Equipping midsize law firms with a future-ready platform
As the legal industry is at an inflection point, Oliver Tromp, regional vice president (UK) at Actionstep, outlines how it is helping law firms create the conditions for long-term success: higher profitability, stronger client retention, and the ability to scale with confidence
Success in today’s legal market is no accident and Actionstep has a front-row seat to the opportunities and challenges midsize law firms face every day. The pressure is relentless — clients expect faster responses and transparent billing, staffing shortages stretch teams thin, financial oversight is more complex than ever, and AI is rewriting the playbook for legal service delivery.
The firms that survive this wave of change will be those that embrace technology not as a bolt-on, but as the backbone of how they operate. That’s why our product roadmap is designed not just to keep firms moving, but to help them run smarter, grow stronger, and deliver a better client experience.
What mid-market firms really need
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: too many midsize firms try to “make do” with outdated systems cobbled together from generic business tools. It might work in the short term, but it’s a slow bleed. Billable hours are lost to inefficiencies, partners lack visibility into financial performance, and compliance headaches multiply as the firm grows.
Actionstep is addressing these problems head on. Our roadmap focuses on three essentials where midsize firms can’t live without:
- Time savings through automation and intelligent workflows. Every wasted hour is lost revenue.
- Clarity through real-time data. Decisions need to be based on facts, not gut feeling.
- Scalability without compromise. Growth should never come at the cost of compliance or client service.
Building a better future for law firms
Because we work so closely with our customers, our roadmap isn’t built in a vacuum; it reflects real challenges firms are facing right now. Here’s a look at what’s coming:
- AI and automation agents — Our assistant, Scout, aims to lighten workloads by handling repetitive tasks, while adaptive workflows and smarter matter views make day-to-day operations more efficient.
- Passive time capture — One of the biggest pain points for firms is lost billable hours. With seamless background tracking, we help firms capture more revenue without adding effort.
- Business intelligence dashboards — Partners will have real-time visibility into performance, empowering proactive decision-making.
- Intuitive legal search — Find information when it is needed instantly across matters and files, and take action directly from results.
- Compliance-ready financial administration — Our platform is built to handle the complexity of billing, trust, and client accounting at scale.
- Tighter integrations — By strengthening integrations with iManage, FirstAML, FormEVO, laurel.ai, and more, firms can design their ideal tech stack around Actionstep.
The real advantage: embedded AI
Here’s something I believe strongly: AI isn’t a feature, it’s a foundation. Too often, legal tech companies bolt AI onto their platforms as a shiny extra, but that’s not enough. At Actionstep, we’re embedding AI into workflows where it creates real value: predictive reporting, automated time capture, intuitive search and smarter client interactions.
The goal of AI isn’t to replace lawyers — it’s to remove bottlenecks, reclaim lost revenue, and elevate the client experience. With our AI Center of Excellence, every capability is designed to deliver practical outcomes, not hype.
Scaling with confidence
Perhaps the most important part of our roadmap is intentionality. We don’t believe in innovation for its own sake. We believe in building solutions that let mid-market firms scale without painful system overhauls every five years, without trade-offs between profitability and compliance, and without sacrificing client service to gain efficiency. That’s why I see our roadmap as more than product updates. It’s a growth strategy for the firms we serve.
At Actionstep, we’re not just building technology. We’re helping law firms create the conditions for long-term success: higher profitability, stronger client retention, and the ability to scale with confidence. Our vision is simple: to be the growth partner that mid-market firms can rely on. And this roadmap is the clearest expression yet of how we’ll deliver on that promise.
Watch Actionstep’s new roadmap video, “A Glimpse into the Future of Actionstep,” and discover how the company is shaping the future of legal practice management.
