Beacon Collective: What legal leaders discussed about AI, training, risk and business models

The useful part

Following the event, I spoke separately with attendees Catie Sheret, general counsel at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and Stuart Whittle, partner and former CTO at Weightmans, to reflect on what stood out. They highlighted a series of strategic questions that the legal profession is grappling with – although admittedly, answers are in many cases still elusive. Advertisement One of the themes to emerge at the conference was the growing maturity of but also tensions within discussions between law firms and clients around AI adoption.

How it works

• "What surprised me was just how open and transparent it sounds like some of the profession is being, in terms of private practice conversations with clients about how and where to use AI," Sheret observed.
• "I thought that was really refreshing because I'm in quite a lot of conversations around 'we need to tell law firms how to use AI and this is what we want and we want lower prices.' That's just not going to...
• Sheret observed that junior-lawyer development is a major concern, particularly if AI reduces opportunities for repetitive work that traditionally provided exposure to legal scenarios and client issues.
• You can watch Whittle's video interview below for more reflections on that and many other topics raised at the conference.
• Well done to Folkes and all of the speakers and attendees for a lively debate that shows at the end of the day, we all (myself included) love the sound of our own voice.

What to take from it

According to Sheret, the most striking aspect of the event was hearing genuinely open conversations between private practice lawyers and clients about where AI can and should be used, and what trade-offs it creates. I could hear that there are clearly some great relationships and very honest conversations going on and an honest discussion about risk, which is basically what this all comes down to. The most valuable discussions focus on difficult strategic questions: how lawyers will be trained, how risk will be shared, how legal services will be priced, how governance will operate and whether the profession's longstanding business models are finally approaching a tipping point.

Example or evidence

• "We have a reasonably large team, but not large enough for us to build a training program," she said.
• Whittle argues that the traditional training model was not especially effective to begin with.
• Effective lawyers, he argued, require far more than black-letter law expertise.
• See below my video interview with Whittle for more insights into the conference discussions.

Details worth keeping

Strategic conversations the legal sector needs to have right now. That's such a destructive way of approaching it. Rather than lamenting the loss of repetitive tasks, he suggested there is an opportunity to create more deliberate, contextual learning experiences that integrate legal knowledge, technology skills, communication and client service.

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