AT&T may cut its outside-firm roster from 30 to 18–20

On October 8, Reuters reported that AT&T’s 38-person LegalEdge team is using AI to bring document review, research, witness interviews and first drafts in-house, and that the company may reduce its roster of roughly 30 national firms to 18–20 within two years. AT&T did not quantify savings, but it said associate hours on outside-firm bills are declining and that firms collaborating effectively with LegalEdge may receive a larger share of work. For relationship teams, this is a direct panel signal: protecting an account may depend on helping the client insource routine work rather than defending historical staffing. Account plans should identify which tasks the client wants to own, what handoffs need to be standardized and where the firm’s judgment, escalation capacity and specialist depth remain differentiated.