Legalfly launches "The AI Ready General Counsel"

Global News

05
Nov
2025

Editor

Today Legalfly -- the secure legal AI associate -- launches “The AI Ready General Counsel”, a report that draws on in-depth interviews with GCs and senior in-house lawyers from sectors including biotech, banking, payments, construction, energy, and pharmacy services. The collected insight shows how AI is reshaping in-house legal work. The report then offers 10 practical steps for GCs to follow to set themselves and their team up for success in the AI era.

AI is now embedded in the legal profession. It’s a mandatory subject in law schools, where students are now taught to distinguish between case summaries written by professors and those generated by ChatGPT.  With 90% of organisations now using AI, GCs are under pressure to deliver faster, cheaper, and higher-quality legal work while acting as gatekeepers for AI risk. CEOs and boards want measurable efficiency gains; regulators and peers expect assurance that AI use is governed, auditable, and accountable.

Ruben Miessen, CEO & Co-Founder of Legalfly, who says, “This report shows a clear pattern across industries: legal teams are absorbing more work without adding people, using AI to reduce costly external dependence and reclaim strategic time. The measure of a team’s strength is no longer its size but its adaptability and AI is what makes that shift possible”

• How GCs are using AI today  
• How AI is changing board expectations
• Where GCs want to go next with AI 
• How AI is reshaping team structure 
• Job ads and the AI-ready legal team

As part of the report, Legalfly shared a ten step practical guidelines for building an AI ready legal team, a precis of which is below, available in the full report is available here. 

• Appoint an AI champion: Give someone clear ownership of AI exploration and adoption.
• Assess skills and attitudes: Understand readiness levels and cultural blockers.
• Build technical literacy: Ensure every lawyer can use and critique AI tools effectively.
• Connect with peers and communities: Stay informed and benchmark progress.
• Evaluate how you spend your week: Reallocate time from low-value to high-value work.
• Review and test AI tools: Create a consistent tool-evaluation rhythm.
• Integrate AI into objectives and reviews: Make AI adoption measurable and visible.
• Re-evaluate external counsel: Align external partners with your AI standards.
• Stay up to date on AI regulation: Ensure compliance with evolving AI governance requirements.
• Maintain a short learning loop: Keep pace with fast-moving change.

The report also encourages junior lawyers to build career resilience and differentiation through AI literacy.

• Make AI your USP: Develop hands-on fluency with the main legal AI tools so you can demonstrate productivity gains in interviews and appraisals.
• Learn the language: Understand how AI, automation, and data governance intersect with legal risk. Being able to translate between legal and technical teams is a differentiator.
• Track your impact: Record hours saved or improvements achieved using AI; this builds a measurable case for advancement.
• Contribute to policy: Volunteer to help your GC or manager write or update the team’s AI use policy.
• Network deliberately: Join AI-for-law communities (Crafty Counsel, LawTechUK, LinkedIn groups) to stay visible and learn from peers.