Matthew Stringer, founder and CEO of Stridon, a technology transformation partner.
When we talk to firms across the legal sector about AI, particularly Generative AI (Gen AI), there’s real excitement, and for good reason. The business transformation and opportunities this technology brings to law firms of all sizes is immense.
It’s understandable that fully integrating Gen AI within any business can feel daunting. This is why the focus should be on having a vision and starting the journey now, whether that’s making small incremental steps to drive improvement or building a long-term strategic plan to realise its full potential.
At the heart of this journey lies two key ingredients. The first is the people within your organisation – making sure they’re on board and are going to champion it from day one.
The second is a successful platform such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, which we’ve been exploring through our latest webinar series. The security, peace of mind and technological features it offers to the legal sector from a Gen AI perspective are extensive. Our deep understanding of its technical capabilities is why we see it as integral to defining your strategy and most importantly – its successful implementation.
Whether you’re just getting started, already experimenting or unsure where to start, we’ve developed a roadmap for law firms designed to help you build a practical, people-first AI strategy to improve wellbeing, drive productivity, reduce operational costs, and elevate your client experience.
Why Now?
Beyond the AI headlines flooding your news feeds, let’s focus on what’s happening right now. Gen AI is evolving at lightning speed. Tools like ChatGPT introduced the world to chat-based AI. Fast forward to today, and we’re now exploring sophisticated use cases such as agentic applications, workflow automation, document summarisation, and more.
In the legal sector, AI adoption is surging. It’s not surprising that Microsoft identifies law as one of the fastest-growing verticals for Microsoft 365 Copilot. This is because law firms are uniquely positioned to benefit from AI, given their heavy reliance on documentation, case law, deep research, and collaboration.
Already, we’re seeing firms that started experimenting in late 2023 entering advanced phases of maturity, embedding AI into specific workflows and unlocking increased time saving benefits. They’re moving fast, and the longer other firms delay, the harder it will be for them to catch up.
Where should Microsoft 365 Copilot live in a law firm?
The short answer is everywhere. The longer answer involves a more practical and pragmatic approach. Start with the understanding that every individual, regardless of role, has something to gain and wants to understand how Gen AI will benefit them personally and how Microsoft 365 Copilot can be seamlessly integrated into their daily workload. Meeting recaps, summarising documents, managing emails, translating content – these are just a few real-world examples legal professionals are already using today.
The three core phases of a successful AI strategy
We’ve touched on how building your Gen AI strategy isn’t about technology alone and how it isn’t as simple as picking an AI platform and running with it. It’s about change management, leadership, training, the people in your law firm and cultural readiness. We work with law firms to help them live and breathe Gen AI in order maximise its full potential and achieve long term success, with our roadmap breaking down into the following three foundational phases:
- Readiness
This phase ensures your firm has the right people in place and is equipped both technically, culturally and organisationally for AI adoption.
Technical workstream:
If planning to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, evaluate your security standpoint. Where does your data live? Who can access it? Does your Microsoft 365 environment have proper information barriers in place to restrict and safeguard communication and collaboration between employees in areas such as SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams?
Microsoft 365 Copilot inherits your existing security setup, so any over-sharing or poor data hygiene will carry over. Getting to grips with this is critical, especially in the legal sector where confidentiality is paramount.
Organisational workstream:
Establish your Gen AI usage policy. What’s allowed and what isn’t within your organisation? Define this based on your firm’s appetite for risk and any regulations surrounding working with clients internationally. Don’t forget to introduce AI use principles, a traffic light-style guide that simplifies where AI can be freely used (green), used with caution (amber), or avoided altogether (red). This ensures your law firm is aligned on its AI requirements and expectations are managed from the very outset.
- Defining objectives
Your strategy needs purpose. Here’s how to shape it:
Build your AI champion’s team:
Identify senior project sponsors who’s voice will carry weight and attention along with a team of internal champions who are self-motivated individuals across different practise groups and business support functions, share an interest in AI and will drive momentum. Champions don’t need to be technology wizards, they just need energy, influence, and curiosity.
Connect to your business strategy:
Adopting any new technology should never be completed in isolation. Ensure that you link your Gen AI goals to your law firm’s wider business objectives. Want to improve employee experience and efficiency? Elevate client service? Reduce delivery time? Clearly define your aims and make a joined-up approach a priority.
Develop a business case:
What’s the ROI? How can the widespread deployment of Gen AI across my organisation be measured? Start by aiming for small time savings. We often use the ‘18-minute rule’- if each member of your team saves just 18 minutes per day, that’s two extra working weeks per year. Multiply that across an entire law firm and the impact is significant. Only by measuring the impact of Gen AI can you assess whether your objectives are being met and you can validate your overall business investment in it.
- Proof of value
Now, it’s time to test.
Run a 2–3-month pilot programme, incorporating an 8-week training journey to upskill your AI sponsors, champions and early adopters. Week one is basic prompts but by week eight, the team will be exploring advanced use cases.
Crucially, build your Microsoft 365 Copilot Centre of Excellence, a space where people share quick-wins, ideas and problem solving. In our experience of working on many successful AI projects with law firms, peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing will always accelerate adoption – way beyond a top-down approach.
Don’t skip change management
Adopting Gen AI isn’t just another technology rollout, it’s a major organisational and cultural shift. Embed change management across every phase of the project, such as Prosci’s proven frameworks like ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement). Change management builds trust, reduces fear, and drives engagement through clear communication, training, and support. It’s a key ingredient in any successful AI deployment strategy.
What’s stopping you?
Gen AI isn’t a distant dream. It’s here. Legal firms that are embracing it now will reap its many commercial benefits including enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, happier clients, and less burnout.
Establish a strategy and implementation roadmap. Start simple. Start smart. And start now.
Take your first small steps toward Gen AI success today: