Spotlight On: Armand Leonelli, CEO, Edgar Snyder & Associates

Key points:

• Law firms are evolving into integrated, technology-enabled businesses to meet rising client expectations.

• Collaboration between lawyers and non-legal professionals is becoming a core competitive advantage.

• AI presents both scalability opportunities and new ethical, data, and competitive risks for the legal industry.

January 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Armand Leonelli, CEO of Edgar Snyder & Associates, emphasized three critical priorities namely, integrating technology and non-lawyer professionals, fostering internal collaboration, and proactively managing new competitive and ethical risks from artificial intelligence. “The collaboration between lawyers and other professionals is, I believe, the future of the business of law,” Leonelli said.

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How is the legal industry evolving in response to changing client expectations for speed, transparency, and accessibility?

You have identified a very difficult challenge for the industry and I will not sugarcoat things. The legal sector has struggled for quite some time to keep up with technology and with consumer, or client, expectations. I believe those expectations have changed dramatically even over the last decade and there is so much opportunity for growth within the legal industry. The expectation is not just that you will receive good legal service, but that you will receive great customer service and efficient service. If you need to access the courts, it must be done efficiently. That is where all of these trends are emerging. I tend to disagree that they are trends in general, and clarify that they are trends for the legal industry specifically because the legal industry has not done a great job of keeping up with trends from other sectors. Therefore, my focus at our firm is more on being a trendsetter in the legal field rather than following trends. For instance, you must vertically integrate your law firm, which is, after all, a business. A great deal of our reliance these days is on non-lawyer professionals and providing great customer service is a profession, and it is a real skill set. Having technologists on staff is also critical.

What role does technology play in reshaping how law firms operate and deliver client services today?

The short answer is immensely, and you cannot operate without it. We cannot be under the delusion that law firms and lawyers were keeping up with technology in the past. We were not. This was not a transition from the fax machine to email, which was itself a struggle for lawyers. We are essentially going from antiquated technology directly to the arrival of artificial intelligence. It is a seismic shift for law firms. At our firm, I always think I had a bit of an advantage in the legal field, given my background and being a millennial, because I grew up with constant transitions in technology. 

Many do not view law firms as businesses, but ours is quite traditional in its needs. We use artificial intelligence for numerous functions. It is another tool for document processing and streamline process driven tasks, and we utilize sophisticated case management and accounting software. It has not been a dramatic change for our specific operations.

As CEO, how do you define operational excellence within a law firm environment? What metrics or indicators do you rely on most to evaluate firm performance and client satisfaction?

We are a data-driven firm and use endless metrics to determine efficiency, and I believe we are a trend-setter. The primary focus is on the results we obtain for clients and whether we are doing so at a sufficient volume. The challenge is that demand often exceeds our capacity. Without efficiency, technology, data, and non-legal staff, you will not be successful. We track the volume handled by what I call production units. We assess client satisfaction and results, and we focus on scaling that model within the business.

How do you foster collaboration between legal professionals and business operations teams to improve client outcomes?

This is my passion, and I am glad you asked. The central issue is that the traditional path to becoming a lawyer is through political science, law school, and then practice, and it involves no education in business operations. Yet, if you excel, you eventually become a partner, which is synonymous with a business owner. You are then expected to perform roles like Chief Executive Officer or Chief Marketing Officer, which is a laughable expectation. I believe the future of the business of law hinges on collaboration between lawyers and other professionals.

At our firm, the first step was a complete restructuring from a model with a single managing partner to a corporate suite structure. We moved to a traditional business model, recognizing that we need more hands on deck and must function as a collaborative team. We now operate with what you would see in a standard business setting. This includes various meetings and committees designed specifically to force lawyers to collaborate with other professionals. For example, I am a team lead on the data analytics committee, and we have other leaders for marketing and technology.

To me, the single most impactful initiative I have been part of is fostering collaboration between a financial controller and a litigator, or between our technologists and our production attorneys. This is hugely challenging because it contradicts how lawyers are traditionally trained to be autonomous. However, achieving this synergistic effect across the firm is essential. I firmly believe this collaborative model is the future of the legal practice.

With rising competition among law firms and alternative legal service providers, what do you see as the most sustainable differentiator in this industry?

I believe we will have to evolve into legal-technology service companies. We will have to consolidate all of those functions and become vertically integrated. Regarding competition, I will offer a strong opinion. Lawyers often look at other lawyers as their competition. That is true in one sense, but I think the more significant competition is coming from outside the legal industry. An artificial intelligence technology company that is developing AI specifically to target law firms is trying to penetrate the market and enter the supply chain for the substantial revenue we generate. That revenue is attracting investors, technologists, and marketers from various industries who are all attempting to enter the practice of law. If we are not careful, it will happen as we are participating in a data race. Data is currency, and lawyers are bound by many ethical rules. Artificial intelligence is not bound by many ethical rules, nor are the businesses that own the artificial intelligence. The situation is clear to me. If artificial intelligence is not regulated by generally accepted ethical standards, and if a company can collect more data than a law firm or an insurance company, then they will be able to start utilizing predictive models and determining outcomes based on data. A similar dynamic is occurring in marketing, where more data allows you to determine exactly what a potential client wants. We also have non-lawyers who are now advertising for injury cases, they are called lead generators. A lead generator can be a non-lawyer or a non-lawyer company that advertises, suggesting that if you were hurt in a car accident, you should contact them and they will connect you with a lawyer. The law firm is then essentially purchasing leads from a non-lawyer. That vertical integration is critical if law firms are going to not only grow but also maintain the integrity of the profession.

How do you view the balance between automation and the human element in legal services, and the ethical consequences that all of this implies?

At the moment, I view it as a very positive development. Currently, I view artificial intelligence as a consolidation of our toolbox as it performs many functions. As lawyers, we must rely upon many different elements to build a case, and currently, artificial intelligence has definitely not diminished the human element. I believe it has enhanced it. We have done a great deal of hiring over the last couple of years while simultaneously integrating artificial intelligence into the business. It is truly expanding our capacity and allowing us to scale our operations. Whereas an individual might have been able to manage 50 matters five years ago, now they are handling 100 matters. Today, I think it is a positive force. 

However, we must temper that with the understanding that we, as lawyers, are not technologists. If you are in a business conflict, so to speak, lawyers are trained to fight, but we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back. As far as I understand, it is the wild west with artificial intelligence and data. As a lawyer operating a law firm, along with my partners and anyone in this industry, we have numerous ethical considerations and confidentiality issues, which is why I believe collaboration is the key. If lawyers can collaborate with AI engineers to develop safeguards and ethical guidelines for its use in legal practice, then I believe the outcome will be better for everyone. However, if we fail to do that and we fail to collaborate, I do not like the long-term outlook.

How should law firms think about risk management beyond compliance, in areas like reputation, cybersecurity, and client trust?

When you consider a law firm of our size we have represented thousands upon thousands of clients, and the amount of private data involved is immense. My perspective is that it is expensive, it is complex, and you must be willing to spend the money and engage subject matter experts to protect all of your clients’ data and your proprietary data as well. We have numerous safeguards here at our firm. However, if we are discussing the industry at large, I do not believe that is true across the board due to the expense involved and a general lack of expertise on the topic. 

How do you approach innovation in an industry that has traditionally been risk-averse and process-driven?

I believe that is where I have found my niche and my success. I embrace innovation, and I recognize the truth in what you are describing. What I prefer to do is look outside the legal industry at our neighbors. I would say that medicine is our neighbor. If you examine what has transpired in medicine, you will see what is going to happen in law. For instance anything that is being done manually must be automated. There are certain things that cannot be automated such as going to a courtroom and eliminating the human element. But if we look at medicine, you will find your answers.

What leadership principles do you consider most critical for running a complex professional legal services organization effectively?

At the end of the day, lawyers as a whole, and I am painting with a broad brush, are taught to be autonomous. The reality is that autonomy is inefficient. It cannot be scaled, and it does not constitute a business. I look at this situation and I believe that teamwork is the key.. Therefore, our core values at this point include teamwork, collaboration, and putting the client first, which are the places  I focus all of my attention. 

You must have great vision to be a good leader. If you are only trying to keep up with trends and not be a trendsetter, I think many law firms will find themselves in a very difficult position. I do not believe that my leadership style or my position is any different from what you would see in any other sector. 

Looking ahead, what strategic priorities do you think will define the next generation of successful law firms?

Legal marketing is antiquated. Legal marketing really only started about 50 years ago. Therefore, anyone who entered the field early, specifically Edgar Snyder, was a trendsetter. Marketing is totally different now, not just in the mediums used but also in the messaging and consumer expectations. Strategically, I believe any advertising law firm, and I should note that if a law firm is not advertising, they will have to consider that strategically as well because I do not believe there will be much choice in the future,  and must essentially have a marketing agency within its business. 

I also think we must obviously focus on technology. You must become an integrated law firm. I do not believe you can outsource all of these functions because legal services are a specific and very difficult service to provide, requiring specialized knowledge. If you outsource all the different functions, you lose that collaboration. In fact, you will not be able to strategize effectively because neither the outsourced business nor the law firm possesses all the information needed to be strategic. Furthermore, I think there are significant issues that few like to discuss, but I also believe law firms should strategize about their succession plans because the statistics indicate most of them do not have one. If you do not have a succession plan, I do not know what your future looks like, but it probably means the law firm will not be around, we need incoming generations.

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