King & Wood Mallesons Australia to give Gen AI tool to 1200 lawyers

King & Wood Mallesons Australia (KWM) is giving 1200-plus lawyers access to a generative AI tool following a six week trial.

The law firm is deploying a tool called Harvey, which is designed specifically for law firms and legal teams, to lawyers in Australia and Singapore.

It trialled Harvey with “around 200 lawyers across all practice groups” over six weeks initially, leading to the identification of "hundreds of successful use cases to automate and enhance legal workflows and tasks.”

These use cases are understood to include legal document and email drafting, checking compliance, summarising and analysing large document sets and proofreading.

In addition, it’s understood that search is seen as a particularly valuable use case, with the tool able to trawl years of documents or emails to locate a result.

The end result is faster, smarter and more cost-effective legal work that can be performed for clients.

KWM managing partner for practice excellence Matthew Swinn said there are responsible AI safeguards in place around the tool’s use.

“We do not rely on AI alone to generate legal advice – it is not a substitute for our deep expertise and complex thinking,” he said.

“We use our tools as … to create first drafts, and to augment how we work. 

“We always have a ‘human in the loop’ - AI outputs must be checked and verified by a human.”

KWM Australia’s chief executive partner Renae Lattey said the firm “has been experimenting with a number of generative AI products and learning about the responsible use of AI, its risks, opportunities and practical legal applications” over the past 18 months.

“The launch of Harvey presents a new opportunity to embed these skills and knowledge and take our AI capabilities to the next level,” Lattey said.

“Our decision to partner with Harvey is the latest step in our digital transformation journey.”

Swinn said that the rollout is accompanied by internal training to equip staff with skills to make use of the tool.

“Building digital literacy and technical AI skills of our people is a critical component of how we’re working to deliver benefits and mitigate any risks posed by AI use,” Swinn said.

“Our accredited learning program, KWM legal transformation belts, covers a number of digital disciplines including AI. 

“By completing three levels of AI training (white belt to brown belt), our people are well-equipped to manage the limitations, risks and ethical considerations when using AI tools.”