Rethinking Legal Work Allocation in the Age of AI
- cosmonauts
- 24 hours ago
- 3 min read
As legal technology accelerates, legal departments are rethinking how work should be distributed between in-house teams, external counsel, and AI.
In our latest Future Lawyer UK Q&A, Sonya Rogerson, Head of Legal Transformation at Novartis Pharma AG, shares her perspective on the barriers to legal tech adoption, the leadership needed to drive AI transformation, and how legal teams can make more strategic decisions about where work should sit.
Enjoy the interview below.
In your opinion, what are the biggest barriers preventing wider adoption of legal tech in the legal profession right now?
It is where to start and the strategic choice of the relevant legal tool/s. The tools need to be effective and have a measurable return on investment. Other barriers include, technology risk involving the acceleration of newer and better technology and concerns regarding protecting confidentiality, legal professional privilege and data security. We don’t want to admit this, but there is a knowledge gap at the C-suite and CLO level as to how to practically adopt and embed AI across an organisation.
When you look across your legal team today, how would you honestly characterise the culture toward innovation? What’s missing to excite lawyers to adopt AI?
The adoption of AI is mixed, regardless of an individual’s experience. There needs to be a dedicated change management programme to support lawyers adopting AI. In particular, educating lawyers as to how AI will improve their efficiency dealing with high volume/low complex, commoditised legal work. I want them to know that this will improve their day to day work life. What’s missing in many organisations is the leadership and understanding of how AI can even now significantly change the day to day legal function. Yes, that’s both cost and impact.
In your view, which categories of legal work should remain exclusively human-led, regardless of technological capability?
I would love to say that AI has no limitations as to its capabilities in the legal profession, but solely using AI for strategic, tactical and certain high stakes advice involving complex and sensitive matters comes with inherent risk and human decision making is still needed. Having said this, AI could still be used for parts of this advice with the right infrastructure and governance in place and with the risks being understood, e.g an in-house tool built for purpose on a closed platform.
How do you think the outside counsel model will need to change over the next five years as in-house teams become more data-sophisticated and as AI reduces the volume of certain types of external work?
There will always be a need for strategic advice from outside counsel who can navigate complex problems with a detailed understanding of their clients. How and when that advice will be called upon will change, as will its cost. What is certain is that outside counsel will have to further incorporate AI into their service offering and provide add-on technology services, the costs of which may or may not be passed to their clients. The sophisticated in-house client who has embedded reliable AI legal tools and automated their operational legal work will need to engage outside counsel less and may also choose to use alternative competitors who offer AI-powered legal and technology solutions in substitution to traditional legal advice. This will further refine outside counsels’ model. Maybe we will finally see the end of the billable hour?!
What insights do you hope the attendees will take away after your session at Future Lawyer UK?
Our reliance on AI legal tech is only going to accelerate and GCs are key in leading and shaping how AI is used in the profession. Though most of the current focus is on AI legal tools, the bigger challenge is how to rethink the purpose and delivery model of the legal function and when to start implementing that transformation.
Sonya will be joining us on Day 2 of Future Lawyer UK 9.0 for the panel: “Strategic Legal Workload Management: Balancing In-House, External Counsel, and AI.”
The session will explore how legal teams can use data, technology, and clear governance to allocate work more effectively and maximise the value of both internal teams and external partners.
Register now to join the conversation at Future Lawyer UK 9.0
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