In-House Legal Pros: Gen AI Will Improve Work and Career
New survey finds corporate law teams eager to automate tedious tasks.
Generative AI is changing knowledge work – and in-house legal professionals say they see the glass as half full.
Far from fearing obsolescence, many legal professionals are embracing the transformative potential of AI to do away with the more tiresome and mundane aspects of in-house work.
A new report from Everlaw and the Association of Corporate Counsel, GenAI and Future Corporate Legal Work: How Ready Are In-House Teams?, found that most corporate law professionals are optimistic that generative AI will improve their jobs and their careers.
As AI grows in sophistication, legal professionals see a future in which they have more time to devote to complex legal issues, provide nuanced strategic advice to business leaders, and contribute more directly to their organization's strategic goals.
“The arrival of GenAI technologies presents a unique opportunity for legal professionals to position themselves as strategic drivers of innovation and business growth within their organizations,” Everlaw CLO Gloria Lee says in the report.
Lee, one of three in-house leaders profiled in the report, emphasized that although GenAI is still new, it will profoundly impact how legal departments work. Also profiled is Todd Aman, Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary at FiscalNote, who discusses how AI will augment rather than replace attorneys. And Tiffani Hamilton-Huynh, Director of Legal Innovation, Technology, and Analytics at DHL Supply Chain, says she sees significant growth opportunity for legal ops professionals in the AI age.
FiscalNote's Todd Aman on Lawyers Leading the Charge
The small in-house legal department at FiscalNote is positioning itself for a big impact.
Aman says in the report that the five legal professionals on his team are helping train AI assistants to automate contract review, minutes drafting, and other routine tasks. Encouraging active experimentation streamlines processes while creating a sense of excitement and collaboration.
“By investing in AI, we’re not just automating tasks,” Aman says, “we’re also empowering our team and positioning our department at the forefront of this transformative technology.”
Still, there is no replacing human judgment and expertise, Aman says.
“Managers should focus on clear communication and expectation setting to ensure successful collaboration with AI assistants.”
DHL's Tiffani Hamilton-Huynh on Redefining Legal Ops Roles
Legal operations respondents showed the highest enthusiasm about their future careers. Seventy-three percent of legal ops respondents said they expect GenAI to enhance their careers, compared to 59 percent of all survey participants saying the same.
DHL legal ops director Hamilton-Huynh explains that some of that positivity stems from the fact that GenAI has the potential to catapult legal ops beyond operations to “true change catalysts” in their organizations.
She predicts that incorporating AI tools into their daily work will fast-track legal ops professionals’ learning curve for new and highly specialized skills, including data analysis, project management, and process mining. This will profoundly impact their ability to lead digital transformation initiatives.
“We have already started to see this shift in the industry, accelerated by the accessibility of AI solutions and the growing anticipation that this is the future of legal services.”
Everlaw's Gloria Lee on Testing Tools Today to Move Careers Ahead Tomorrow
GenAI has already proven it can digest vast volumes of data and extract meaning from it. That makes it a game-changing technology for lawyers for a broad range of legal work, from transactions to litigation, Lee said.
She sees meaningful impact for workflows related to intellectual property and securities litigation, antitrust review and government subpoenas, and due diligence for deals.
Experimenting with the tools to understand where they can bring the most value is one of the most important steps in-house professionals can take today.
“The hype around GenAI is real, and those who have explored and figured out how it makes their legal work product better will be making leaps and bounds in their career.”
Download your copy of GenAI and Future Corporate Legal Work: How Ready Are In-House Teams? to read the full profiles, learn more about how in-house leaders view the impact of GenAI on legal work and their teams, and a nine-step roadmap to guide in-house legal professionals of all levels in leveraging AI for career success.
