The bank’s senior in-house lawyer pointed out that underperformance can mean poor client management, unmanaged scope creep, weak billing practices, a lack of responsiveness, or direct feedback from its lawyers indicating that the quality of advice isn’t where it needs to be.

To monitor its new bar, Revolut is building in-house AI tools to help lawyers run requests for proposal, pre-select firms for specific instructions, and scrutinise advice and invoices.

“[Law] firms can no longer solely rely on soft relationship touch points to keep their place in the squad,” Hambrett stated. He added, “Relationships still matter. But performance wins you minutes on the pitch.”

Banking sector panel squeeze

The legal sector in the UK is booming.

However, as headcount and salaries increase, so do client fees, prompting in-house legal teams to question the rising cost of external advice.

Another way of squeezing the legal sector is through the panel process. Years ago, the banking sector panels aggressively sought to cut lawyers’ costs by reducing the amount of space on their panels, forcing law firms to compete on price to get a seat at the table.

Most recently, the insurance sector has followed the banking sector’s example.

To combat cost pressures, an  increasing amount of legal work   equipped with AI is being handled by in-house teams rather than external lawyers.