Flexible legal resourcing business Flex Legal has announced a partnership with FirstAI to deliver extensive Copilot AI training to its talent pool following a trial that demonstrated significant time savings across administrative and substantive tasks. Flex Legal was acquired by Mishcon de Reya last year but works independently with law firms and in-house teams including Freshfields, Leigh Day and Vodafone.
The Copilot training is due to start this October, aiming to upskill Flex Legal’s junior talent as well as their senior lawyers, with training delivered on a 1:1 basis. FirstAI specialises in helping companies integrate tools like Copilot into their operations to maximise output.
The AI training aims to help legal talent develop an understanding of prompt engineering and agents. This knowledge is then fed back to Flex Legal’s clients to ensure the software is accessible to all – we’re told that within two weeks following the trial, legal teams had developed 305 prompts, and Copilot usage grew by 437%.
“The advancements in AI have put the legal market at a risk of serious change and disruption,” said Mary Bonsor, founder of Flex Legal. “But it’s not something we have to just let pass us by, and we feel we have a duty to address this change head-on, and give legal talent the skills they need to stay ahead of the curve. By equipping them with the knowledge to harness Copilot, we’re also enabling them to act as AI “influencers”, helping whole departments to upskill.”
In trials legal directors saved a full workday (8.75 hours) on drafting client-facing emails and 9.5 hours per week was saved in tasks such as document summarisation and review, correspondence, and researching company information.
Christina Chen, CEO of First AI, said: “AI adoption isn’t just about technology, it’s about people. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Flex Legal, whose commitment to building diverse, future-ready talent perfectly complements our mission.”