Team size: Four

AI has been taken seriously as a potentially revolutionary technological change in the legal world for a number of years now. Has it had a meaningful impact in how your legal team works in this time?

Currently, we are at the very beginning of integrating AI into our daily legal work, but its impact is already significant. Even though we are still only scratching the surface of its capabilities, AI already delivers tangible benefits for us and our internal clients. It helps us complete standard tasks much faster, reduces routine research time, and provides more space to focus on complex legal assessments and strategic advice. Building on this promising start, we will continue to expand the ways in which we use AI in our daily work.

One of the most obvious advantages is the support AI provides in document-heavy processes such as contract review, policy drafting, and correspondence management. By quickly identifying key clauses, highlighting inconsistencies, and suggesting alternative wording, AI tools can significantly reduce the time we spend on repetitive checks. This does not replace our legal judgement, but it enhances it by providing better-prepared drafts and more complete information from the outset.

Looking ahead, we expect AI to become an integral part of our knowledge management. It can help us capture insights from previous matters, structure them into easily searchable formats, and reuse this experience in future cases. Such a knowledge base, powered by AI, will allow new team members to ramp up faster and will support consistent, high-quality advice across the organisation.

Furthermore, AI can assist in risk and compliance management by monitoring regulatory developments, spotting patterns in past incidents, and flagging potential issues at an early stage. With the right safeguards in place, this increases our ability to act proactively rather than reactively.

Client communication and collaboration can also benefit from AI. Drafting clear, concise, and audience-specific summaries of complex topics becomes easier when we have AI support for first drafts and for tailoring content to different stakeholders. This helps us explain legal positions more accessibly and supports faster, more informed decisions. At the same time, we remain fully responsible for verifying the content and ensuring it meets our professional standards.

To unlock the full potential of AI in our legal work, we must continue to experiment, learn, and refine our ways of working. This includes defining clear use cases, setting quality controls, and investing in training so that all team members feel confident in using these tools responsibly. In summary, we are only at the beginning of this journey, but the opportunities for smarter workflows, deeper insights, and stronger collaboration demonstrate that AI will become a pillar of legal work.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

Mainly, there are two trigger events that prompt us to use external legal services. The first is when it is highly likely that the issue will go to court. The second is when the subject matter requires additional expertise due to its complexity, special nature, or liability risks.

The most important factor in evaluating the performance of external legal services is the proactivity of the service provider and their ability to provide 360-degree consultancy. By this, we mean advice that not only addresses the specific legal question, but also takes into account related legal areas, business implications, risks, and strategic options. Our expectation when using external legal services is that they bring in new ideas and perspectives, help us identify blind spots at an early stage, and translate legal assessments into clear, decision-oriented scenarios. This provides a broader view of the subject matter, reduces legal and liability risks, and establishes a more solid basis for subsequent business decisions.

In addition, 360-degree consultancy should be aligned with our business model and internal processes, avoid unnecessary follow-up costs by addressing issues early, and support consistent internal and external communication. Of course, communication between the service provider and our team is crucial for the evaluation of performance, in particular their responsiveness, clarity, and ability to collaborate smoothly with our internal stakeholders.