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4 September 2026 (Rhodes, Greece) - Lawyers Michael Pierson and Joel M. Ferdinand asked a simple question when they decided to launch their own firm: What would the elite law firm of the future look like? Pierson said:
"We believed that it would be fully remote, AI-native and technology-driven, built around very experienced partners and not around the traditional associate pyramid".
The two former FisherBroyles LLP lawyers launched Pierson Ferdinand LLP at the start of 2024 with technology sitting at the heart of the fully remote global law firm.
Pierson contends that the traditional law firm operating structure has become too expensive for clients. The partner-only firm's technology is designed to reduce nonbillable administrative tasks that lawyers would normally have to perform, such as intake and billing.
One way Pierson Ferdinand tries to boost client value is by turning to artificial intelligence for tasks normally done by associates. The firm uses AI for:
- early casework, such as summarizing documents
- reviewing documents, including eDiscovery
- summarizing transcripts
- issuing memoranda
- sometimes producing basic term sheets
Without associates and because of the distributed nature of Pierson Ferdinand's entirely remote model, Pierson says, the firm charges clients a lower hourly rate. The firm declined to give specific numbers, but claims that it charges about two-thirds the cost of a top 200 law firm and, in some cases, is 50% cheaper than a top 100 law firm.
Pierson said that the reduced rates stem from the firm being purpose-built with AI:
"Our model law firm didn't simply just slap on AI. Our view is that using very senior lawyers who are on a day-to-day basis using AI in order to accelerate their practice to make them 10X lawyers - 10X more efficient, 10X more profitable, 10X more knowledgeable".
Shortly after launching, Pierson Ferdinand had more than 100 former lawyers from FisherBroyles. The firm has since grown to over 290 partners in more than 90 practice areas across two dozen global markets. In 2026, it reached #187 on Law360's list of the 400 largest law firms.
The firm ended last year reporting $126 million in billed revenue, which it said at the time was a 61.36% year-over-year increase.
Before launching, the firm evaluated dozens of AI tools and ultimately selected the legal AI assistant Harvey. Pierson says he was intrigued by Harvey because it was built by and for lawyers. The firm also uses the AI legal research platform vLex.
Note to readers: as we explained in our coverage of ILTACON 2026, Harvey has been connecting the platform more deeply into the software where every element of legal work lives. Its integrations cover transaction systems, document environments and Microsoft workflows, and its newest product work includes a proprietary legal model called Tenet. Building its own model is a notable move for a company that originally depended heavily on outside foundation-model providers.
Pierson said the AI tools allow the firm to move past tasks normally assigned to junior attorneys, such as drafting, and to dig deeper into matters faster. Without Harvey or any of the AI products, Pierson said, the firm "wouldn't have been obviously this successful in such a short amount of time."
While AI tools such as Harvey and vLex have become commonplace today, firms are also starting to connect directly with the frontier models that power generative AI platforms, such as models from Anthropic and OpenAI. Anthropic earlier this year launched its own legal AI tools that cost a fraction of what legal AI tools charge.
Pierson Ferdinand uses Anthropic for internal processes, such as accounting and finance, but the firm still prefers Harvey for the practice of law.
This is in part because the firm has direct access to Harvey's product team to ask questions and to request product modifications for the firm, Pierson said. He also praised Harvey's product development timeline, the ability of the tool to route to the best AI model, the platform's user experience and that the majority of the top 100 law firms are using the tool:
"It gives our clients a lot of confidence, and it gives us a lot of the confidence knowing that other partners, other adversaries, other law firms are using it. The firm is constantly evaluating the AI market for new products".
Pierson, however, did note that while AI does a lot for the firm, there are certain tasks that AI can't be used for. He said the firm's lawyers cannot use AI to make final decision on strategy, settlement, negotiations or advice delivered to clients:
"It does not replace professional judgment".
Pierson Ferdinand's rise as a partner-only firm comes amid industry concerns about the future role of associates. Pierson, however, predicts AI will expand the amount of legal tasks that can be done, allowing young attorneys to start their own specialist boutiques instead of joining a BigLaw firm.
For recruiting, the firm typically targets junior partners who have five to seven years of experience, are high performers and could one day be a partner in an AI-driven practice.
Since Pierson Ferdinand launched, several other AI-native law firms have followed. Pierson welcomes the competition, saying that if other AI-native law firms want to launch with a similar model, it's good for the ecosystem since there's plenty of legal work to go around.
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