Case Study: How a Barcelona Firm Improved Win Rates by 28%
Cabinet Martinez is a mid-size Barcelona law firm specializing in civil litigation and family law. With 14 lawyers and a steady caseload, they had reached a familiar plateau: more work than capacity, but not enough margin to hire more associates.
The Starting Point
Before adopting AI-powered evidence scoring, the firm faced familiar challenges:
- Case preparation time averaged 18 hours per caseCase preparation time averaged 18 hours per case
- Evidence review was a manual, sequential processEvidence review was a manual, sequential process
- Junior associates spent 60% of their time on document organizationJunior associates spent 60% of their time on document organization
- Win rate on litigated cases hovered at 64%Win rate on litigated cases hovered at 64%
The firm's managing partner, Maria Martinez, knew the model was not sustainable. "We were either going to grow into a larger firm or stay where we were forever. There was no middle path with our old workflow."
The Decision Process
Martinez evaluated five legal AI platforms over three months. The key requirements:
- — non-negotiable for client confidentialityGDPR compliance with EU data residency — non-negotiable for client confidentiality
- — Spanish and Catalan native handlingMultilingual support — Spanish and Catalan native handling
- — not just analysis, but deliverable documentsCourt-ready output formats — not just analysis, but deliverable documents
- — no per-seat penalties as the team grewPer-firm pricing — no per-seat penalties as the team grew
Causio met all four criteria. The decision came down to a 30-day pilot focused on three active cases.
The Implementation
The first month was focused on training and workflow integration:
Week 1-2: Data Migration and Setup The team imported 18 months of historical case data. Causio's evidence scoring system was calibrated against historical outcomes, helping it understand what evidence patterns correlated with wins.
Week 3-4: Pilot Cases Three active cases ran in parallel — one with the traditional workflow, two with Causio. The AI surfaced two pieces of evidence the lead lawyer had not yet identified as significant. Both became central to the case strategy.
The Results After Six Months
The metrics tell the story:
- (45% reduction)Case preparation time: 18 → 10 hours (45% reduction)
- (28% improvement)Win rate: 64% → 82% (28% improvement)
- (more time on strategic work)Junior associate document time: 60% → 22% (more time on strategic work)
- (50% throughput increase)Cases per month: 12 → 18 (50% throughput increase)
But Maria Martinez points to a less visible change as the most important: "Our junior associates are now learning case strategy from day one. They are not buried in document organization. They are reading our annotations on the AI analysis and asking questions that matter."
The Takeaways
Cabinet Martinez's experience is not unique among firms that have made the AI transition deliberately:
- — three cases, four weeks, clear success metricsStart with a defined pilot — three cases, four weeks, clear success metrics
- — generic AI models underperform compared to systems trained on your firm's outcome patternsCalibrate on your own data — generic AI models underperform compared to systems trained on your firm's outcome patterns
- — the tool is only as good as how the team uses itInvest in workflow change, not just tools — the tool is only as good as how the team uses it
- — win rate and case throughput, not just time savingsMeasure what matters — win rate and case throughput, not just time savings
For European firms considering AI adoption, the Cabinet Martinez story illustrates what is possible when the technology is matched with a clear implementation strategy.