Rising Roles in Law

The delivery of legal services is evolving, and so are the roles needed to support it...It's a good read if you're curious about the changes happening in the sector and the opportunities that are emerging...Each chapter is written by those actually delivering change, bringing grounded, lived experience, not just theory. It's not hype, not pushing a product, and not pushing an agenda. It highlights that, regardless of the approach taken, it requires a clear strategy and ownership to unlock the benefits.

• Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viiAbout the contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiChapter 1: The changing structure of the modern, AI-enabled law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1By Ken Crutchfield, founder and CEO, Spring Forward ConsultingCorporate clients as catalysts for change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The new competitive landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3The Uber moment: The unauthorized practice of law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4The emergence of new roles and operating models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6How traditional firms will adapt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Designing the AI-enabled law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Chapter 2: The legal engineer: Productizing legal work in the AI-enabled firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13By Ali Chaudhry, senior legal engineer, Simmons & SimmonsFrom knowledge engineer to legal engineer: How we got here . . . . . . . 14What the role actually involves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Productizing legal services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21How legal engineers work with lawyers and IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Skills, backgrounds, and what firms are looking for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Chapter 3: Legal data scientists and analytics leaders: The rise of legal intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31By Matthew J. Dunne, AI solutions lead, K&L Gates LLPWhat is a data scientist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Data in legal delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Foundations and governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Chapter 4: Knowledge management, prompt engineering, and the client-facing future of legal knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41By Colin S. Levy, general counsel, MalbekWhere the real value lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41What generative AI use looks like in legal practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Prompt engineering as a legal skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44The KM team as adoption engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Practical examples: Successes and failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50The client-facing future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Chapter 5: The legal operations leader: Designing modern legal service delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61By Katie Moon, head of legal design and operations, and Daniel Solomon, portfolio lead: client collaboration, Lewis Silkin LLPThe rise of legal operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62What is the focus of legal operations? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Who are legal operations professionals? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64What type of work do they do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65How else is AI impacting this role? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69How will the role evolve? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Chapter 6: AI governance professionals: Managing risk in the AI-enabled law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75By Harry Borovick, general counsel, Luminance, and Amy Merrick, senior legal counsel, Google DeepMindWhy governance roles are emerging now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75The governance professional as translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76A practical risk framework: The “four gates” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77The privilege question: When AI meets confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Cybersecurity, client assurance, and the new trust question . . . . . . . . . 83Governance as a competitive advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Chapter 7: Designing the modern legal workforce: Building multidisciplinary teams for the AI-enabled law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89By Dr Catriona Wolfenden, director of product and innovation, Weightmans LLPThe times, they are a-changin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89The capabilities modern teams need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Choosing the right operating model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92The Weightmans approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Culture and incentives: Integrating other specialists into partnership-led environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96The shift to organizing teams around “products” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Challenges and lessons learned: Making multidisciplinary teams work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Chapter 8: From roles to systems: How AI is reshaping legal decision infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107By Olga V. Mack, CEO, TermScoutThe misdiagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Core framework: The Legal Decision Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Supporting framework: Signal vs document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Supporting framework: The Risk-Tiered Action Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Example 1: Contracts as decision systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Example 2: ESI protocols as decision systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Why roles are emerging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Implications for leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Chapter 9: The AI-enabled professional: Skills, culture, and adoption in the modern law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123By Paul Caddy, managing knowledge lawyer, Lewis Silkin LLPThe skills required for AI-enabled roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124The cultural and behavioral factors that drive successful AI adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Challenges of embedding new tools into real workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139How firms approach training and capability development . . . . . . . . . . 141Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149