After a couple of decades practicing law, mainly clinical negligence – I’m no stranger to battling through hefty bundles of medical records and case files.

I have always had a keen interest in IT and the ways in which it can be utilised by the legal profession. Unfortunately, sometimes in the past, it has been as much a burden as a benefit. But as digital briefs and AI have quickly become the new norm, the changes are becoming overwhelmingly positive.

Electronic briefs made life easier in some ways but also brought new challenges. Suddenly, I was having to organise mountains of documents, often full of jargon, with the occasional poorly sorted file thrown in for good measure. The search for the tech that actually made a difference was a journey in itself – especially when most of the big solutions seemed built for firms, not for solo barristers like me.

Eventually, finding the right tool showed me how much AI could help out – not just by sorting and organising files, but by making the whole process less stressful and more efficient. The real surprise was how AI and the teams behind it are evolving, listening to lawyers like us, and actively improving the systems based on what we need.

Looking around now, it’s clear that AI is moving toward being not just a time-saver but genuinely reshaping what lawyers can do. It doesn’t just process documents; it picks out patterns humans might miss, checks facts against the original records, and builds clear chronologies and case summaries with a speed that changes the value we bring to a case.