Shumaker cuts contract review to under 10 minutes, saving lawyers 7+ hours weekly

Shumaker, an Am Law 200 firm with over 300 attorneys across 13 offices and no dedicated innovation or knowledge management team, faced attorney resistance to standalone AI tools. The IT department already managed hundreds of applications with limited bandwidth and feared a complex AI rollout would overwhelm support staff.

The firm deployed Harvey embedded in Microsoft Word for legal document and contract review, rather than as a standalone tool. The in-workflow approach was designed to fit attorneys’ existing drafting environment and reduce friction that had blocked earlier AI adoption.

Contract review turnaround dropped to under 10 minutes, and lawyers save 7–10 hours per week. Daily adoption exceeded 75% among lawyers, and the firm reported zero support tickets related to the deployment. The CIO described it as the most reliably adopted product seen in 15 years at an Am Law 200 firm.

• • Embedding AI in Word overcame attorney resistance that standalone tools could not
• • High daily adoption (>75%) is achievable even without a dedicated innovation team when the product is reliable and low-friction
• • Zero support tickets suggest IT bandwidth concerns can be mitigated by a well-integrated rollout