Biglaw firms are quickly adopting artificial intelligence technologies, and associates are rolling with the punches, because the robots won’t be coming for their jobs just yet.
The latest firm to adopt enhanced AI programming is Clifford Chance, which recently launched its own AI product firmwide in the wake of a successful trial period. Law.com International has additional details on what the firm has been up to:
The U.K.-headquartered firm, which partnered up with technology giants Microsoft, has created what it describes as a “holistic suite of AI-powered workplace solutions”, now available to all its people around the world.
The new AI offering includes firm-wide access to Microsoft’s Chat-GPT-4-powered Co-Pilot platform for Microsoft 365 as well as Viva Suite.
It is hoped the tool will help across a variety tasks such as summarising documents, recording minutes and drafting emails.
The latest expansion comes after Clifford Chance became one of the first law firms to develop its own private and secured AI tool—Clifford Chance Assist—developed on Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI platform that was rolled out across the firm in December last year, following a trial involving over 1,000 of its people earlier in 2023.
In comments given to Law.com International, Nick Hedderman, senior director of the Modern Work Business Group, at Microsoft, said of the company’s partnership with the Biglaw firm that “Clifford Chance is driving real innovation in the legal sector by combining the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with Viva Suite as the tool for enabling change. This not only signifies dedication to AI-led innovation but also reflects the immense potential for everyone who works in the organization.”
Clifford Chance’s chief technology officer Paul Greenwood also spoke positively about the firm’s partnership with Microsoft, noting that employees need not worry about losing their jobs to the new technology. “[Microsoft doesn’t] foresee a job apocalypse, and we don’t buy into that either. If anything, people will become more productive and raise more value,” he said. “Everyone at the firm is already incredibly busy, and this will make work more interesting. It will be working in a different way.”
Congratulations to Clifford Chance on introducing its signature AI product to its entire workforce. Best of luck!
Clifford Chance Rolls Out Microsoft-Partnered AI Strategy Across Whole Firm [Law.com International]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
