Legal IT Insider’s UK Top 200 2025 update version one is out today (19 November), with a huge amount of valuable new data for you to pore over. Heads up, just over 40% of firms now list at least one Gen AI product in the new column, and those that do run an average of nearly two tools each.We expect further changes and updates before the end of the year (see methodology at the bottom), and will continue to add new information as it arises.
Make sure you take a look at our in-depth analysis of the table and our Gen AI breakdown article.
Here are some of the findings in brief.
DMS and PMS
Across the UK Top 200, the PMS and DMS markets are currently largely settled, but the very top of the table has proved they are not frozen. When it comes to DMS, conversations behind the scenes suggest we may see further fluctuation, albeit options for the largest firms are still limited. The core has consolidated into two dominant ledgers (Elite 3E and Aderant) and two dominant DMS platforms (iManage and NetDocuments, with iManage Cloud and NetDocuments both growing strongly). For most firms, “change” has typically meant migration to vendors’ own cloud versions (3E Cloud, Aderant Sierra, iManage Cloud) rather than swapping to new suppliers.
The PMS story at the summit is more nuanced than the headline numbers suggest. Norton Rose Fulbright’s decision to move from a Fulcrum/SAP ERP-based platform to Aderant Sierra shows that even at the top end, firms will reopen the PMS question when their overall platform strategy changes. Clifford Chance, by contrast, remains on a 25-year-old, Keystone/Aderant solution – effectively two systems wired together – which is widely recognised as being well overdue a full overhaul, which we believe is under way.
The DMS story – as evidenced by conversations at Legal IT Insider’s 30th event – shows that firms are considering all their options (including SharePoint in conjunction with legal providers), given the need for an integrated platform. Change is far from simple, particularly for large firms, and model context protocol (MCP) is also changing the game, so we watch this space with interest.
Perhaps the most interesting action has shifted to the layers around PMS/DMS:
Business development & CRM: InterAction is ageing but still common (with the caveat that it has brought out cloud version InterAction+); the real story is that “no CRM” has almost disappeared. Intapp DealCloud, Peppermint CRM and Salesforce (and derivatives) are now credible alternatives, especially in deal-driven or Microsoft-centric firms. BD is now funded and owned rather than an afterthought.
Workflow, low-code and “glue”: Instead of relying solely on monolithic case-management systems, firms are investing in process platforms and automation – like ShareDo and Peppermint (with aging Visualfiles and MatterSphere likely to continue to lose further favour) – and increasingly BRYTER, Power Platform and similar tools. The value is in orchestrating processes across PMS, DMS, pricing and KM, not replacing the underlying systems.
Collaboration & transaction tools: Client-facing collaboration is now mainstream. HighQ is near-ubiquitous; NetDocuments shops lean on CollabSpaces. Specialist deal tools like Legatics and Orbital Witness sit alongside, not instead of, these platforms. Clients expect portals, datarooms and closing trackers by default.
Security, risk & IG: Security stacks are now multi-layered and explicit: Mimecast plus Egress/Tessian/Proofpoint for email, EDR tools like CrowdStrike and SentinelOne, and formal IG stacks (LegalRM, FileTrail, Intapp Walls, Microsoft Purview). Risk & compliance is dominated by Intapp and email-risk tools.
BI, pricing & data: Power BI is becoming the default reporting front-end, backed by specialist tools such as Katchr, Iridium and BigHand. Costing is slowly professionalising via Cosine, BigHand Evaluate, Clocktimizer and PMS pricing modules – but the real challenge remains matter costing rather than simple rate-setting. In that arena we wait to see how Aderant intends to exploit Virtual Pricing Director. Integration layers (Intapp Integrate, Azure Data Factory, Boomi, etc.) are now treated as part of a data platform, not one-off scripts.
Automation, “classic AI” and Gen AI:
- Document automation is led by Clarilis, with Contract Express still important and HotDocs largely legacy.
- “Classic” AI tools (Kira, Luminance, ThoughtRiver) remain focused on specific use cases in a minority of firms.
- Gen AI has moved from experiment to visible layer:
- Just over 40% of firms now list at least one Gen AI product in the new column, and those that do run an average of nearly two tools each
- The most common labels are Microsoft CoPilot (in various flavours, appearing in around 37 firms), Legora (around 21 firms), Harvey (16), ndMAX/ndMAX Assistant (10), Jylo (8) and CoCounsel (7), with only a handful explicitly noting “ChatGPT” into their stack
- Most firms are therefore multi-homing: combining a general-purpose layer such as CoPilot with legal-specific tools embedded in DMS, KM or contract-analysis systems, and sometimes with in-house assistants and niche products (Leah, Lauri Lawyer, Wexler, Jigsaw, etc.).
Structurally, the Top 30–40 firms now look like global corporates, with full stacks for BD, collaboration, data, security and AI – and, as the latest PMS moves show, they are still prepared to make big architectural bets when they believe the benefits justify the disruption. The next band (roughly 40–70) runs similar cores but with more selective layering and fewer AI tools. Below that tier, most firms do have modern PMS and DMS platforms, but their wider application ecosystems are much thinner – typically just one or two additional strategic tools – and their Gen AI activity tends to centre on CoPilot, ndMAX or a single legal assistant rather than full-blown AI programmes.
Overall: don’t expect a wholesale PMS/DMS bloodbath across the whole Top 200, but do expect further high-stakes moves at the very top – and recognise that competitive advantage over the next few years will come from workflow, data, costing and AI orchestration on top of those cores. The real strategic challenge is to turn today’s broad Gen AI experiments into a more focused set of safe, repeatable, embedded capabilities, and to decide which tools become part of the long-term platform and which remain as tactical experiments.
Methodology notes
The table ranks firms by reference to annual revenue figures and includes significant changes and updates from our last updated table in 2022.
In addition to our own proprietary legacy data, the UK Top 200 is the result of multi-prong research as well as direct engagement with law firms.
If a law firm has announced a future migration to a new platform we have used that information – on the basis that most users of the table are interested in current and future developments as opposed to history. However, if we find out that a planned migration has halted, regressed or changed tack, we will update the information accordingly.
There are some firms for whom we have no historical information, mostly due to the change in the Top 200 list itself. All these firm have been invited to provide us with their technology stack information. However, if none has been provided, the table will be empty or will contain information that we believe to be accurate from the sources previously stated.
We believe that we have a high degree of accuracy in this table, but if we have something wrong, then firms are welcome, indeed enthusiastically encouraged, to get in touch and correct our data. Please contact neil@legaltechnology.com or caroline@legaltechnology.com. We are on ET and GMT respectively.
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