The legal tech race: How is AI being used in law, and how does this impact you as a trainee?

In 2025, how firms work with AI has become a key differentiator between firms as well as a marker of their capacity to innovate. According to Clio’s 2025 Legal Trends Report, 96% of UK law firms now integrate AI into at least one aspect of their operations. 

The UK’s largest firms are leading this transformation. New research from Thomson Reuters shows that nearly eight in ten of the top 20 firms have adopted third-party AI tools, while almost half have gone further by developing or customising their own systems. Major firms such as A&O Shearman, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, and Freshfields are embedding AI into their daily work, making it clear that the ability to keep up in the digital world is now key to maintaining their elite positions in the legal world.

This article will guide you through how AI is transforming the legal profession–from highlighting the firms leading the race with tools like Harvey, Legora, and Jylo, to the mid-tier firms now catching up. It will also explore what this means for you as a future trainee and how you can use legal tech to boost your career prospects.

Who are the frontrunners? Harvey and the global giants:

At the heart of the AI-transformation is Harvey AI, a generative AI platform specifically aimed at the legal sector that is built on OpenAI and ChatGPT technology. Unlike the generic chatbots you may be used to, Harvey is trained on legal language, enabling it to review documents, draft contracts, and even analyse case law securely. Legora, another fast-growing generative legal AI platform has quickly gained ground too. 

Many UK companies are adopting these technologies, for example:

Allen & Overy–now merged with Shearman & Sterling to form A&O Shearman, was the first law firm in the world to deploy generative AI across its business in 2022 and later became the first to build an AI app for in-house use. The firm’s use of Harvey has gone further than just document review to developing advanced agentic systems capable of reasoning through complex legal scenarios. 

PwC UK was another early adopter in March 2023, announcing both a partnership with Harvey alongside plans to build its own AI models. 

MacFarlanes followed suit in September 2023, renewing its Harvey partnership in 2024. The firm has a three-part AI strategy which focuses on trying out new tools, developing its own systems, and using generative AI responsibly. 

Other firms have joined the Harvey wave more recently. Ashurst became the first global firm to roll out Harvey across all of its offices simultaneously in 2024, using it to enhance due diligence, drafting, and market research. CMS, has now also fully embraced it through a global partnership with Harvey spanning 47 countries, and Broadfield, in October 2025, officially made Harvey a core part of its services globally. 

Jylo: From in-house experiment to commercial success

Innovation in law isn’t just limited to the mega-firms. One of the most interesting success stories in the AI legal space is Jylo, which began as an internal experiment at Travers Smith. Originally developed to streamline document analysis and due diligence, Jylo proved so effective that the firm spun it out as a standalone company in 2024–making it one of the first instances of a UK law firm turning its own tech innovation into a commercial product.

Since then, Jylo’s growth has been rapid, with firms like Howard Kennedy adopting it as part of their AI strategies. What makes Jylo unique is its ability to help firms turn their accumulated knowledge into “AI playbooks” – reusable, smart workflows that reflect how lawyers actually get work done.

The catch-up game: Firms finding their AI footing

The surge in AI adoption has widened the gap between top-tier firms and the rest of the market. While more than three quarters of elite firms now have dedicated digital transformation teams, only about a third of mid-sized firms have followed suit. It is clear that some firms are speeding ahead in AI-innovation, while others are still catching up. 

Interestingly, Thomson Reuters believes that this growing divide could reshape the UK legal market, with clients increasingly choosing firms based on their AI capabilities rather than their size or traditional reputation. 

Still, the competition remains fierce. Linklaters recently announced the firmwide rollout of Legora, a collaborative generative AI platform, across all 30 global offices. Deloitte Legal, Bird & Bird, and Mishcon de Reya have also adopted Legora in 2025, showing that Harvey isn’t the only player in the field.

And firms aren’t only the two giants. Clifford Chance has expanded its capabilities through Microsoft’s Copilot for 365 and Viva Suite, following the launch of its in-house tool Clifford Chance Assist. These systems, similar to Harvey and Legora, help automate everyday tasks like email drafting, meeting management, and document analysis. 

Freshfields has taken a different path, partnering with Google Cloud to integrate Gemini and Google Workspace across its operations.

How does AI impact your role as a trainee?

It’s clear that AI is dramatically reshaping the traditional tasks and ways of working that lawyers do. Whereas your training contract previously would have been defined by long hours of document review, research, and drafting, technology is increasingly taking on much of this routine work. But rather than replacing trainees, AI is changing the kind of lawyers that firms need. 

According to industry experts, AI won’t replace lawyers, but lawyers who can use AI will replace those who can’t. As Ken Crutchfield of Wolters Kluwer put it, junior lawyers who understand how to leverage AI will “work smarter and unlock opportunities to demonstrate more value”. Through the help of AI, trainees will be able to spend less time on mechanical tasks and more time learning strategy, judgement, and client management. 

But this evolution has some downsides. The repetitive, hands-on work that once helped trainee lawyers master the basics - such as spotting tiny details in contracts and learning to draft from scratch, was a key part of a lawyer’s growth, particularly in analytical thinking. As Jennifer McIver of Wolters Kluwer warns, firms now face a new challenge: avoiding the rise of “overconfident associates with blind trust in technology.”

How trainees can leverage legal tech for career growth

Rather than resisting the rise of AI, you can use this transformation to help build stronger skills to thrive in an AI-fuelled world. For example, recruitment experts, including those at Lawrence Simons, emphasise that candidates who demonstrate both AI literacy and legal judgement stand out in interviews. 

To best utilise AI for your advantage, trainees should: 

• Improve your legal AI knowledge, by learning how tools like Harvey, Lexis+, or Relativity work, and by understanding their limitations.
• Research which AI tools a firm uses, and be ready in an interview to discuss it. For example, it is helpful for you to be able to articulate how to use AI responsibly in research, drafting, and client work.
• Use AI to enhance, not replace, your critical thinking, always cross-examining outputs rather than accepting them at face value.
• Continue to build strong human networks, since mentorship, collaboration, and emotional intelligence will still take you far in your career.