Hi there,
There’s a cliche that lawyers can’t be innovative 🤔 .
I think a more accurate statement is that some lawyers choose not to be.
Because there are plenty of lawyers and firms proving otherwise.
Like Allen & Overy’s newsmaking launch of “co-pilot Harvey” — the first-of-its kind OpenAI tool verticalized specifically for law firms 🤖.
OpenAI, if you’re not familiar, is the company behind chatGPT, the AI chatbot that’s been all over the news lately.
A&O’s Harvey is a legal-specific version of OpenAI’s technology.
The firm has deployed Harvey across 3,500 lawyers in 43 locations to automate things like due diligence, contract analysis, litigation, and more.
Interestingly, Harvey (apparently) requires very little training to use while enabling the firm to deliver results faster, better, and more cost-effectively (kind of like PERSUIT… just sayin’ 🤷♂️).
A&O’s Harvey announcement is pivotal in my view.
Not because of the specific technology, but because of what it represents — forces at work that will fundamentally change the way legal services are bought and sold.
And it’s happening very fast.
I think Lander & Rogers TMT partner Lisa Fitzgerald summed it up well in her recent interview with Lawyers Weekly:
“Legal services that can be delivered more efficiently, with greater certainty and enhanced job satisfaction, is exactly what AI can support and is something for the legal profession to be excited about.
“Like the pandemic and the flexible working model it necessitated, AI is going to force change in the legal services sector at a pace never seen before.”
Still, as I type this, thousands of lawyers somewhere are undoubtedly deep in the process of mind-numbing document review and due diligence, just like I did as a junior lawyer for countless excruciating hours — piling up my billables so I could someday hope to make partner.
Firms and in-house teams that don’t empower their people to automate tedious tasks moving forward are — in my view — consciously choosing to be bad at innovation.
For them, the challenge to the status quo that technology represents is just too much.
Technology (like AI) isn’t just where the market is going; it’s where it already IS.
While AI won’t replace lawyers anytime soon — or I hope, ever — it will accelerate the transition from time-based to value-based billing sooner than any of us could have imagined.
Someday, “Harvey” (and tools like it) will just be another data point 📈 on the timeline of change marching forward in legal services, whether we choose to accept it or not.
What are your thoughts on the topic?
Hit “reply,” and let me know!
Cheers,
