Shaping what's next
David Donnelly and Jaime McKenzie on how AI is transforming the value equation
David leads our Projects and Development practice and is a member of the firm's Digital Transformation Steering Committee. Jaime is a partner specialising in disputes and investigations.
David
If I think about what’s really changed this year, it’s the way AI has moved from being a curiosity to something that’s reshaping how we work. For years, the legal industry has been built on process – layers of checks, drafting cycles and manual reviews. That’s shifting. AI is taking out the grunt work, and that’s a good thing. It means clients can get things done faster, and we can spend more time on the parts of the job that actually add value.
Take contract review as an example. What used to take days now takes hours. That shift changes the value equation completely. If 90 per cent of the time was previously spent on low-value, process-heavy work and only 10 per cent on the strategic thinking clients really care about, AI flips that. Suddenly, we can move past the grind and spend more time on the parts that matter – judgement, insight, and solving complex problems.
It’s not just about speed; it’s about freeing capacity to have the conversations that matter most. When you’re not buried in repetitive tasks, you can better focus on risk, strategy and helping clients feel confident and in control. That’s where the real differentiation lies.
It’s not just about speed; it’s about freeing capacity to have the conversations that matter most
The impact on our junior lawyers is significant and, in my view, really positive. Prior to AI, we simply didn’t have as much time to deeply involve them in the sophisticated problem-solving that makes this job interesting. AI creates those opportunities. When the routine work is powered by AI, juniors get to sit closer to the action – seeing how complex issues are navigated, contributing to solutions earlier, and building judgement faster. That’s a win for them and for clients.
AI is no replacement for human judgement. In fact, it makes judgement more important. For me, that’s exciting. It’s a chance to do more of the work that really matters, reduce friction in relationships and offer more insight, value and confidence to our clients.
Read David's CV, or contact for more information:
Jaime
AI in disputes isn’t about flashy tech – it’s about making the everyday work smarter, faster and more creative. Most days, it’s the administrative stuff: mailbox management, summarising documents, drafting emails. I’m not handing over judgement to a machine, but I am shifting into 'edit mode' rather than 'creation mode' – and that’s a more free-flowing way to work.
For decades we’ve invested in AI tools for managing large data sets in disputes – continuous active learning, predictive coding, clustering by concept. That's made a huge difference in how efficiently and accurately we review material, and it’s saved clients a lot of time and money. The latest wave of AI is helping us cast our nets wider when considering a problem, get to the right materials quickly, and give a more confident answer in less time. When a client calls and says, 'I’ve got a meeting in two hours, what do you think about this issue?' AI helps me kick the tires on my instincts, stress test my thinking, and deliver more value to the client in a shorter amount of time.
AI helps me kick the tires on my instincts, stress test my thinking, and deliver more value to the client in a shorter amount of time.
But it’s not just about speed. AI opens up space for greater creativity and lateral thinking. I can fire off left-field questions, get indicative answers, and decide whether it’s worth sending a junior lawyer down a rabbit hole. It’s like having vacation clerks on hand year-round – smart, eager, not quite lawyers, but able to do the quick and dirty thinking that helps us triage, direct effort, and sometimes uncover a gold nugget.
Looking ahead, I see AI making our work even more accurate, efficient, and cost-effective – and delivering greater value overall. It’s not about replacing lawyers – it’s about supporting us to focus on the strategic and deeper thinking that clients really value.
Read Jaime's CV, or contact for further information:
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