Extract from Lisa Shuchman’s article “Gen AI Adoption Is Taking Off. Law Firms Are Finally Ready”
Law firms around the world are now taking generative AI seriously.
It’s not that they didn’t consider it important before, but most were characteristically cautious and slow. Now, the pace of technological advancement, combined with how quickly gen AI has changed corporate legal departments and what in-house counsel want—or don’t want—from their external legal advisers, has forced firms to see the writing on the wall: they need to adapt, and do it quickly.
Just in the last month, four Big Law firms—Latham & Watkins, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, DLA Piper and Reed Smith—have hired technology specialists who have AI expertise for roles that did not previously exist. Other firms are also looking for similarly qualified candidates to fill new positions in what is turning out to be an emerging law firm AI talent war.
And all this hiring and attention to generative AI is not just taking place in the U.S. DLA Piper’s newly appointed chief data and AI officer is based in London. Canadian law firm Borden Ladner Gervais last week appointed a chief artificial intelligence officer who will be responsible for leading the firm’s AI strategy—a new role for the firm and the first such position among large Canadian firms. Also last week, leading Spanish law firm Garrigues, which has developed its own generative AI platform, announced a collaboration with Microsoft. In early May, Maples and Calder, the Maples Group’s law firm in Ireland, appointed a head of innovation, a new position for the firm, who will work with lawyers and clients to navigate and adopt AI technology.
