Automation and AI: multiplying a firm's productivity by 5

Automation and AI, a subject everywhere and still badly handled

Automation is on everyone's lips in the legal world. Yet in the reality of law firms, it is still barely used or badly exploited.

That is the observation we explored with three guests at the heart of the subject: Clément Bernard, founder of Liberall Conseil, the consultancy dedicated to the regulated professions, Pierre-Louis Roquet, a lawyer at the Lyon bar, and Jimmy Hababou, a distribution law lawyer in Paris.

A concrete, pragmatic conversation about how automation can become a genuine lever of time, of quality and of client relationship, for small structures as much as for established firms.

Automating your law firm intelligently

In many firms, notably independent or mid-sized ones, automation is either absent or badly conceived. It is often approached as a set of tools to plug in, with no overall thinking about how the firm actually runs.

Through their very concrete experience, Pierre, Clément and Jimmy set out a pragmatic, operational view of automation. Not as an end in itself, but as a strategic lever in service of time, quality and the client relationship.

Automate what? The wrong reflex in firms

The first strong lesson of the podcast:

"Firms do not automate enough, or they automate badly."

The most frequent mistake is automating isolated tasks with no overall view. The right question is not:

"Which task should I automate?"
but rather
"Which process should I rethink?"

The recommended method

• Identify the tasks that eat time
• Spot the ones that are repetitive and low in added value
• Listen to the teams: where there are irritants, there is often automation potential

Typical examples:

• Filing emails
• Handling exhibits
• Booking meetings
• Drafting standard documents

Two questions should guide the thinking every time:

• Is this task risky, prone to human error, oversight, a typo?
• Is it recurring and low in legal value?

Automation as a means, not as an end

One key point comes back throughout the episode. Automation is only a means. The end lies elsewhere.

• Giving leaders back their time
• Raising the productivity of the teams
• Securing the cases
• Improving the quality of the service delivered to the client

To get there, you have to understand deeply how firms actually run, day to day, and not on paper.

Three automations that genuinely change the picture

Contrary to received wisdom, these are not futuristic solutions reserved for large firms. Pierre and Jimmy share three automations that had an immediate, measurable effect inside independent structures.

1. Automatic email filing

A considerable saving on a short task, repeated dozens of times a day.

2. A legal secretary boosted by AI through WhatsApp

Able to:

• Draft simple replies
• Set meetings
• Sort and file emails

3. Automatic extraction of exhibits

Every exhibit is automatically collected and filed in a drive, with no manual intervention.

One essential point comes through clearly. These automations only work if the right tools are chosen and properly fitted to how the firm actually works.

Very concrete time savings

On Pierre-Louis Roquet's side

In litigation, he can now assemble a complete case file in a day thanks to automation.

In advisory work, he uses Gemini for note-taking and to help structure his analysis.

The result:

• More security
• Fewer errors
• Better overall quality of the case files

On Jimmy Hababou's side

• A marked preference for specialised legal AI over general-purpose AI when it comes to pure law
• Using AI to work out and to challenge his legal strategy

One key point Jimmy raises:

"A gap is opening between the lawyers who use AI and those who do not."

With AI, some firms can handle up to three times more cases.

Security, reliability and critical thinking

Against a naive view of AI, Pierre and Jimmy insist on one fundamental point. AI has to be framed.

In their prompts, they systematically build in:

• Security measures
• A logic of human verification

AI then becomes a tool that helps, an intelligent challenger, never an autonomous decision-maker.

Three times more cases, or three times more time?

One central question runs through the episode:

"If AI lets you handle three times more cases, what do you do with the time you save?"

For Pierre

The time goes back into:

• The client relationship
• The quality and the security of the case files

Fewer typos, more satisfied clients, and more referrals.

For Jimmy

The time saved goes into:

• Communications
• Growing the firm
• Continuous training on the tools

Jimmy chose to train intensively in order to become a better lawyer thanks to AI, and not in spite of it.

Building a lasting, pragmatic structure

Starting a firm today demands structural thinking. One classic problem gets underlined here.

A lawyer who leaves often leaves with their clients.

Hence the importance of investing in:

• Structure
• Automation
• Keeping the teams

A well-structured firm, with committed staff, offers more opportunities for internal growth.

The guests are clear-eyed, though, about institutional initiatives:

• Little expected from the bar
• Few genuinely effective in-house tools
• The need to buy existing solutions, even when they are not French

What future for the legal market and legaltech?

Jimmy anticipates a shift marked by growing competition between:

• The legal publishers, strong on content but weak on technology
• The software publishers and legaltechs, strong on technology but weak on knowledge of the profession

A cannibalisation of the market looks inevitable, with in time:

• Acquisitions
• Mergers
• A need to think on a European scale

Pierre argues instead for a logic of partnership:

• Specialised firms
• Niche firms
• Firms that have mapped and automated their processes

Those are the ones that will perform tomorrow.

Towards agentic firms

The view shared by Pierre, Jimmy and Clément Bernard is clear. The future belongs to the firms able to become agentic.

Structures that are:

• Organised
• Intelligently automated
• Able to pass on their knowledge

That is also why they are building training programmes, with one simple goal. Sharing, passing on, and collectively raising the level of the profession.

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