How is AI helping law firm workflows?

20 snips

Nov 12, 2024

Guest

Catherine Roberts

Guest

Caryn Sandler

Caryn Sandler, Partner and Chief Knowledge Officer at Gilbert + Tobin, and Catherine Roberts, Senior Director of AI and Legal Tech at Thomson Reuters, discuss how AI is reshaping legal workflows. They dive into the balance between technology and human judgment, highlighting the transformation of repetitive legal tasks into strategic endeavors. The conversation reveals the enthusiasm for AI adoption amid initial skepticism and the importance of training and collaboration in effectively harnessing new tools in the legal field.

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ANECDOTE

Law Firm AI Research Experience

Gilbert + Tobin uses AI tools to supplement research, combining new capabilities with existing methods.
Confidence in AI tools is growing but lawyers still work alongside technology for now.

ADVICE

Implement Safe AI Usage Policies

Provide all lawyers access to generative AI tools but enforce strict policies and cybersecurity assessments.
Avoid using client data with public AI tools and evaluate each platform's compliance rigorously.

ADVICE

Prevent AI Hallucinations with RAG

Use retrieval augmented generation to constrain AI models and prevent hallucinations.
Lawyers should approach AI with awareness of risks and utilize trusted platforms.

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How is AI helping law firm workflows?

Dive into the intricacies of how leading law firms are bringing AI into daily practice

In this episode we consider how generative AI technology is developing and look at how AI products are being embraced by those working at the vanguard of the legal profession. We also examine where scepticism remains among lawyers and their clients, and where human factors will remain critical to delivering results

Featuring

Caryn Sandler – partner and chief knowledge officer, Gilbert + Tobin.

Catherine Roberts – senior director of AI and legal tech, Thomson Reuters.

While the introduction of major new technologies can often lead to anxiety, access to AI in a professional setting at law firm Gilbert + Tobin has been met with enthusiasm.

We speak with Caryn Sandler, a partner and chief knowledge officer at Gilbert + Tobin, and explore the challenges law firms face and the lessons learned from the integration of AI into practice workflows.

“In the medium to long term, we envisage that generative AI is going to transform how aspects of legal services are delivered,” Sandler says.

She walks us through how the firm has approached the integration of AI and how it is working with staff and clients to build confidence in the tools.

“Effective utilisation of generative AI is as much a product of human judgment as it is about technology,” Sandler says.

“You have to engage with the technology now as it’s going to take time to build new capability, build new workflows, and work out how it is going to change legal practice. Immersing yourself is critical now, in my view, rather than waiting for the technology to evolve such that you won’t be able to catch up with it.”

Joining Sandler is Catherine Roberts, the senior director of AI and legal tech at Thomson Reuters. She talks us through the AI skills challenges she has been leading for Thomson Reuters clients and explains how they help bring AI capabilities to life and encourage firms to imagine where these tools will deliver research efficiencies.

“The really smart players are the ones that are getting ahead of this,” Roberts says.

Credits:

The AI & the Law podcast is produced by Guardian Labs Australia.

Host: Seamus Byrne

Guardian Labs producer: Minsoo Park

Lead commercial editor for Guardian Labs: Nicola Harvey

Sound editor: Seamus Byrne