A New Hope

EY Law was delighted to sponsor the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe awards earlier this Autumn. It was a brilliant evening, showcasing some of the profession’s greatest talent for an event now in its nineteenth year. With almost 200 award applications across 24 categories, it was innovation revealed in all its full European hope and glory.

Several weeks have passed allowing me to reflect and share some thematic?trends and key observations. ?There were clear winners in a number of key categories covering Gen AI usage, outside counsel management, operational transformation, new services, commercial and strategic advice, people and skills, and there were so many great examples of in-house innovation and high performance.

?If you have not yet read the report, Yasmin Lambert Reena SenGupta I would encourage you to do so!

?Whilst there was much promise of Gen AI inspired radical disruption in the legal profession, the reality in 2024 has been?somewhat more muted. Shape-shifting lawyers didn’t appear below the giant 25?metre long North Atlantic blue whale called “Hope”, suspended from the Hintze Hall ceiling within The Natural History Museum venue. There appears to be little immediate impact on?the legal profession numbers suffering, like those of the North Atlantic blue whales such as “Hope” which we sat under, yet it is clear from the vast array of award applications and more than 500 attendees, that the technology is rapidly changing the way that legal services are delivered, and by whom.

?I was somewhat relieved that we were no longer sitting under the previous suspended late Jurassic period incumbent in the Hintze Hall, ?which would have provided no little irony for all those attending this legal innovation awards event, giving a?stark visual reminder to now the?infamous Goldman Sachs statistic that 44% of all legal tasks can be automated by AI.

?With many in-house teams grappling with the complex, disorderly and uneven adoption of Gen AI, sentiment and chatter amongst attendees centered on the overstatement of immediate benefits for legal functions, whilst many felt that longer term impact was perhaps being underplayed. Despite this, it is clear that Legal functions are starting to see the benefits of Gen AI, with increasing numbers of super interesting new use cases now being considered.

?In the award category which EY Law sponsored Jeff Soar saw brilliant examples of generative artificial intelligence which are being used to support the creation of new legal operating models at Unilever by Maria Varsellona; whilst at ASML which is headquartered in The Netherlands, we learnt of their use of the legal AI tool Contract Matrix, where the legal function uses a tool to analyze third party contracts and summarize regulation, saving time of their in-house team and changing the way they plan to use traditional law firms.

?At Natwest, I was drawn to Kenny Robertson's example, where his team collaborated with IBM to create an AI powered risk review tool for supply agreements. The team covering outsourcing, technology and IP have seen productivity improvements of thirty percent when reviewing supplier terms. Whilst not all those we at EY Law have been meeting over the past year or so, have seen this level of productivity gain, we have seen time savings on more mundane matters of thirty minutes per day, which is certainly a prize worth striving for.

?We have seen client examples ourselves where clients that have been?tasked with leading Gen AI efforts have?recognized early that effective adoption within the department would be a massive undertaking requiring a robust data strategy, and the development of applications that produce reliable outputs to meet the high standards and potential skepticism?that their own lawyers may have for this fast-moving emerging technology. ?In this scenario, overcoming cultural resistance in departments to grant access to data stores that are required to unlock full potential of the technology was critical to drive exceptional value for the business partners of the legal function.

Indeed, others are using Gen AI as a catalyst for change, and change agents like Chris Grant and Ignacio Mendoza are to be applauded. HSBC’s in-house team who has created a new panel for alternative legal service providers including commercial contracting and competition law. Using various new operating practices within this, HSBC’s legal function has saved circa ￡3m within the calendar year.

?As we left the Hintze Hall in The Natural History Museum, we took one last look at “Hope”, safe in the knowledge that hope is no longer a strategy for legal functions in 2025.

?If you want to discover how EY Law teams are helping Legal functions to confidently approach advancements created by Gen AI, please don’t hesitate to contact Maurus Schreyvogel Dan Hendy Heidi Stenberg Kristi Anne Gedid Heath Harris, MBA Jon Kenton Rishi Ballakhan Felix Rackwitz Jan Schulz Virginia Allen John Knox Saskia Vermeer - de Jongh Dr. Peter Katko