Major Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are pressing large law firms to reduce legal fees, arguing that artificial intelligence and other technologies have made routine legal work faster and less costly, according to reporting.
The banks reportedly communicate these expectations to their outside counsel, seeking lower billing rates or revised fee structures to reflect increased efficiency. The move comes as banks and corporate clients face pressure to control costs and as generative AI and automation tools become more widely used in legal research, document review and other support tasks.
Across outlets, the focus is on the banks’ rationale and their message to law firms, rather than on specific fee reductions or outcomes. While the underlying theme is that AI has changed how work is performed, sources describe it primarily as a request or demand rather than as any court-mandated adjustment, and do not detail how many firms have agreed or what the final pricing changes would be.
