Eric Tan, chief digital and technology officer at Goodwin, recently told Law360 Pulse that the firm is focused on increasing its AI adoption to meet its clients' expectations around efficiency and productivity.
"A lot of our clients, especially in the VC-private equity space, they're looking for more speed," he said.
Over the last couple of years, several new law firms describing themselves as AI-native have launched, including Pierson Ferdinand LLP, Eudia Counsel, Norm Law LLP, Garfield Law and Crosby. These firms seem to rely heavily on AI to complete legal work; have fewer lawyers, especially junior associates; and promise to be less expensive than traditional law firms.
In February, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP's global chief artificial intelligence officer, Ilona Logvinova, told Law360 Pulse that BigLaw firms can be AI-native too without reducing their attorney headcount.
Tan said an AI-native law firm can deliver more value to its clients with the same number of attorneys.
"Being AI-native means our lawyers spend more of their time doing what clients value most — providing judgment, strategic insight, and advice that only comes from someone who deeply understands their world," he said. "AI handles the work that does not require that depth, so our lawyers can focus entirely on problem definition, strategic counsel and the client relationship. The result is the same number of lawyers delivering substantially more value. That is the model our strategy is designed to enable."
Last year, Goodwin experimented and piloted several different AI tools, and now it is deploying some of those tools within the firm. The tools Goodwin has adopted include Microsoft Copilot, Legora, Draftwise, ChatGPT Enterprise and Anthropic's Claude, according to Tan.
In January, Goodwin launched a new initiative to drive AI adoption within the firm, according to Tan. The initiative, called Goodwin Propel, includes in-person training sessions at the firm's major offices and weekly workshops.
The first in-person AI training session was held at Goodwin's London office in January, and similar events will take place at the firm's Washington, D.C., Boston and New York City offices later this year, Tan said. He said the in-person sessions cover the capabilities of different AI tools and how attorneys can use those tools in their work.
Tan said making sure attorneys and staff are using these AI tools is crucial for Goodwin moving forward.
"It's all great that you can buy these little, nifty tools," he said, "but if no one's using [them] for good use cases, then there's no point in spending all this time, energy and effort buying tools and training people."
--Editing by Robert Rudinger.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
