What does it take to become Germany’s most innovative law firm – and what earned Gleiss Lutz the Inhouse Matters Award in 2024?
Marc Geiger:
It was a great honour for us to receive that award – especially because it proves our Legal Tech and AI strategy is on the right track. We realised early on that innovation is not just a trend, but can be a real catalyst for quality and efficiency, both in the work we do for clients and in our internal processes.
The award is the product of the freedom we have at the firm as a Legal Operations and Legal Tech team to focus on the specific areas where we think we can deliver the greatest value. It’s also great motivation to keep pushing forward and continue working on innovative ideas.
“We realised early on that innovation is not just a trend, but can be a real catalyst for quality and efficiency.”
Marc Geiger, Director of Legal Operations & Business Technologies, Gleiss LutzWe’re increasingly hearing in the media that AI is going to transform the legal industry – what role does AI play at Gleiss Lutz right now, and what are you currently working on?
Catrin Kunkel:
AI has long been part of our day-to-day operations – since well before the hype around generative AI began. We were already using AI in a variety of ways, for due diligence, in large compliance and investigations matters and in mass litigation. Generative AI added a new dimension that has unlocked a range of new use cases, whether it’s reviewing an e-mail or performing detailed analysis of M&A contract frameworks.
Marc Geiger:
We were early movers on AI: We were the first German commercial law firm to roll out the legal AI platform Harvey firm-wide and were fast to integrate it into our day-to-day processes. Harvey’s strength is word processing and document analysis, and we’ve deployed that systematically through the firm via our own prompt library that we keep up to date to handle the latest use cases. Right now, we’re focusing on AI agents – autonomous workflows that move beyond step-by-step prompting to handle entire task chains from document receipt all the way to the final response.
What does your typical working day entail? What specific tools and processes do you use?
Catrin Kunkel:
Our working day can be very diverse, with almost no two days alike. Our team is an interdisciplinary team that works closely with legal teams on client mandates that require a lot of use of legal technology or fact management. We also spend time talking to suppliers, testing out new tools and developing new ideas and solutions.
It’s that blend of testing external tools, developing our own tools and using them in practice that makes the job so exciting. We benchmark platforms, assist rollouts, and conduct AI and legal tech training; increasingly, we’re becoming sought after by clients as sparring partners on legal tech, AI tools and process design. Then we have our legal apps that we develop and customise ourselves – often to implement specific requirements in a mandate or for a client.
What are your criteria for selecting new technologies or tools and deploying them at the firm, particularly when navigating the build-vs-buy dichotomy?
Marc Geiger:
The make-or-buy question is something we debate often. But if there is a mature solution available on the market, then we’ll buy it – as long as it fits into our IT ecosystem and we can integrate it. Every solution undergoes a rigorous testing phase with a full evaluation and interface check.
Catrin Kunkel:
We do find that there are limits to what is available in the marketplace. If we realise that the product we need doesn’t exist yet, we’ll sometimes build it ourselves. And we’re able to do that because we have an internal development team with whom we can coordinate all the legal requirements. We develop to the same standards that external software is developed, with requirements specifications, testing and rollout. Because our software is used regularly in mandates, it is developed further and improved – meaning it offers our clients real value.
“These days, the most important skill is knowing when and for what a tool should be used, and then using it correctly.”
Catrin Kunkel, Legal Operations & Legal Tech Manager, Gleiss LutzHow do you develop tech-savviness at the firm – and do lawyers now need to have IT expertise?
Catrin Kunkel:
A certain level of technical literacy helps, sure – but not every lawyer needs to know how to code. Legal Tech has been an established component of our professional development programme for years, including app development on a no-code platform. Most of our colleagues really enjoy it.
Our team sees themselves as enablers: We establish the structures that allow our lawyers to use technology effectively. These days, the most important skill is knowing when and for what a tool should be used, and then using it correctly.
Marc Geiger:
And AI has naturally changed our skillsets. Prompting has become a routine part of our legal work – and truth be told, many actually enjoy it. You can offload some of the repetitive tasks, which frees you up for more interesting work. We encourage prompting in a variety of practical ways, like prompt-a-thons and internal legal-app development competitions. It starts on your first day – interns, trainee lawyers and research assistants all help us develop digital use cases.
What advice would you give to young lawyers who want to start engaging with legal tech and AI early on?
Catrin Kunkel:
Just dive in. You don’t need any previous experience to put your early ideas into practice. If you think of a law exam in terms of a decision tree, for example – that’s already the beginnings of a legal app. You can build that with no programming using no-code tools.
Marc Geiger:
And it’s the same with AI. If you use ChatGPT or Harvey and get a bit into prompting, you’ll quickly see which use cases deliver and which don’t. From there, it’s only a short step to AI agents – proper workflows that perform specific tasks. The key is to stick with it: try things out and don’t worry if it doesn’t work out every time. That comes with the territory.
