Elli Peterson's TechCrunch

When a leading international law firm's operations director first introduced generative AI into their contract review workflow, the initial pilot revealed something unexpected: the technology wasn't the bottleneck. The real challenge lay in changing decades-old habits around document handling, billable hours tracking, and client communication protocols. This experience mirrors what many corporate law departments and Am Law 100 firms are discovering as they integrate AI into legal operations. The transformation isn't just technological—it's cultural, procedural, and deeply human. The journey toward modernizing legal operations through artificial intelligence has become a defining challenge for corporate law firms worldwide. As firms like Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins pioneer new approaches, the lessons learned offer invaluable guidance for legal departments at every stage of adoption. Generative AI for Legal Operations represents not merely a technological up...

Three years ago, our corporate law practice faced a crisis that many firms quietly endure but rarely discuss openly: we were drowning in discovery requests, our contract review backlog stretched six weeks deep, and associates were billing 70-hour weeks just to keep pace. Traditional solutions—hiring more lawyers, outsourcing to LPOs, optimizing workflows—had reached their limits. That's when we began our journey into artificial intelligence, not as a trendy experiment but as an operational necessity. What followed taught us more about change management, technology integration, and the future of legal practice than any CLE course ever could. The initial skepticism was palpable. Partners questioned whether machines could handle the nuance of contractual interpretation, associates worried about their career trajectories, and our IT department raised valid concerns about data security in cloud-based systems. Yet the pressure to transform was undeniable. AI in Legal Operations wasn...