After spending the past couple of years testing AI tools and running pilot projects, European law firms are moving to the next phase of adoption: embedding Gen AI in day-to-day legal work across practices at scale. In a recent report by The Global Legal Post in association with LexisNexis, senior lawyers and executives from top-tier firms in Europe discussed how their lawyers are using AI in a much more structured and repeatable way.
Here are five key takeaways from the report:
AI experimentation is over
Firms have moved beyond piloting and exploring AI systems and are now moving into more structured deployment. “AI is no longer a side project driven by a few enthusiastic partners, it’s a strategic part of the firm,” said Sara Molina, a partner in the legaltech and digital transformation practice at Spanish-headquartered firm Pérez-Llorca, which has offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
As firms scale their investments, AI is being embedded into every day legal work, often in areas such as document analysis, drafting and contract review.
“Generative AI has become an overall strategic success factor and part of our firm culture, and is embedded in our daily workflows,” said Eric Wagner, a commercial law partner at Gleiss Lutz in Germany.
Governance is key to scaling AI safely
As AI becomes more integrated into how lawyers work, firms need to manage AI-associated risks by implementing guidelines around how AI can be used, how lawyers should manage AI outputs and just as importantly, in what circumstances AI can’t be used.
“Every AI output is reviewed and approved by a responsible lawyer so that AI remains an assistant, never an autopilot,” said Wagner.
Firms also need to take measures to ensure client data is secure when connecting to AI systems so that data isn’t inadvertently shared with any AI models.
“We have set up a governance model that ensures that the data are handled securely and we avoid shadow storage,” said Lieselot Oosterkamp, executive board member at Dutch firm Loyens & Loeff. “There’s a whole range of things we need to reconsider because of the use and implementation of AI. People usually underestimate how important it is. That’s why we took a very structured approach to make sure that everything in the backend is well organised.”
Workflows are being reimagined
The technology’s capabilities means firms can move beyond simple Gen AI deployments such as AI assistants.
“There are advanced legal AI tools that are designed to scale complex workflows like contract analysis, review redlining and drafting – all those different steps can be automated and super powered with AI,” said Racha Saadat, head of strategy CEMEA International at LexisNexis.
Some firms are therefore using Gen AI not just to digitise manual tasks but to entirely overhaul legal workflows by thinking through how the technology can help lawyers work more efficiently and effectively. “We are moving from simple AI integration in a process to having genuine redesign,” said Molina. “We are integrating AI in the complete workflow from the beginning to the end.”
While human oversight is critical in AI processes, some workflows also need humans to perform certain tasks manually alongside the AI outputs. Germany’s Hengeler Mueller, for example, has built an AI-powered due diligence tool that can assess transaction agreements and flag potential issues by comparing the agreement to similar documents, but it still requires human input to select the documents for comparison, says Pierre Zickert, a counsel and the firm’s legal technology manager.
Making prompting repeatable
As Gen AI adoption increases, firms are moving away from manual prompting by building prompt libraries that lawyers can access and perform repeatable tasks quickly. Some firms are also encouraging prompt sharing across teams. Portuguese firm VdA, for example, hosts monthly ‘AI in action’ workshops where its lawyers can share their prompting experiences and learn from each other on how to build the most effective prompts, says Marta Magalhães Cardoso, head of knowledge integration at VdA.
Other firms such as Hengeler Mueller are going one step further and turning their best prompts into AI agents that can handle both discrete tasks or entire workflows.
“These agents are in an agent library with explanations, so if you have no clue how to use AI at all, you can just go to the agent library and browse a little bit of what’s there and maybe get inspired,” said Zickert.
Some AI tool vendors are also supporting firms that might not have dedicated AI or knowledge management teams by building pre-prompted workflows to help streamline AI use.
“The idea is to completely erase manual prompting given that it creates too much room for error, and prompts may lack standardisation,” said Saadat.
AI impact goes beyond efficiency
Gen AI use may potentially make it faster to complete certain legal tasks, but the benefits for lawyers is not just saved time, it is the opportunities those time savings create.
“While we do not track AI efficiency by the minute, we are seeing clear gains,” said Moritz Krause, Gleiss Lutz’s legal technology manager. However, he adds that the bigger impact is qualitative: less late-night proofreading, more time for strategic advice and talking to clients.
Given that measuring efficiency gains is a challenge – in part because there is still a heavy amount of human review involved – firms may need to rethink traditional metrics for measuring return on investment.
“We need to let go of that approach, because then we will never experiment and never implement anything,” said Oosterkamp.
Despite the rapid advance of the technology, it is not going to change traditional law firm models overnight. However, many firms are starting to experiment with different types of pricing to reflect how work gets done with AI.
“We are not preparing to kill billable hours,” said Magalhães Cardoso. “Our business model remains the same. We are now starting to look into more value-based pricing and how we can implement that, but at this stage our business model remains unchanged.”
To read the full report – From prompts to process: How European law firms are embedding AI into the way legal work actually gets done – click here. To discover more about how Gen AI is changing the legal profession, visit our Gen AI legal research hub.
The full list of participants
The full list of participants
Eric Wagner, commercial law partner, Gleiss Lutz
Joana Mascarenhas, head of knowledge management, VdA
Lieselot Oosterkamp, executive board member, Loyens & Loeff
Marta Magalhães Cardoso, head of knowledge integration, VdA
Moritz Krause, legal technology manager, Gleiss Lutz
Pierre Zickert, counsel and legal technology manager, Hengeler Mueller
Racha Saadat, head of strategy, Northern and Southern Europe, LexisNexis.
Raúl Rubio, IP and technology partner, Pérez-Llorca
Sara Molina, partner, legaltech and digital transformation, Pérez-Llorca,
Thomas Meurer, M&A partner, Hengeler Mueller
Vittorio Pomarici, labour law partner and board member, BonelliErede
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
