The 11 Big Law sacred cows AI slaughters:

1. Performance metrics: Traditional top-line metrics become less useful as AFAs displace hours.

2. The billable hour: It is more than pricing. It influences comp, staffing, promotion, KPIs, LPM, and more.

3. Business professionals: Firms need to rethink how they recruit, develop, compensate, and empower people outside the practice.

4. The apprenticeship model: If AI handles more junior level work, how do we develop experienced lawyers.

5. Systems and data: 2.4% tech spend will not be sufficient to build a durable technology and data layer.

6. Incentive structures: Compensation plans, origination credit, and the partner track will need to evolve with new delivery models.

7. Cash basis/profit sweep: Firms that distribute most of their profits each year have limited retained capital for long-term investment.

8. The partnership model: As firms consider outside capital and more investment intensive businesses, the traditional structure will face new pressures.

9. Decision rights: Transformation will change who participates in strategic and operating decisions. The table will need to include more than the lawyers.

10. Client transparency: Clients will increasingly expect better visibility into cost, quality, and turnaround time.

11. Go-to-market: Firms will not be selling talent alone. Technology, data, pricing, and packaged offerings will become a larger part of the conversation.

None of these changes stands alone. Adjust one part of the model, and several others move with it.

And the renovation has to happen while the building remains fully occupied and while producing record profits.

The technology may be the most visible part of the transformation.

The harder work will be adapting the foundational structures that have shaped the industry for decades.