{"id":212803,"date":"2025-06-25T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212803\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T09:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:40:13","slug":"ais-seismic-effect-changes-client-expectations-of-law-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212803\/","title":{"rendered":"AI\u2019s seismic effect changes client expectations of law firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitching for legal business as a law firm once meant gaining an understanding of the client\u2019s needs and demonstrating how the firm might meet them. At Ashurst, however, a recent request for proposal came with a new demand: that the firm show how it would combine generative artificial intelligence<\/a> with human expertise to handle the client\u2019s legal projects.<\/p>\n

Whether for making pitches or training junior associates, AI is becoming a dominant presence in legal workplaces, requiring both law firms and companies\u2019 in-house legal teams to navigate complex new working relationships between human experts and digital tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Ashurst, the pitch involved going head-to-head with another firm. Both were given 10 matters to work on over the course of two weeks, to show how they would use generative AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ashurst won the business. \u201cThe reason we were successful, the client told us, was because of how we augmented the technology with the expertise,\u201d says Hilary Goodier, a partner and global head of Ashurst Advance, the firm\u2019s technology-enabled legal services division.<\/p>\n

Blending AI with human expertise is not always easy, however. Goodier says it takes planning to design working processes that accommodate the strengths and weaknesses of both humans and digital tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot more work upfront to prompt and test the AI and trial the process,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that means a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, project managers and technologists working together before we jump into delivering the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

There used to be this fiction that by doing the grunt work, you were learning how to be a lawyer<\/p>\n

Danny Tobey, DLA Piper<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Use of AI in the corporate world means in-house lawyers are also starting to embrace a multidisciplinary approach, says Pamela Salling, managing director of in-house counsel recruiting at legal recruitment firm Major, Lindsey & Africa.<\/p>\n

Companies, she says, now want their in-house lawyers to be translators who can bridge law, strategy and technology. And if they cannot, \u201cthey\u2019re faltering at the finish line,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As generative AI starts to permeate the corporate workplace, lawyers must prepare to collaborate with senior data executives, says Leigh Dance, founder and president of ELD International, an adviser to global in-house legal teams. \u201cThey are often on committees with the person who heads AI or the person who heads information security,\u201d she says. \u201cThat means they need to learn about what those other functions do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, generative AI is transforming the legal learning experience. This is partly because the technology can tailor content and pedagogy to individual learning styles and partly because it offers new forms of training, such as simulations and immersive learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, global arbitration law firm Three Crowns and Stanford University\u2019s CodeX project, a legal tech innovation hub, are using generative AI to create real-life simulations that students and legal professionals can use to develop cross-examination skills.<\/p>\n

How junior lawyers develop legal expertise is also changing. Tasks that were once part of learning on the job \u2014 such as contracting, legal research and document drafting \u2014 can now be handled by AI technologies.<\/p>\n

This could be a good thing, says Winston Weinberg, chief executive and co-founder of legal AI start-up Harvey. \u201cThe premise of a career in law was always apprenticeship \u2014 you would learn the craft from someone with experience and work your way up with their mentorship,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

But in more recent years, this approach has got \u201clost in a sea of administrative tasks,\u201d says Weinberg. With AI assuming responsibility for this more mundane work, he adds, junior lawyers are free to spend more time with experienced colleagues, helping to revive the original principles of the apprenticeship.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be this fiction that by doing the grunt work, you were learning how to be a lawyer,\u201d says Danny Tobey, chair of DLA Piper\u2019s AI and data analytics practice for the Americas. Now, \u201cthere\u2019s more opportunity for mentorship in the things humans are suited to\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tobey experienced this evolution at first hand. As an associate, he says he would spend 15 hours a day reviewing paper documents. \u201cA couple of years later, it was all e-discovery,\u201d he adds. \u201cThe only thing I lost was hours spent alone in rooms with boxes \u2014\u00a0and that was not high-value training time.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as the shift from paper to digital files enables AI to classify, analyse and extract new insights from legal documents, lawyers face a new challenge: to use AI aggressively to meet new business objectives while ensuring the data remains secure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is one of the paramount tensions,\u201d says Michael Pastor, law professor and dean for New York Law School\u2019s technology law programmes.<\/p>\n

The dilemma for in-house lawyers, he says, is that their corporate bosses and business development teams are pushing for rapid implementation of AI, to get ahead of the competition. Yet they must also apply caution to prevent data being misused, lost or stolen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an in-house lawyer, you need to help your client navigate those tensions while keeping an eye on the business objective,\u201d says Pastor. \u201cThat is where lawyers are going to earn their money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law firms face similar tensions since, as guardians of their clients\u2019 privileged information, their ability to deliver the right solutions depends on the integrity of this information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This, says Tobey, means having conversations with senior executives to ensure they have AI data governance policies in place. \u201cI talk to boards of directors and CEOs all the time and tell them this is fundamental to the accuracy of information throughout their organisations.\u201d <\/p>\n

Using data irresponsibly, he says, exposes clients to risks that could lead to litigation, regulatory scrutiny and reputational crises \u2014 which will end up on the desks of their legal advisers. \u201cWe\u2019ll pick up the pieces,\u201d says Tobey. \u201cBut I\u2019d rather keep the vase intact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitching for legal business as a law firm once meant gaining an understanding of the client\u2019s needs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3163],"tags":[323,1942,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-212803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114743346696169590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}