If AI is everywhere, where do in-house lawyers go from here?

Legal work isn’t disappearing. It’s just evolving - and fast.

In-house legal teams are in the middle of a massive identity shift. If you've read our State of In-House 2025 report, you'll know that the days of lawyers being seen solely as risk managers or blockers are long gone. 

Instead, legal is being reimagined as a strategic, tech-enabled function - one that’s lean, fast-moving, and deeply embedded in the business.

But with the rise of AI, automation, and self-serve tools, there's one question we keep hearing: if machines can do the legal heavy lifting, where does that leave the humans?

Let's dive into what we’ve been talking about this month and how lawyers are adapting, leading, and rethinking their value in 2025. 

Legal leaders are redefining their roles

The transformation isn't theoretical, it's already happening. Just ask Tom Hambrett, Group General Counsel at Revolut. At the start of March, Tom shared how he scaled Revolut’s legal function from a one-person band into a team supporting a $45 billion business with us on Brief Encounters.

Spoiler: It wasn’t by hiring 100 lawyers. It was by building a legal function that understands product, data, and user experience—and that isn’t afraid to automate.

"We didn’t just try to hire more people. We asked: how can we build a legal function that scales like the rest of the business?"

So... should legal do less?

In a word? Yes - if “less” means fewer repetitive tasks and more time for high-impact work. 

Our Agents vs Copilots webinar made this crystal clear as we discussed how 87% of in-house lawyers are already using AI regularly and how these tools are regularly beating humans when it comes to tasks like data extraction and legal research.

But, and it’s a big but, humans still have the edge when nuance and judgment matter.

Redlining? Still a lawyer’s game. Pragmatic negotiation? AI’s not there yet. As our wonderful speaker, Tara L Walters, said:

The real skill of a lawyer lies in the non-confrontational and pragmatic approach - areas where AI tools currently lack finesse.

So, it’s not about doing less. It’s about doing something different.

What's in the news?

We’ve been in the news a fair bit this month, mostly with data from our in-house report. 

One Law360 Pulse article dug into our finding that many in-house legal departments are under pressure to adopt AI more aggressively - and to scale back on headcount. They noted that it’s a clear signal that businesses are looking for efficiency, not expansion.

Meanwhile, City A.M. dove into our data on law firms, reporting that a “large chunk” of in-house lawyers now believe top law firms deliver poor value for money. This sentiment isn’t new, but it’s getting louder, and it’s prompting many legal leaders to look inward for smarter, tech-driven ways to get work done.

If you want more insight into either of these, check out the articles or read the State of In-House report below.

Customer spotlight: Coviance

If you want proof that this new model works, look no further than our customer, Coviance. When the fintech company reimagined how it handles contracts, it wasn’t about cutting corners—it was about cutting friction.

With a lean legal team and smart contract automation, Coviance sped up sales cycles and gave legal more room to focus on strategy.

Juro’s integration with HubSpot has saved us a lot of time. We’ve gone from it taking a day or two to get a contract created to it happening instantly, and our sales team rarely has to go into Juro - Christian Reynolds, Director of Compliance, Risk & Contracts

What’s coming up next?

We’re not quite ready to finish the conversation yet, and in a world of copilots, agents, and algorithms, in-house lawyers have a real chance to lead the next chapter of legal work.

To this end, our next webinar, AI Regulation: What Legal Teams Need To Know, will explore how in-house teams can stay ahead of fast-moving AI laws. 

We’d love you to join us on the 17th of April, just click here.