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How do internal corporate legal departments view the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)? According to 2024 Generative AI in professional services, a report recently released by the Thomson Reuter Institute, corporate counsel generally have positive opinions about GenAI and how it could help boost their work and the companies they work for. In fact, of all professionals surveyed in the report, respondents from corporate legal departments were the most likely to believe that GenAI could be applied to their work, with 88% saying yes.
Based on interviewees’ responses, corporate lawyers are mostly still learning about this emerging technology, as GenAI is just beginning to have a impact on the legal profession.
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We asked Bill Josten, a former practicing attorney who is now global coordinator of legal industry thought leadership for the Thomson Reuters Institute about his thoughts on what corporate legal departments should know about GenAI. Josten has extensive expertise in the field of law, including aspects such as financial management, practice management, and talent and technology.
Keep reading for his thoughts, based on his research, regarding in-house counsel and the potential advantages of GenAI.
Question: Why should lawyers learn about GenAI?
Josten: For in-house counsel, AI truly is an impossible proposition to say no to. Even if the General Counsel (GC) has decided that the AI tools currently on the market are not suitable for the legal department, the department’s attorneys still need to be familiar with them. The reason is that other areas of the business may want to take advantage of it. By trying to avoid the risks associated with GenAI by simply not paying attention to it, you are actually increasing that risk.
If you learn about GenAI, you learn about its pros, cons, and true capabilities. And you formulate best practices for how GenAI can be applied to your work.
Question: What benefits could GenAI offer in-house corporate counsel?
Josten: The majority of corporate law departments say their case volumes are increasing, but their budgets and staffing levels remain the same or even decrease. If they can find ways for AI to create the ability to do more work, it will not only help reduce material volumes, but also address another need they have. According to our State of the Corporate Law Department 2024 report, 72% of clients say one of their top priorities is finding ways to move more work in-house. This is a big part of their cost-cutting strategy. =
If your caseload is increasing but your staff and budget are decreasing or, at best, staying the same, it’s really about doing more with less. How are you doing that? You create the capacity for each person to accomplish more individually and you increase the capacity of each person within the department. This is what many corporate law departments are looking for. And that’s why a lot of these departments are turning to GenAI.
Question: What approaches to GenAI should in-house legal departments help establish?
Josten: Few GCs I’ve spoken with talk about strict policies against GenAI. What they’re talking about is putting guardrails around the use of GenAI. They opt for sensible and commercially viable guidelines when attempting to transform.
Again, it is important for GCs to understand that certain parts of the business are I’m going to want to move forward with AI, whether the GC thinks it’s good for the legal department or not. They still need to be very attuned to what AI can do, because they need to advise the business on how best to manage it.
Question: What is one of the main lessons to be learned from Generative AI in professional services report that you would like corporate counsel to take note of?
Josten: One of the most important things involves AI education and training. Few companies still offer it. About three-quarters of law firms and corporate legal departments say they have provided no training on GenAI. And they’re not hiring for specific GenAI skills either. But if you don’t train people in GenAI skills and hire people with existing GenAI skills, where do those skills come from?
HAS me, a big lesson for business advisors of the connection is that it takes an effort to start educating people about it. Sspread that GénAI journey implied put as much information in there as possible. If corporate legal services Ato rent out hire for these skills and they are not training for these skills, There is a giant red flag there. In-house lawyers you need to determine where the most logical starting point is East. And they I should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Do something It is clever, concentrate, and the results–It’s better to be motivated than to do nothing and just wait and see.
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Here is a starting point for GénAI for your work. |
