GenAI: An old(ish) Lawyer's Fountain of Youth

I realised a while ago already that achieving that level of comfortable expertise in the legal technology space is unlikely.  This world we are occupying, and the career we have chosen, is just changing too fast to allow anyone to grow old and become the Tea Sipping Sage who dispenses Advice. The vast chasm between my first few years of practice, and our current reality, is hard to describe. At the very start of my career, I arrived at just as the firm I was working for rolled out computers to the lawyers for the very first time (much to the noisy dismay of some of the more traditional partners). My Dictaphone was my best friend, and I was super stoked to have a cell phone capable of sending messages AND making calls. Now, my team (mostly 15 or more years younger than me) can't imagine working without smartphones and laptops stronger than the computing power behind the moon landing. I, however, still harboured some hope that at some point I might be able to stop feeling like I know far too little about far too much, and become a Tea Sipping Sage.

Then 2025 happened. Spoiler alert – I will remain a heavily caffeinated, coffee drinking, running to catch up, apprentice forever.  Next spoiler alert – to my fellow almost-gray haired lawyers - you might be in the same boat. If you decided to make legal process and technology part of your area of expertise – you are defo in the same boat. That's not a spelling error – I am trying to embrace the fact that I am again a student at the very start of her career and using the lingo of my law student daughter. At least, I am trying. I am probs getting that all wrong too, but there you are – as I said, I am embracing this wholeheartedly.

So, what about 2025 reverse aged me so rapidly?  GenAI tools became real. We tested Harvey and Legora and partnered with CohesionX to build a CDH specific enterprise search solution powered by their VectorMind platform. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I have never seen anything like this in my career so far. These tools are different from any other tool I have ever tested, championed or used, for so many reasons. It is not possible in this short personal account to tell you about all of them. We will share more over the coming months, but for the moment I will try to give you the highlights of why this is different from everything else, and why it is going to have such a profound impact on how we practice.

Here are some highlights on the data garnered in the testing (those of you who have been involved in bringing change, especially technological change, to the legal profession will understand how extraordinary this is). We invited all directors, senior associates, associates and operations leaders to volunteer for the Harvey and Legora pilots. 64% of the eligible group volunteered to help us test. Let that sink in kind audience. Now try to process that of the volunteers, well over 80% were active participants in the testing. The testers interacted with the platforms an insane 11,390 times over the test period, with interactions varying between a few targeted testing instances to hundreds of interactions. Strikingly, directors were the second most active test group. Testers used the platforms for a wide range of use cases, each easily and almost seamlessly applying the functionality to their own unique processes and circumstances. We did not have to tell them how to use it, and where the benefits might lie. It was self-evident.

Behaviours shifted instantly and for good. It turns out lawyers may not resist change or new technology as much as assumed—they simply didn't like the options presented before.

At first that made me very happy – at last change management may not be the hardest part of my job. But then it hit me – learning how to harness this capability, while navigating the many and serious risks involved, all the while working out what the impact will be on the law firm business model, and how to maintain standards and teach the next generation of lawyer – there is no time to get old. Tea drinking will have to wait. It is back to school I go. And I was really looking forward to the tea 🥹.