Trainees take the lead on their firm’s AI strategy

“Having our trainees involved in setting the AI strategy from day one has been vital”, says VWV managing partner Steven McGuigan.

It might be a surprise to hear those words from the leader of a firm with offices in Birmingham, Bristol, London and Watford – but this approach came in response to a challenge organisations can face when integrating new technologies.

Back in 2023, the VWV senior team were exploring ways they could get more value from technology – including whether artificial intelligence (AI tools) could improve client service delivery.

To get buy-in from employees they knew they needed to take an inclusive approach and actively involve its teams in the practical development of its own AI tools from the outset.

Building long-term digital literacy across the business was also a crucial goal. Could making trainees a core part of the AI efforts be an effective – if unexpected way – of achieving real innovation?

Steven McGuigan, managing partner, VWV.

Pitching AI to the trainees

When the AI strategy was pitched to the trainees, their confidence in the approach wasn’t immediate. There were questions about how this would be relevant to their roles and day-to day working life.

Trainee Claire Hui Bon Hoa was one of those who was initially sceptical, “I was not sure if I was going to enjoy being part of this. I come from a creative writing background. AI seemed inauthentic.”

But Claire credits the firm for valuing the trainees’ fresh perspectives. “We were encouraged to look at what our supervisors were using for specific tasks, and where we could use AI to make improvements.”

“I wanted to focus on client work,” says newly qualified Megan Armstrong, who also took part in the inaugural 2024 programme. “But I knew that delivering a service to a client isn’t just about legal work. It was a great opportunity to explore that further."

Getting pilots off the ground

The trainees had complete freedom to choose projects that aligned with their team’s interests and the firm’s strategic goals.

Claire was in the family law team when the project started. “My team set me the challenge of, ‘If we had a magic wand, what tasks would either disappear or take half the time?’

“Based on this, we surveyed our wider private client department, with questions such as, ‘What are the biggest challenges in your day job? What do you usually delegate?’”

The volume of client-facing tasks in the department meant items such as cost updates, attendance notes and advice notices came up repeatedly.

“It led us to building an AI tool to generate advice notes. It received more than double the votes of the other two areas we had suggested”, she explains.

Examining workflow challenges with fee earners meant trainees not only made an important contribution to product design – they also gained a clear understanding of the thinking behind any new technology that was implemented.

The collaborative approach sparked excitement from day one. “Colleagues would stop you in the kitchen and say, ‘How is the AI project going?’”

Claire Hui Bon Hoa, trainee, VWV.

Saving time

Megan was in the real estate department when her team began their AI project. Together, they built a tool for reporting on title searches, accessed through the firm’s own internal AI assistant called Mosaic.

“Lawyers can upload PDFs from the Land Registry into the system and prompt the AI to generate a report that is structured in a way that our teams use, based on our firm’s precedent, enabling us to efficiently support clients’ needs as a team.

“Doing this basic task would usually take us an hour. Saving that hour has been invaluable and enables us to spend more time connecting with our clients.”

Forming a working group with senior commercial property lawyers gave others the opportunity to provide early feedback and refine the tool. “It created brilliant engagement”, says Megan.

Megan Armstrong, corporate solicitor, VWV.

Holistic training

Since implementing these new tools, the innovation, digital adoption and learning and development teams have supported lawyers with ongoing AI-prompting training and workshops.

The trainees also presented their proposals to senior leaders in the business.

Claire says that presenting the technology proposals to leaders across the firm was in itself a learning experience for the trainees.

“We were so nervous, but when the head of the entire department said to me, ‘I thought you did a great job’, I realised what an opportunity we’d had”, she explains.

“It gave us face time with senior leaders. It also honed our project management skills, a crucial part of being a lawyer. The positive effects are greater than just the time you save through technology implementation.”

Senior partners were receptive and keen to get involved in finding use cases for AI within their teams, says trainee Greta Cicchetti. “We built confidence in communicating complex concepts in a clear, commercial way.”

Greta Cicchetti, trainee, VWV.

As part of the project, a new innovation trainee seat was established, which offers a combination of legal work and innovation-focused projects, Greta adds.

Taking this seat, she has worked on everything from drafting NDAs and contract addendums, to supporting AI research, events and managing the firm-wide rollout of the internal Mosaic AI platform. “The seat involves a lot of self-direction due to the evolving nature of AI and innovation work.”