Linklaters has created a team of lawyers to help it deploy artificial intelligence technology across the firm.
After the lawyers are trained in AI, they will advise Linklaters lawyers worldwide on how to use AI to improve “workflows” and the service for their clients.
The AI team will work with data science colleagues to identify areas where the AI can be used in the firm and how the technology can be implemented.
Combining Linklaters’ lawyers and highly skilled tech experts in a team will help the firm deliver “more innovative solutions” to the firm’s clients and staff, said Sarah Barnard, director of AI delivery at Linklaters.
Ron Friedmann, senior director analyst and a legal expert at research company Gartner, said other large law firms were likely to set up their own AI teams as they attempt to extract value from their sizeable investment in AI.
“Previous tech professionals had trouble getting lawyers’ attention,” he said. “The biggest challenge for the new AI professionals will be more demand for support than they can handle. A secondary challenge will be finding time and lawyer bandwidth to evaluate all the legal [generative AI] products coming to market.”
The creation of Linklaters’ AI team follows a firm-wide roll-out of Legora’s generative AI platform to automate and accelerate routine legal tasks.
Linklaters has also built its own chatbot and runs a start-up style ‘sandbox’ to develop ideas for AI tools.
Other large law firms are also investing in AI training. Latham & Watkins last year created an ‘AI academy’ for its junior lawyers.
In the US, first-year associate lawyers at law firm Ropes & Gray can spend approximately a fifth of their annual billable hours exploring AI. The firm is expanding the pilot scheme across its business.
Law firm Kennedys is partnering with Spellbook, a legal AI supplier, to create an AI training programme for its junior lawyers.
Spellbook’s platform uses legal AI to streamline the reviewing, redlining and drafting of legal contracts. It is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5 and other large language models.
The training will use “simulated frameworks” and AI-assisted exercises in drafting contracts to replicate the learning opportunities that may eventually fade away from the office, Kennedys said.
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