Tech • IA • Crypto
How Do You Evolve a 280-Year-Old Firm? Bridging Tradition and Technology with Freshfields
7/10TL;DR
Freshfields is transforming into an AI-native law firm by treating prompting as core intellectual property and targeting a fully agentic enterprise by 2027.
KEY POINTS
A 280-year-old firm pivots to AI-driven evolution
Founded in 1743, Freshfields is pursuing continuous reinvention to remain competitive. The firm has embedded innovation into its strategy, recognizing that longevity depends on adapting to technological shifts. This transformation is led at the executive level, signaling a top-down commitment to change.
Chief Innovation Officer role focuses on future-proofing
Gil Perez, Chief Innovation Officer, is tasked with anticipating emerging technologies and integrating them into operations. His mandate includes experimentation, testing, and scaling solutions across the firm. A parallel priority is reshaping internal culture to become both tech-native and AI-native.
Cultural change seen as a continuous cycle
Transformation is described as an ongoing loop rather than a one-time initiative. It begins with leadership alignment, followed by equipping staff with skills, tools, and governance frameworks. As proficiency grows, new ideas emerge organically, accelerating innovation and reinforcing the cycle.
Upskilling and governance underpin adoption
The firm emphasizes structured training, upskilling, and clear frameworks to ensure responsible AI use. Privacy, regulatory compliance, and security controls are embedded early to enable deployment on sensitive client matters. This approach aims to balance innovation with risk management.
2025 marked shift to “year of prompting”
After an experimentation phase, 2025 was defined internally as the “year of the prompting.” Employees were trained in prompt engineering, viewed as a foundational skill for interacting with AI systems. The goal was to build confidence and consistency in how tools are used across the organization.
Prompting emerging as strategic intellectual property
Prompt design is increasingly treated as a core asset rather than a simple user skill. Organizations are beginning to manage prompts similarly to other proprietary resources, recognizing their role in driving differentiated outcomes and productivity gains.
AI tools reshape legal workflows at scale
Everyday tasks such as document summarization have been significantly enhanced. Tools like NotebookLM allow professionals to analyze up to 300 documents simultaneously, enabling rapid synthesis of large datasets. This capability transforms how legal teams handle complex, high-volume information.
Scaling from individual tasks to enterprise systems
The firm is moving beyond isolated use cases toward integrated workflows. Early wins in summarization and analysis are paving the way for broader process redesign. This includes embedding AI into end-to-end legal operations rather than treating it as an add-on.
Roadmap toward personal agents and agentic enterprise
The current phase focuses on building proficiency with personal AI agents. By 2027, Freshfields aims to transition into an agentic enterprise, where autonomous systems handle complex, multi-step tasks. This marks a shift from assistance to delegation.
Legal sector positioned as AI adoption leader
The legal industry is expected to become a leading example of enterprise AI deployment. High volumes of structured text, combined with the need for precision, make it well-suited for AI augmentation. Early adoption may set benchmarks for other sectors.
Delay in adoption carries competitive risks
A growing “inaction tax” is associated with postponing AI integration. Organizations that delay may struggle to catch up, as transformation requires sequential stages of experimentation, skill-building, and scaling. Early movers gain compounding advantages.
CONCLUSION
Freshfields’ strategy highlights how legacy institutions can reinvent themselves through disciplined AI adoption, positioning prompting and agentic systems at the core of future legal work.