In-house legal teams are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance efficiency and transform their roles, rather than to downsize staff. Companies like National Grid and Accenture are at the forefront of this shift, using AI to automate mundane tasks and allow their lawyers to focus on more complex, value-adding activities.
National Grid's UK general counsel for strategic infrastructure, Jeremy Mavor, noted that while the legal team has recruited more people, they are actively pursuing different approaches to cope with workload. Approximately 100 team members in the UK and US are using the legal AI platform Harvey, with feedback suggesting savings of three to five hours per week per user, expected to increase to one full day. Justine Campbell, group chief legal officer at National Grid, views this time saving as just the initial benefit. The company has allocated "many millions" in legal fees for the next five years, with an expectation that law firms they work with will also leverage technology to evolve their legal services.
Similarly, Accenture's legal team, comprising 3,300 professionals, has designed a training program for "personal reinvention amid AI and technological transformation." Christina Demetriades, group operating officer for Accenture legal, believes that emerging technologies like AI agents and automated workflows will fundamentally change the role of in-house teams, shifting focus to design, quality assurance, relationships, and experience. Accenture's training, informed by behavioral science, led to the creation of 35 AI agents, 12 of which are currently in use, and an overall increase in AI adoption. One such agent can summarize regulations across 50 US state jurisdictions.
