Insights
Scribes and Gutenberg; Lawyers and AI?
An exquisite irony Johannes Trithemius was the Benedictine Abbot of Sponheim from 1483 to 1506. He was a polymath, a builder of libraries, and a deeply controversial character. He dabbled in the occult and was accused of inserting what we might now call...
Book Review: Michael D. Murray, Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of Law: Mastering Generative and Agentic AI (2026)
Most books about AI and legal services fall into one of two categories. One evangelises about transformation without providing enough practical detail. The other peddles fear by cataloguing risks without engaging properly with how to mitigate these. Michael Murray's...
The Bitter Lesson
I find it interesting that when I talk to people in the technology field about Richard Sutton’s Bitter Lesson, just about everybody knows instantly what that means. But when I talk to lawyers, almost nobody does. Interesting perhaps, but not surprising. If I were...
Agentic systems or world models: what’s the difference?
The Artificial Lawyer podcast interview between Richard Tromans and Harvey co-founder Gabe Pereyra covers genuinely interesting material on Harvey's use of multiple agents but I question whether their internal system - called Spectre - meets the threshold for a world...
Schwerpunkt
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist. His main work, On War, remains a key textbook at many military academies worldwide. He introduced ideas such as war as the “continuation of politics by other means”, and “friction”...
Is the Swiss Verein falling out of favour?
Is the famed "Swiss Verein" model of governance and economics losing favour amongst multi-jurisdictional law firms? Recent strategic decisions by some of the world's largest law firms suggest that this might be so. DLA Piper dissolves its verein In March 2026, DLA...
How AI impacts law firm mergers
The Impact of AI Disruption on Large Law Firm Merger Motives, Processes, and Success Conditions In my 2024 PhD thesis (accessible here) I identified specific pre-merger configurations consistent with successful large law firm outcomes. I demonstrated that what I...
Five levels of AI adoption in law firms
Almost every professional service firm on the planet operates on the fundamental assumption that services are created and delivered to clients by humans. In legal services, this assumption is codified in the regulations governing the practice of law. Except at the...
Strategising in the AI age
Law firm leaders face no shortage of strategic advice but the process by which most firms develop strategy has become obsolete. This inevitably produces flawed strategy and hence poor decision-making. For decades, strategising in large law firms has followed a...
Frightening the horses
In 1865, the British Parliament passed the Locomotive Act. Better known as the “Red Flag Act,” this law required self-propelled vehicles to travel at no more than two miles per hour in towns and four in the countryside. They were required to be crewed by three people,...
