More Than A Lawyer with Holly Cope

In this episode, I'm joined by three leaders working at the highest levels of legal practice and regulation.

Brett Dixon, Vice President of the Law Society of England and Wales and a long-time advocate for access to justice, legal innovation, and procedural reform.

William Findlay, Head of Legal Regulatory at Revolut.

James Smither, Global Head of Risk Management at Freshfields. James is a self-described "risk geek" dedicated to redefining how law firms perceive uncertainty as both a massive upside and a critical downside.

We explore one of the biggest questions facing the legal profession: where should AI stop and human judgement begin?

From algorithmic bias and hallucinations to governance, legal risk, and the future of common law, this conversation goes far beyond productivity tools. We discuss why the flexibility of human judgement remains one of the legal system's greatest strengths and what could be lost if we hand too much decision-making to machines.

You'll hear perspectives on AI, justice, legal ethics, risk management, and the future of legal practice that most lawyers aren't talking about yet.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Alexandre Verrien.
He used to be the legal director of France for Dell Technologies, but now he works for himself as a legal executive.

With decades of experience at the intersection of law and technology, Alex offers a unique perspective on how AI is reshaping legal departments, law firms, and the future role of lawyers themselves.

We explore what an AI-first legal future actually looks like and why many legal teams still aren't prepared for the transformation already underway.

Alex shares practical insights on legal tech adoption, the mindset barriers holding teams back, and why successful AI implementation is far more about people and processes than technology alone.

Key Topics Discussed:

Why the future of law will be increasingly technological and AI-driven.

The mindset challenges preventing legal teams from embracing change.

Whether AI will replace lawyers and where human judgment remains irreplaceable.

How AI is already reducing workloads and reshaping legal team structures.

Why junior lawyers are still essential despite automation.

New roles emerging inside legal departments, including Legal AI Engineers and Legal Data Analysts.

The importance of clean data and "human-in-the-loop" review processes.

Why many legal departments lack a clear AI strategy.

The risks of a "wait and see" approach to legal technology.

How legal leaders can prepare their teams for the next decade

Alex argues that while AI can accelerate drafting, review, and administrative work, it cannot replace negotiation skills, business judgment, or the human understanding required in complex legal situations.

The Legal Department of 2030 Will Look Very Different.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyse the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Brett Dixon, Vice President of the Law Society of England and Wales and a long-time advocate for access to justice, legal innovation, and procedural reform.

Brett brings a unique perspective from both frontline legal practice and legal policymaking, offering a thoughtful view on how AI should - and shouldn’t - be integrated into the justice system.

We explore one of the biggest questions facing the legal profession today: can AI strengthen access to justice without undermining trust in the legal system?

Brett shares why integrity, transparency, and human oversight must remain at the centre of any AI-driven future, and explains why he prefers to think of AI as augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why the UK legal system's reputation depends on maintaining transparency and accountability.

The dangers of AI hallucinations in legal practice and how lawyers can spot them.

Why human judgment remains essential in courts and legal decision-making.

How AI can improve access to justice without replacing lawyers.
The risks of bias in AI systems and how training data shapes outcomes.

Why common law relies on human creativity and legal evolution.
What regulation of legal AI may look like in the coming years.

The growing divide between large firms adopting AI rapidly and smaller firms struggling with resources.

Why the future of legal services is likely to be AI-assisted rather than AI-replaced.

How law firms can approach AI strategically while protecting client trust.

The future of legal AI isn't about removing humans from the process.

It's about using technology to enhance human expertise while preserving the principles that make justice work: integrity, transparency, accountability, and access for everyone.

As Brett argues, the legal profession has always been full of problem-solvers and innovators. The challenge now is ensuring AI serves those values rather than replacing them.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special compilation episode, I am joined by a powerhouse lineup of legal innovators, practitioners, and tech leaders who are actively reshaping the industry:

Zack Shapiro, founder of an AI-native law firm, Rains LLP.

Alexander, Co-lead of AI Research at Thomson Reuters.

Sandy MacDonald, the Senior Director and Head of Legal Operations at DocuSign.

Dharshi Harindra, a tech lawyer, Assistant General Counsel, and Executive Coach.

We talk about the profound shift toward agentic AI in the legal sector and how mastering detailed prompting, continuous feedback, and custom workflows creates an unassailable competitive advantage for forward-thinking lawyers. You’ll hear perspectives on overcoming the legal trust gap, avoiding "AI slop," and leveraging entrepreneurial mindsets that most traditional law firms are completely missing.

We dive into:

The Tech-Lawyer Trust Gap: Why legal tech companies miss the mark by pitching software features rather than understanding the granular, day-to-day challenges and cultural mindsets of practicing lawyers.

The Blueprint for Custom AI "Skills": How to move past simple one-line prompts and instead use an essay-length context or voice rants to build hyper-specific digital assistants that compound in value through continuous feedback.

The Breaking Leverage Model: Why traditional firms relying on bloated billable hours face an existential threat from lean, entrepreneurial, AI-native practitioners.

The "Half-Lawyer, Half-AI" Evolution: How junior lawyers and trainees can create massive, unprecedented value by stepping up as the bridge between pure computer science and legal practice.

AI Slop vs. Human Judgment: The critical importance of keeping your brain turned on, verifying citations, and using AI for heavy cognitive lifts rather than as an excuse for lazy output.

Compliance and Regulation Blind Spots: Why rushing into technology without understanding data protection boundaries - like using WhatsApp groups for firm operations - creates massive regulatory red flags.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Anna Popowicz - Pazdej, Global Senior Data Privacy Lawyer at Dentons.

Anna walks us through the heavy-lifting required to move a firm from a "proof of concept" to full operational readiness, ensuring that innovation never comes at the cost of client confidentiality.

We talk about the meticulous process of implementing AI—starting with the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and ending with firm-wide AI literacy. You’ll hear perspectives on why your architectural diagram is your best defense against data leaks and how to prevent your client’s trade secrets from becoming part of a vendor’s training set.

The Compliance Blueprint: Why the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is your primary tool for assessing data residency and encryption risks.

Architecture Matters: Understanding the data flow between models and the importance of encryption both in transit and at rest.

The Hallucination Fix: How Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) databases can minimize AI errors by grounding responses in your own secure data.

The "Shadow AI" Threat: The dangers of using unassessed AI tools that may retrain their models using your sensitive client data.

Operational Readiness: Balancing innovation with policy through specific guidelines, retention periods, and tiered training for junior vs. senior lawyers.

Vendor Warranties: Essential clauses for your Data Processing Agreements (DPA) to ensure vendors and subprocessors do not use your data for their own model training.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.