Linklaters

At a global magic circle law firm like Linklaters, practicing lawyers face relentless billable pressure — asking them to simultaneously deliver complex client work and spearhead GenAI adoption proved structurally unworkable. Without dedicated bandwidth, AI experimentation remained fragmented and shallow: individual lawyers might develop promising workflows in their spare time, but scaling those insights across dozens of practice groups and multiple jurisdictions was impossible. The firm recognized that piecemeal, side-hustle AI adoption would not produce the systematic transformation that both the firm and its clients increasingly expected. The cost of inaction was falling behind peers in operational efficiency and client value delivery.

Linklaters created a formal cohort of 20 AI lawyers — sourced primarily from internal practitioners selected for demonstrated GenAI aptitude and recent client-delivery experience, supplemented by a small number of external hires. The program is led by director of AI delivery Sarah Barnard and structured finance partner Tom Quoroll, chair of the generative AI programme. Cohort members attend an intensive bootcamp covering the firm's AI strategy, power-user features of tools including Legora, change management techniques, and prompt and workflow engineering. They are then embedded full-time back into their originating practice groups globally, with dedicated KPIs and no competing billable obligations. The model uses Large Language Models and Generative AI to build reusable prompts, automated workflows, and contract analysis tools that integrate directly into existing legal delivery processes. Crucially, the AI lawyers programme replaced — rather than sat alongside — a standalone innovation team that was disbanded in 2025, signalling a structural shift toward practice-embedded transformation.

The program is in early deployment, with the firm describing its progression from 'pure experimentation' to 'sophisticated implementation.' Concrete outcomes already include:

• A GenAI Contract Analysis tool co-developed by AI lead lawyer Tanya Sadoughi was shortlisted at the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe 2025 in the Innovation in Automation and AI Tools category; Sadoughi was individually commended.
• The standalone innovation team was dissolved, with its mandate absorbed into the embedded AI lawyers model — a significant organisational commitment to practice-level change.
• AI-generated prompts and workflows are being treated as firm knowledge assets, integrated into the firm's knowledge management infrastructure rather than siloed as experimental outputs.

• Dedicated roles with clear KPIs outperform optional side responsibilities — AI adoption at scale requires protected time, not good intentions from overworked practitioners.
• Practitioners with recent client-delivery experience carry the credibility needed to drive peer adoption; external hires alone cannot replicate this.
• Disbanding a centralised innovation team in favour of distributed, embedded specialists signals that transformation is a firm-wide operating model, not a department.
• Treating AI-generated workflows as firm knowledge assets — integrating them with knowledge management — prevents value from being lost between individuals or cohorts.
• Clear programme governance (named leadership, defined KPIs, potential rotation between practice groups) ensures accountability without creating permanent bureaucracy.