The former general counsel of Haleon plc and Pearson plc, and author of an influential new book on AI in the legal industry, explains how in-house lawyers will have to adapt to thrive in the era of artificial intelligence.

The AI era is profoundly reshaping how corporations are structured and operate. As companies digitise ever more corporate activities and processes, business model innovation has become a defining challenge for CEOs, while boards face growing pressure to oversee digital transformation.

The implications extend far beyond the business itself. Support functions, including legal departments, must also evolve. This is not simply because CEOs and boards are demanding it. The main reason is that traditional operating models are increasingly incapable of delivering services at the speed, scale, and level of responsiveness required by AI-enabled companies.

If one function digitises while another does not, structural mismatches ensue. In the pre-AI era, the marketing team might have produced two or three versions of a marketing plan for legal review. In an AI-enabled environment, that team might generate dozens or even hundreds of variations.

Where legal teams once had weeks to review and advise, they may now have days or hours.

At the same time, the pace of business has accelerated. Where legal teams once had weeks to review and advise, they may now have days or hours.

A General Counsel (GC) relying on traditional approaches will quickly feel the squeeze of the more-for-less challenge. Costs and headcount rise while responsiveness and quality come under pressure. In this environment, it is impossible to keep pace without digitally transforming.

The challenge for today’s GC is not whether to adopt AI, but how to build a legal team capable of thriving alongside it. 

Hybrid environments

Drawing on developments to-date, we can sketch an outline of what legal departments might look like in the near future. An AI-enabled technology platform lies at the heart of the model. An expanded, multidisciplinary legal operations function manages the platform while driving process design and service delivery.

Specialists provide deep expertise in critical areas of risk and value, while business-facing legal generalists operate at the front line, supported by both technology and specialist knowledge. Some large departments may also introduce hybrid delivery teams to handle scalable, repeatable work.

As workflows become increasingly automated, lawyers must learn to operate effectively in hybrid environments that combine human and AI capabilities.

Adaptability will become a defining characteristic of successful lawyers, alongside the ability to work across disciplines and continuously acquire new skills. At the same time, distinctly human capabilities, including strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, curiosity, creativity and collaboration, will become even more important.

When judgement becomes the differentiator

In a world where knowledge and expertise become increasingly commoditised, judgement will remain a core value driver.

For legal departments and law firms alike, AI will increasingly absorb the routine work through which junior lawyers have historically developed their foundational judgement. While the efficiency gains are real, a hidden risk is that, in removing the work through which lawyers traditionally learned to exercise judgement, we may also be removing the conditions under which great lawyers are made.

Judgement is the one capability that cannot be automated. It will be the core human differentiator in the AI era. Yet, paradoxically, it is this capability whose development may be threatened if organisations focus exclusively on efficiency.

Future-proofing the legal department will require deliberate investment in human capabilities as much as in technology.

An urgent question for every GC is, therefore, how to create new opportunities for their lawyers to exercise responsibility, engage with business leaders, navigate ambiguity, and develop deep legal judgement. Future-proofing the legal department will require deliberate investment in human capabilities as much as in technology. While technology creates scale and efficiency, judgement creates trust.

GCs will also need to take a broader approach to talent development, including the cultivation of many critical skills that organisations often do not systematically invest in, such as business literacy, technological fluency, and interdisciplinary problem-solving. These are the capabilities that will enable lawyers to create value in an environment where information itself is no longer scarce.

Law firms face many of the same challenges. The most successful firms will be those that can simultaneously strengthen their existing business while experimenting with technology-enabled models.

Success requires more than adopting AI. It will demand organisational adaptability, cultural openness, and a willingness to rethink how legal services are delivered, staffed, and priced.

Combining tech and human capabilities

The technology, operating model and structures of legal organisations are changing but what will not change is their fundamental purpose: helping clients navigate uncertainty, manage risk, create value and make better decisions.

The legal departments that succeed in the AI era will be those that most effectively combine new ways of working with human capability. That will require investment not only in technology and service delivery but also in the curiosity, adaptability, commercial awareness, collaboration, leadership and judgement of their people.

These have always defined outstanding legal teams. As AI automates routine work and accelerates service delivery, they will become even more important.

Leaders who recognise this early, and build their teams accordingly, will be best positioned to thrive in the age of AI.

Bjarne P. Tellmann is the author of Law in the Era of AI: Clients, Firms, and the Future of the Legal Industry (Wiley, 2026).

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