What we learnt at the Alternative Legal Management Summit 2025
by Jennifer Thomas, Event Director – Legal, Alternative Events
Rethinking Legal Leadership: AI, value and the human edge
AI at the forefront of legal leadership
For the first time, AI featured prominently at the 2025 Alternative Legal Management Summit not simply as a topic for the technology day but as a central theme on the leadership stage. The tone was pragmatic, candid and quietly optimistic. This wasn’t a hand-wringing debate about machines replacing lawyers, but a sharp, future-focused discussion about how leaders design, govern and collaborate with AI to make better, braver lawyers.
Key perspectives from industry leaders
Joining conference chair Joanna Kingston-Davies, Founder of the MAPD Group, we were delighted to welcome back Advisory Board members Claire Murray, Managing Partner at CM Murray, and Ed Turner, former Managing Partner at Taylor Vinters, alongside Philip Young, Co-founder and CEO of Garfield AI, fresh from the firm’s Dispatches debut, “Will AI Take Our Jobs?”. Together, they brought rich perspectives spanning innovation, leadership and the realities of AI-driven transformation.
Start from value, not tools
Ed Turner urged firms to start with value, not tools. Too many, he noted, are simply automating outdated processes – doing the same thing faster rather than better. Instead, leaders should ask how AI can enhance what clients truly value: informed decisions, managed risk and trusted advice.
Turner warned against falling into the “faster horse” trap, speeding up old habits instead of reimagining them. The conversation inevitably turned to the billable hour. Discussing its decline, one delegate joked, is “a bit like listening to turkeys discussing Christmas.” Yet the tone was far from defensive – it was pragmatic.
AI is already reshaping the economic reality of legal work. If AI is reducing hours, isn’t billing by time and the hour self-defeating.? As the panel discussed, the future lies in exploring outcome-based, project-led, and value-driven pricing models that reward results, not time, aligning efficiency with client benefit.
Augmenting not replacing
Claire Murray, expressed both enthusiasm and caution regarding AI viewing it as a means of empowerment, using it in her firm for marketing, business planning and coaching to enable lawyers to think more strategically. Murray highlighted that AI expands the mind and fosters bravery but warned against blind adoption. She stressed the necessity for AI to be supervised, challenged and humanised. Murray also noted that asking young lawyers to perform repetitive work will soon become obsolete – a positive change for the profession.
Data sovereignty: The new client privilege
All the panellists emphasised the importance of data governance in legal practice. Firms must be aware of where their data resides, who can access it and what may be disclosed, including AI prompts and outputs. Transparency is a matter of ethical due diligence and the audience were reminded that anything written to a system could eventually become disclosable. In the AI era, confidentiality and control over client data aren’t optional: robust data governance equates to responsible client care.
Risk and reward: A balanced approach
Lawyers are traditionally trained to mitigate risk but Turner cautioned against excessive caution, which can stifle innovation. He observed that clients are not asking firms to avoid AI but rather to communicate openly about how AI is being used. Transparency and collaboration are becoming essential benchmarks for credibility and law firms that engage in open conversations about AI use will set the standard for best practice within the industry.
Redefining talent and training
Philip Young, Co-founder and CEO of Garfield AI, argued that AI will not reduce the number of lawyers but will instead increase demand for legal professionals albeit of a different kind. AI enables more individuals to vindicate their rights, leading to more disputes, cases, and a greater need for skilled lawyers. However, the profession must evolve; future lawyers will be required to supervise AI systems, interpret data and master essential ‘soft skills’ such as empathy, communication and psychological insight. Young noted that lawyers already counsel clients daily and the focus should be on enhancing these capabilities. The time efficiencies created by AI will enable lawyers to focus on the very human aspects of the profession.
Consensus: Changing the role, not replacing lawyers
There was consensus among the group that the debate over whether AI will replace lawyers is passé. The focus has shifted to understanding how AI will change the nature of legal work rather than questioning the survival of the profession. The advisory role, providing guidance on risk, making judgment calls, and building trust, remains central to legal practice, ensuring that the human element endures in an AI-driven future. While AI may transform the way legal professionals work, it does not alter the fundamental purpose of the profession.
