The AI play helping a suburban firm hit harder
Schenck Price makes deliberate bet that better tools, trusted data, and disciplined adoption help the firm compete bigger while staying true to its identity.
There are plenty of ways for a mid-size law firm to get squeezed in today’s market. In the New Jersey and New York metro area, firms are getting bigger, combinations are reshaping the field, and client expectations are not easing up. For Schenck Price, the pressure made one thing clear: the firm needed to compete bigger without getting bigger.
John Ursin, the firm’s Managing Partner, was blunt about the stakes. “We cannot compete and deliver without the right tools,” he said. “Our firm is investing heavily in the integration and adoption of legal AI technology. We are committed to delivering the highest level of legal services. AI is a central focus.”
The firm’s approach to serving clients is not about having the latest tech trick up its sleeve. Schenck Price is sensible yet cautious when choosing its technology partners. The vetting process is strategic to ensure new tools help the firm stay sharp, increase value, and deliver high-level legal services without drifting into big-firm overhead and sprawl.
John knows a little something about evolution. His own career moved from a litigation-heavy practice into predominantly corporate work, shaped by years of seeing disputes not just as legal fights, but as business challenges. That same instinct shows up in how he talks about AI. He is not interested in novelty but rather what helps lawyers do better work.
For the sake of better outcomes
A lot of firms talk about AI in the language of speed. John doesn’t stop there. He makes a more pointed case for why it matters.
“AI is not about doing things faster or saving time,” he said. “It allows us to focus on precision analysis and deliver more comprehensive communication to the client. Ultimately, it is the key to a better work product and better results.”
Instead of framing AI as a shortcut past legal judgment, the firm uses it to give attorneys a stronger starting point, better support in the flow of daily work, and more room to focus on the parts of lawyering that matter most: analysis, advice, and client service.
John is transparent about the pressure they feel to adopt and integrate the latest AI tools. “Clients are expecting us to use AI for their benefit,” he said. “They are also sometimes reviewing our work using AI.” In other words, the standard is already shifting. Schenck Price has chosen to be proactive and stay ahead of shifting client demands.
Thinking like a larger firm without becoming one
For a mid-size suburban firm, the appeal of AI is not hard to see. It changes what scale can look like.
“AI allows us, as a 100-attorney firm, to provide services more like a firm double our size — using AI to amplify our talent and relationships,” John shared.
The strength of agentic AI allows Schenck Price to match, and in some cases outmaneuver, the sophistication clients expect from larger competitors. It also allows them to hold onto the advantages of remaining a regional firm: closer relationships, sharper value, and a clearer sense of purpose.
John expands on these benefits when he talks about the firm’s long-term strategy. Schenck Price aims “to grow as a strong suburban firm where we can offer a much better value proposition to our clients than firms with much larger overhead.” AI dovetails with that approach in helping the firm grow capability without raising head count.
Every day, you read a new report in a legal periodical where an attorney is either in trouble with a court or has an ethical issue as a result of improper use of AI or using an untrustworthy system. We simply cannot take any risks with our attorneys' professional reputation and our client outcomes. It is another reason that the only choice for us was LexisNexis.
Why trust came first
Schenck Price first approached the legal AI market as a serious shopper. In a crowded field of vying pitches, their priority was integrating a tool that would robustly safeguard attorney client communication and work product.
John was straightforward: “When it comes to choosing where to invest our resources in the tech space, it boils down to one word — Trust.”
“The market is flooded with legal AI companies who make many promises,” John said. “We needed to partner with LexisNexis® due to its unmatched relationship with the legal sector and its long track record of providing the very best in legal tools. AI is a natural extension of our existing relationship.”
In addition, the firm needed a partner it knew could handle the momentum of legal tech. “Legal AI is evolving fast,” John said. “We could not risk partnering with a provider that cannot keep up and whose products might be obsolete in six months.”
He is equally direct about why LexisNexis rose to the top of the list: “LexisNexis stands alone in that it is accepted by many thousands of law firms and the judiciary.” For Schenck Price, such an irreplicated foundation mattered. In a category moving so quickly, confidence in the data, the platform, and the provider’s staying power added immense value to the decision-making process.
The critical roles of leadership and training
When Schenck Price bought into AI, there was no question that firmwide adoption would be viewed as an operational imperative. John was at the helm of ensuring a smooth transition.
“At the rate at which legal tech is advancing, it's simply not efficient for firms to develop internal training,” John said. He credits LexisNexis not only for initial rollout and integration, but also for tailored, practice-specific training for small groups.
Firmwide, customized guidance helped move AI out of the abstract and into attorneys’ daily legal work. John views this distinct approach and the product’s organic fit into everyday practice as a few of LexisNexis’ core advantages. “They completely understand how attorneys interact with research and documents,” he said. “This has allowed the Lexis+® with Protégé™ product to work seamlessly between legal content, client communication, drafting documents, and using a firm’s own document library.”
Trust, in other words, did not just lead Schenck Price to buy the tool. It ensured lawyers actually used it.
LexisNexis offers a product that’s evolving right in front of our eyes; it continually adapts to what our Lawyers need to work smarter and more efficiently. We keep asking more from LexisNexis and they keep delivering without hesitation.
A stronger firm, on purpose
John is a calculated and realistic law firm leader who has not allowed himself to get caught up in trendy tech hype. Yet, he knows standing still in the middle of today’s AI monsoon brings its own set of risks.
“AI — If a firm is not using it, they are simply ignoring a tremendous resource, which has to impact their clients negatively,” he said.
Ultimately, Schenck Price’s integration of Lexis+ with Protégé is strategic. The adoption of AI is helping the firm operate with greater range, greater confidence, and greater consistency in a market that rewards all three. It is helping attorneys produce stronger work without wasting motion. It is allowing leadership to invest in capability without surrendering the culture that defines the firm. And it is ensuring Schenck Price can make a very specific promise to the market: you do not have to be a giant firm to think and perform like one.
John exudes that confidence in one unusually candid line: “It is not an exaggeration to say that our partnership with LexisNexis has allowed me to sleep better.”
