Legal search is no longer just a technical challenge. It’s a strategic decision that directly impacts profitability, risk management, and competitive positioning. 

At ILTACON 2025, one theme dominated conversations. Legal professionals are questioning whether building a custom search solution is worth the time, cost, and complexity, or whether buying a proven platform is the smarter path forward. 

More than just a technology choice, this reflects how firms prioritize agility, security, and long-term value in an era where AI is transforming legal work and information access determines competitive advantage. 

Why This Decision Matters Now  

Three forces make the build-versus-buy decision critical: 

1. The AI Imperative: When 80% of your firm’s knowledge lives outside Microsoft 365—in iManage, NetDocuments, and practice management systems—even sophisticated AI tools like Copilot deliver incomplete answers. AI is only as good as the data it can access. 
2. The Talent Challenge: Associates who spend 15+ hours per week searching for precedents and expert knowledge will become understandably frustrated. Top talent expects consumer-grade search experiences, not overengineered DIY systems that require extensive training. 
3. The Security Mandate: Search systems must respect matter-level permissions, maintain audit trails, and comply with client security requirements from day one, not after implementation.  

The Case for Buying 

Firms that choose to buy are not settling. They are selecting mature, scalable solutions that deliver immediate impact via: 

• Speed to Value: Pre-built platforms like BA Insight deploy efficiently, not in months or years. If your 500-person firm wastes just two hours per attorney per week on inefficient search, that’s $15.6 million annually at $300 per hour. Eliminating development time delivers immediate ROI. 

• Total Cost of Ownership: One Am Law 100 firm estimated their custom search project at $800,000 in year one, with $200,000+ annual maintenance. A purchased solution costs a fraction while delivering more features, better security, and continuous innovation. 

• Enterprise-Grade Security: Legal search requires matter-level permissions that mirror document management systems exactly, complete audit trails, and compliance certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001) that satisfy client security questionnaires. Building this level of security in-house requires years and millions in investment. 

• Proven Expertise: BA Insight has deployed search for top enterprise customers over 20 years, including leading law firms. When you build, you start from zero. When you buy, you inherit decades of refinement and best practices. 

• AI-Ready Architecture: Platform solutions provide AI-agnostic infrastructure that works with any system. BA Insight’s 95+ pre-built connectors ensure whatever AI tools your firm adopts can access complete, accurate information across all repositories.  

The Risks of Building 

Overly Long Development: Custom development projects typically span 8-12 months from planning to launch. During that time, the technology landscape shifts rapidly. AI tools like Microsoft Copilot evolve, attorney expectations change, and new integration requirements emerge. Projects often require significant rework before they even launch. 

Technical Debt Compounds: Custom systems require ongoing maintenance that consumes IT resources. Code needs refactoring, integrations break when external systems update, security patches must be applied reactively, and feature enhancements compete with maintenance work. The maintenance burden typically increases over time rather than decreases. 

Opportunity Cost Adds Up: Every hour IT teams spend building and maintaining custom search represents time not invested in strategic initiatives like AI implementation, cybersecurity improvements, practice-specific innovation, client portal enhancements, or attorney productivity tools. 

Security Vulnerabilities: Internal projects lack the continuous security scrutiny that commercial vendors face from enterprise clients and regulatory requirements. Security gaps may exist undetected for extended periods, creating compliance and confidentiality risks.  

What Matters Most 

As you evaluate next steps for your firm, prioritize these factors: 

• Speed to value: Can you deploy in days or months? 

• Security confidence: Does it meet your highest-security clients’ requirements, right out of the box? 

• Total cost: What is the five-year all-in cost, including opportunity cost? 

• AI-readiness: Will it support Microsoft Copilot and other emerging AI tools, well into the future?  

• Scalability: Can it handle practice expansion, mergers, and new repositories seamlessly? 

The BA Insight Advantage 

BA Insight is the AI Enablement Platform that transforms how law firms find and leverage collective knowledge: 

• Native integration with iManage, NetDocuments, and major legal systems 

• Matter-level security and complete audit trails 

• Extend Copilot beyond Microsoft 365 to your entire tech stack 

• 95+ pre-built connectors mean new systems integrate in days 

• Microsoft endorsed partner for Copilot extensibility 

• $2.4M average annual ROI for legal firms

A Smarter Way Forward 

Legal professionals deserve tools that work as hard as they do. Search should be fast, secure, and intuitive. It should reduce friction, not create it. 

Choosing to buy is not about avoiding complexity. It is about investing in clarity, speed, and long-term success. It is about recognizing that your firm’s core competency is practicing law, not building search infrastructure. 

The firms winning this decision ask: “What is our IT team’s highest and best use?” and “How do we position ourselves for AI success, not just search improvement?” 

The answer is increasingly clear: Buy the platform. Build the competitive advantage on top of it. 

Explore Your Options 

Schedule a Search Strategy Session with legal search experts who understand law firm operations. 

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