their job. They have an angle — a product to pitch, a workshop to book, a platform to steer you toward.
That’s not a knock on consultants. It’s just a structural reality. If you ask a consultant what tool to use, you’ll hear the one they’re affiliated with.
Other lawyers in the trenches don’t have an angle. They just tell you what’s working in their practice and what isn’t.
A lawyer who tested a hyped legal AI platform and dropped it after three weeks will tell you why
A lawyer who built a document review workflow in Claude will share what worked and what didn’t
A lawyer who tried a scheduling tool and found it saved them real hours each month will mention it casually, without pitching you
That’s the signal. And it’s almost impossible to get any other way.
The collective R&D approach
Here’s the solution: find other lawyers who are already testing things. Share what you’ve tried. Learn from what they’ve tried.
Collectively, you become the R&D department none of you could create on your own.
That’s the whole idea.
You don’t need to hire a team. You don’t need to take a sabbatical to research AI. You just need a group of lawyers who are already doing the testing and reporting back.
Bottom line
Most small firms I know are trying to figure out AI alone. That’s the hardest way to do it.
The lawyers who seem ahead aren’t smarter or more technical. They just have a way to compare notes with other lawyers doing the same thing. That’s the difference.
If you want to stop feeling behind, stop trying to build your own R&D department. Find one that already exists.
;-)
Ernie
P.S. That’s exactly what the Inner Circle is — a group of solo and small-firm lawyers functioning as a collective R&D department. If that sounds useful, take a look →
https://innercircle.ernietheattorney.net/