Research
The legal mid-market remains the blind spot in research on AI adoption.
Context sources: Solicitors Regulation Authority, 2025; Clio UK & Ireland Legal Insights Report, 2026. The Newbery Advisory study will focus on UK law firms with 20 to 250 people, with a comparative sample in Spain.
In 2025, the SRA examined sole practitioners and small firms across England and Wales. The research involved around 150 solicitors and found AI adoption in this segment to be 14%.
In 2026, Clio published its first dedicated study of the UK and Ireland legal market, based on 513 legal professionals and 500 members of the public. The report provides a broad view of AI adoption and governance, client trust, performance and sustainability.
What is still missing, however, is a clearly defined benchmark for firms with 20 to 250 people: organisations that are more complex than small firms, but do not have the resources of the largest practices.
That is where our study is focused.
The Newbery Mid-Market Legal AI Adoption Study 2026 will examine how firms of this size are: adopting AI · governing it · embedding it into day-to-day work · preparing their people · measuring the value created.
The study will focus primarily on the United Kingdom, with a smaller comparative sample in Spain.
What we want to uncover
Not simply which AI tools firms are using, but how deeply those tools are embedded across the organisation.
We want to understand:
- which tools are in active use, across which teams and workflows, and at what level of maturity;
- who is leading adoption and governance, and whether accountability is clearly defined;
- which policies and controls are in place, what they cover and where the main risks remain;
- how people have been prepared, what training has been provided and whether it has translated into genuine adoption;
- what is changing in ways of working, processes and service delivery;
- where real value is being created: time saved, processes improved, client impact and commercial outcomes.
The central question is straightforward:
Is the firm simply using AI, or is it turning AI into an organisational capability that creates measurable value?
The opportunity
To build a meaningful benchmark for firms that currently have no reliable way to compare themselves with genuinely similar organisations.
Participating firms will receive an advance summary of the study's key findings before the wider publication.
This will help them understand how comparable firms are approaching AI adoption, governance, risk, ways of working and value measurement.
All responses will be reported in aggregate and treated confidentially. No firms or individual participants will be identified.
Your firm contributes its experience and, in return, gains a market view that is not currently available.
Get involved
To participate in the survey, or to receive the findings when published, email customerservice@newberyadvisory.com with the subject line “Research”.
Results expected: September 2026. All participants receive findings before publication.