The Legal Brief - 22nd February 2023

On the 15th of?February,?Magic Circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) revealed?that it will be integrating an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform?across their 43 offices?in order to help lawyers to “deliver faster, smarter, and more cost-effective solutions to their clients”.?

The AI tool, known as Harvey,?was founded by former O’Melveny & Myers associate Winston Weinberg and?former research scientist Gabriel Pereyra. The platform?is?also?backed by OpenAI, the?company responsible for the notorious ChatGPT.

Since A&O started trialling?Harvey in November 2022, 3,500 lawyers have asked Harvey over 40,000 questions?in regard to their?regular client work. Harvey?utilisesGPT-3 technology to?aid lawyers with contract analysis, due diligence, litigation, and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, Weinberg and Pereyra remarked that the trial "saw some amazing results" and that A&O had used Harvey in 250 different practise areas and 50 different languages.

The head of A&O’s markets innovation group, David Wakeling, described Harvey as being a “game changer”?that can save lawyers “a couple hours a week-plus”.?Similarly, Senior Partner Wim Dejonghe?described the announcement as being a “new era” not just for A&O, but for the?entire?legal industry.?

Thus,?Harvey appears to be an exciting development in the legal industry and can be used as a useful tool to enable lawyers to use their time more efficiently, especially in light of the lengthy hours lawyers work, with Legal Cheek research demonstrating that junior lawyers are regularly clocking 12 to 16 hour working days.?However, the CEO of Radiant Law, Alex Hamilton, has cautioned that there are risks associated with this since "the underlying technology is prone to hallucinations...and lulls people into a false sense of security by answering?fluently”. This?fear is?shared?by the CTO of a UK top 50 firm who revealed to The Legal Insider that “you are told at law school not to use Wikipedia and given years of legal?training?only to go to one of the leading law firms and be given a research tool that hallucinates” and?that “it has the potential to cause damage when some poor junior lawyer misses the fact of the case”.

Moreover, although this step can be deemed “revolutionary”,?with?Pereyra revealing that Harvey will start to be?implemented?at other firms in the near future,?Harvey is not intended to be a?substitute for lawyers. Baptiste Aubry, head of financial services at the Luxembourg office, reminds us that?Harvey is not intended to replace the?“human touch” that lawyers bring?and is simply a “tool for improvement”.

Written by Imogen Ellis

With growing pressure on automotive manufacturers to transition away from internal combustion, and towards electrically powered, engines, Luxury car marque Bentley has signalled its intention to change its drive chains - and maybe a little sooner than many would have expected!

With the change to EVs being mandated by 2030, many would have expected the luxury car market, and it’s producers, to wait until quite late in the 2020s to lose the engines their products have relied on for years.

Bentley have announced this week, however, that they will be phasing out their flagship V12 engines, with production to cease in April 2024. This is the first significant production change in their move towards electrification, and puts them ahead of rivals, Rolls Royce and Ferrari, who still intend on production internal combustion engines past this deadline.

This maintains Bentleys position as being the only leading luxury marque to be targeting an entirely electric lineup by the start of the 2030s, and should see them maintaining their popularity, as their vehicles will undoubtedly have undergone more testing and improvement prior to the 2030 deadline as a result.

On another note, it is also really exciting to see a leading British Luxury manufacturer out in front on this issue, as ongoing government plans to have industry-leading EV battery production in the UK, and all the jobs that would go with such ventures, still heavily rely on manufacturers being advanced enough to begin putting orders in for these batteries - we don’t want another repeat of BritishVolt, where the demand simply wasn’t there to maintain the

Written by Duncan Balcon

After purchasing a stake in sportswear brand, The Sports Edit, last year, Marks & Spencer is looking to reap the rewards of its investment, by taking on the Athleisure world.

The Sports Edit, an active clothing platform, will be one of a number of third party brands to appear on the website of M&S, as part of their current growth strategy, which also includes offering products by Jaeger (amongst others) to their customers. This could be seen by many as a serious attempt to increase the variety of clothing items available to consumers, as well as being a slightly more exciting range of products, without costing M&S huge amounts in product development costs. Other brands to follow this year will include, ASICS and Hoka, who are both well known for their high quality sports shoes, so this would indicate that this sportswear offering is one that M&S is keen to cement.

This could be fantastic for M&S going forwards. A large number of UK consumers already visit their stores for their underwear (somewhere around 1/4 of men but boxers there, and around 1/3 of UK made bras are M&S), so increasing their offering should also increase up-sales from these customers who are already in the store.

With more and more consumers keen to make their health a priority, this could prove to be a very profitable venture.

Written by Duncan Balcon

This week from Legally Speaking Podcast Host, Robert Hanna ;

?????? MIGHTY: THE GAME-CHANGING SOLUTION THAT'S REVOLUTIONSING PERSONAL INJURY LAW

What steps can the legal industry take to align the interests of lawyers with those of their clients and ensure vulnerable individuals are not taken advantage of? ????

How can a holistic approach to personal injury services, including access to healthcare and financial assistance, improve outcomes for clients, and what impact might this have on the legal industry as a whole? ????

?? To learn more, I thoroughly enjoyed chatting?Joshua Schwadron, CEO and Founder of?Mighty, a start-up that is now disrupting the traditional personal injury process.

In addition to learning more about our latest?Legally Speaking Podcast ???powered by?Clio - Cloud-Based Legal Technology?inspiring episode; we shout out AMAZING previous guests; highlighting their achievements and what they are getting up to for the legal & wider communities:

???Amelia Platton?- for passing the accelerated LPC and taking one step closer to starting as a Trainee Solicitor with?Clifford Chance.

???Shannon Tong?- for completing her training contract with?Irwin Mitchell?and then joining the Corporate Tax team at?Burges Salmon LLP.

???Anjie Vichayanonda ?????? ??????????- for giving back to communities and helping with the grass restoration efforts at Connemara Meadow Nature Preserve.

???Vanessa Challess?- for her guest speaker event with?ILFM (The Institute of Legal Finance & Management)?for their first session of 2023.

???Eloise Skinner?- for her recent feature sharing perspectives from existential therapy in a?BBC?Worklife article about the recent layoff trend.

???Nick Eziefula?- for his work helping and supporting Power Up, an award-winning initiative powering up Black music creators and industry professionals and tackling anti-Black racism in the UK music industry.

???David Turney?- for speaking with?James Farha?&?David Turney?at a Clio event on how law firms can leverage legaltech to be more competitive and successful.

?? Clio - wins another award and the?#ClioCon?in Nashville agenda is now out!

*** OTHER NEWS ***

?? Mic Swap Time - I had the immense pleasure of being the first ever male guest on?Legally Blissed LLC?Conversations show hosted by the wonderful?Suzi Hixon, esq.

???Adam Woodhall, CEO of?Lawyers for Net Zero?is a named a finalist in the?LexisNexis?‘Legal Personality of the Year Award’.

Banking Lawyers?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 0 - 7?PQE (London, Manchester, Leeds )

Capital Markets Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 2 - 4??PQE (London)

Commercial Life Sciences Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 3 - 7?PQE (London)

Competition Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 2+ PQE (London)

Crypto Lawyers?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 2+?PQE (London )

Disputes Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 4 - 5?PQE (London )

Finance Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 3 - 4?PQE (London)

Financial Regulatory Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 3 - 5?PQE (London)

ICE Dispute Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 3 - 7?PQE (London )

IP Litigation Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 2+ PQE (London)

IP/IT/Commercial and Data Protection Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 4 - 5 PQE (London)

M&A Associate?- Top US Law Firm?- 2 - 4 PQE (London)

Powers/Networks Associate / Senior Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 5+ PQE (London )

Real Estate Associate?- Top 10 UK International Law Firm?- 0-2?PQE (London )

For further information, or to get your questions answered, please send a message to?Robert Hanna.

If you cannot see a job suitable for you, but are interested to hear about more jobs at KC Partners, please send your CV to?[email protected]?to be considered.

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