Extract from Trudy Knockless’s article, “AI Is Giving Legal Departments More Reasons to Keep Work In-House.”
“The presumption that I always pressure test with them is sort of that first capacity constraint reflex is to go and get outside counsel because this is a new question or a complex question,” said Rishi Varma, chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs officer and corporate secretary at Cargill.
The reflex to send unfamiliar or complex work to outside counsel is starting to give way to a different question inside some of the world’s largest legal departments: Can we handle this ourselves first?
Legal leaders from Cargill, Meta and DHL Supply Chain said advances in AI and, crucially, better access to their companies’ own data are giving in-house teams more ability to answer that question, and potentially reshaping which matters leave the department at all.
“The presumption that I always pressure test with them is sort of that first capacity constraint reflex is to go and get outside counsel because this is a new question or a complex question,” said Rishi Varma, chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs officer and corporate secretary at Cargill, during Priori’s FlexFest Legal Work, Unbundled conference.
