We decided to explore the theme, “AI Gets Real”, from the lens of the three pillars of Harbor Legal Lab: Talent, Technology, and Service Delivery. The result? From all corners, we’re hearing, it was the best Harbor Legal Lab yet. Of course, much of it came down to who was in the room, and to quote one attendee: “this room was superb”.
There was a genuine desire to harness the enthusiasm that lawyers have expressed about Generative AI, but also an acknowledgement that 2024 was still very much "a year of experimentation”. And while much of the focus was on using AI to help drive efficiency to increase profit, one of the comments that made everyone smile was that AI might also finally make lawyers’ lives more “fun”.
Changing equations for Talent
Heidi Gardner, Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School
Heidi Gardner of Harvard Law School kicked things off with a session on smarter collaboration, challenging everyone to not only collaborate more with others throughout their organizations – but to also think of AI as another member of their teams.
Change management was high on the agenda across both law firms and law departments, with recognition that the fear, uncertainty and doubt that many employees feel when it comes to AI is very real – and that mental health is also a key concern.
When it comes to Talent, rather than hiring fewer people due to AI, the question is more about the changing mix of skills that are needed. Communication, collaboration, relationship-building – once thought of as “soft skills” – all rank among the “power skills" of the new order, in addition to the tech savvy that seems increasingly critical to look for in new hires. Upskilling your existing workforce is also top of mind – building digital literacy more broadly as well as putting the policies in place to allow employees to “kick the tires” of GenAI tools.
One of the most compelling questions raised was how to unleash the full potential of junior associates at law firms: Can we deploy GenAI and other advanced tech to eliminate the drudgery that new hires typically do straight out of law school? But also, are firms and law departments structured to enable promising ideas to percolate from the “bottom-up”?
IA before AI
Ed Walters, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
Ed Walters of Georgetown Law School walked us through the ethical implications of working with GenAI and the importance of accuracy, transparency and confidentiality. Trust is at the heart of everything we do in legal, so ensuring that our collective approach to AI is beyond reproach is of the utmost importance.
There was a consensus that GenAI was forcing many lawyers and legal operations teams to confront the dark reality of the “data swamp”. As the hype around GenAI has started to peak, the frenzy to “Just mine the data” is starting to be tempered with the sobering reality that much of their data is badly organized. Several of our breakout groups raised the question of how to go about tackling the unglamorous task of sorting out your information architecture (IA) before unleashing your AI on it.* [*Harbor can help! – ed.]
Nick Kadochnikov of Harbor, who is also an adjunct professor at University of Chicago, discussed using AI to eliminate mundane tasks for humans. Kadochnikov has worked with the competitive intelligence team at Harbor in using large language models for the purposes of human augmentation.
Getting on the dance floor
Mike Haven, Associate General Counsel and Head of Legal Operations, Intel Corporation
Mike Haven of Intel gave an informal update on the Sens Collective – its exploration of different use cases for AI and growing momentum as more law departments have joined.
With so much focus now on identifying compelling use cases, several participants said that it felt like law firms and their corporate clients were doing a delicate dance. On the law firm side, firms are getting mixed signals from clients – ranging from those that are adamant that no AI touches any of their data, ever, to others that are actively asking for updates on how they plan to incorporate AI into service delivery in the future.
The corporate law department leaders in the room seemed pleasantly surprised to hear that firms at Harbor Legal Lab were so enthusiastic about experimentation with AI. They, too, reported hearing different things from various law firms – and that on a few occasions, law firms have asked them for permission to run AI experiments on specific data sets involving their data.
Standards for AI evaluation
Is there more that the broader legal community can do to connect the dots, or to get more people on the dance floor?
The answer may lie in establishing consensus around standards for evaluation of AI tools, particularly across law firms. Bobbi Basile of Harbor raised the possibility of organizing the equivalent of the Sedona Principles for AI, which had many heads nodding in the room.
We look forward to seeing how these initiatives unfold – and hearing more from Harbor Legal Lab ’24 attendees about how they have put the ideas they formulated during the breakouts into action.
Innovator Spotlight series
Several Harbor Legal Lab attendees also took part in interviews as part of the Harbor Innovator Spotlight series. Each video is just a few minutes long, with each leader sharing their thoughts on GenAI, the impact of advanced tech on talent, the importance of data, and the opportunities ahead for both corporate law departments and law firms.
- AI
- Strategy
- Talent
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