A FAVOURITE claim of many law firms is that they are innovative in the way they operate, though few can articulate what that actually means.

Pinsent Masons is one exception, with the London-headquartered firm developing a number of technologies in its Glasgow base that are beginning to revolutionise the way its solicitors practise law.

In addition to building its own form of artificial intelligence under head of research and development Orlando Conetta, a computer scientist, it has also taken a majority stake in technology business Cerico, which Pinsent Masons partner Richard Masters is now executive chairman of.

Although there has been much debate in recent years about the role artificial intelligence will play in the legal sector, Mr Conetta said the belief that technology could replace humans in future is unfounded.

While the system he has developed simulates some human tasks, the simulation is not an end in itself but rather a starting point for finding different ways for lawyers to work. If a large volume of documents are fed into the technology and it identifies the same clause coming up many times, for example, the lawyers know to review that clause once as opposed to many times as would previously have been the case.

“I don’t think that you can automate a lot of what a lawyer does but you can certainly make it better,” Mr Conetta said. “We’re giving them all the tools they need to be as efficient as possible.”

For a firm like Pinsent Masons, which has offices across the UK as well as in Europe, Asia the Middle East and South Africa, this has been especially useful, because it helps standardise the service it provides.

“If you were dealing with a lawyer in Glasgow one day then one in Edinburgh the next there was nothing in the way the service was delivered to ensure it was efficient or the same,” Mr Conetta said.

“We saw this as a technological process problem because the platforms and methodologies available didn’t match up to the way lawyers work.”

Not long after Mr Conetta came on board to start building Pinsent Masons’ bespoke solution to that problem the firm took a stake in Cerico, a technology business that uses Pinsent Masons’ legal knowledge to ensure that clients comply with various code of conduct.

Having helped incubate the business for two years, Pinsent Masons became a majority shareholder in 2015, with Mr Masters noting that the purpose of the business is to automate risk assessments in areas such as bribery and corruption, modern slavery or data protection.

“If it’s low risk the operation can continue; if its medium or high risk then further due diligence needs to take place,” Mr Masters said.

“It creates an audit trail so if the regulator knocks on the door the company may have an issue but it can show it has taken adequate procedures and that starts to build a defence.”

Previously such a defence would have taken copious amounts of lawyer time to create, with large teams having to trawl through swathes of emails and documents to find the relevant information.

Although this means that fewer lawyers will ultimately be needed to get the job done, Mr Masters said such technologies will not make the role of lawyers redundant.

“If you look at the way legal services is provided, Pinsent Masons has automated the production of thousands of documents. Even a few years ago it was in the low hundreds,” Mr Masters said.

“The consequence over time is that the role of lawyers will change.

“What will it look like in ten years’ time? Will we still need a really senior lawyer [working on a case]? I’m not sure we will but will we need fewer lawyers? Probably not.”

With the way clients procure legal services continuing to evolve, Pinsent Masons is keen to remain at the forefront of future developments and has just taken a minority stake in legal start-up Yuzu. The firm is acting as an incubator for the business, which takes on some of the work of companies’ in-house legal teams on an outsourced basis.

Alastair Morrison, head of client strategy at Pinsent Masons, said this fits with the firm’s mission to be able retain clients by offering them a range of different ways to deal with their legal needs.

“I can see a situation where we would provide a bit of Yuzu, a bit of Vario [a Pinsent Masons business that provides freelance lawyers to in-house functions] and a bit of Cerico,” Mr Morrison said. “It’s about delivering a wider range of choice for clients.”

Or, as Mr Masters put it: “If you are a law firm doing the same old thing in the same old way that’s fine to a point but it will be difficult to continue to grow your business because new models will emerge.”