The editor of Business Law Magazine, Prof. Dr. Thomas Wegerich, spoke with Lena Haffner, Innovation Manager at Norton Rose Fulbright, Karsten Kühnle, Partner in the Frankfurt office of Norton Rose Fulbright, and Gunnar Skoeries, General Counsel of automotive supplier Mann + Hummel, about current developments and trends in the legal market. The different perspectives of the interviewees make the interview particularly exciting and informative and provide insights into an industry that is undergoing a remarkable process of transformation. – Our rating: Definitely compulsory reading.
Strategic alignment and changes
Business Law Magazine: How do you see the future role of law firms or legal departments in an increasingly digitalized and technology-driven world?
Karsten Kühnle: In an increasingly digitalized and technology-driven world, law firms and legal departments will need to develop into strategic advisor roles even more. The adjustments that will be required to this end include integrating advanced technologies such as AI into legal practice, offering digital solutions to clients and internally within a client’s organization, and developing new service offerings that go beyond traditional legal consulting.
Lena Haffner: Data-driven decision-making will also play a central role in the future. With legal analytics, large amounts of data can be efficiently analyzed and converted into actionable insights. This technology can be used, for example, to identify litigation risks early by evaluating historical case analyses and procedural patterns. Likewise, contract risks can be minimized by data-based evaluation of contract clauses, identifying potential problems before they lead to legal disputes. This data-supported approach will enable law firms to offer more proactive and precise consulting in the future, allowing them to better manage risks and provide tailored solutions to their clients.
Gunnar Skoeries: Legal departments will increasingly focus on business partnering by integrating legal risk assessments with business operations to provide informed recommendations. In-house lawyers must understand their company’s business to offer solutions that support and enable activities. Developing self-service solutions, such as allowing stakeholders to create their own NDAs and use AI tools for review, will transform legal departments from bottlenecks into solution providers and genuine business partners.
Lena Haffner: To meet these challenges, we have introduced the award-winning NRF Innovation Academy. In this special training facility, we educate our associates in key areas such as Legal Project Management, Legal Tech, and AI. We also offer training in prompting skills and promote their integration into our teams. The promotion of innovation is also enhanced by our Global Innovation Challenges. Additionally, as a law firm, we have established a quota of bonus-relevant hours to promote innovation and the use of technology.
Karsten Kühnle: Despite the progress of digitalization with all its benefits, the human factor remains crucial to the success of law firms. Empathy, personal touch, human interaction, communication, and trust are irreplaceable, especially in most sensitive and strategic legal matters. I could not imagine a client journey without this.
Gunnar Skoeries: This also applies to legal departments. Law has traditionally been an interpersonal matter, and it is likely that this will remain important in the future. Legal departments can provide leadership and guidance by becoming more active as business partners within the company. Building trust is essential for this role, and acting as a business partner helps achieve that trust.
Business Law Magazine: What strategic adjustments do you think are necessary to remain competitive?
Karsten Kühnle: To remain competitive, law firms must significantly invest in Legal Tech and AI-capabilities. Comprehensive digital transformation is fundamental to business success. At the same time, talent development is central, as lawyers increasingly need both legal and technological competencies; new roles such as Legal Engineers / Legal Designers / Legal Project Managers will gain importance.
Gunnar Skoeries: The same is true for legal departments. We must invest in new technologies and methodologies as well. Enhancing collaboration between legal departments and law firms can and should be crucial. Law firms, with their perceived “innovative freedom”, can become forerunners and share valuable insights. Legal departments should be receptive to this, while the law firm should focus on providing valuable solutions initially rather than making a sale.
Gunnar Skoeries: What is your stance on the billable hour model? Do you see it evolving in the near future?
Lena Haffner: Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) such as fixed fees and subscription models are becoming increasingly popular in light of efficiency gains made through automation and Legal Tech. One particularly interesting approach is Value-Based Billing, where fees are based on the value of the service provided to the client, rather than being billed for the time spent. Approaches to Value-Based Billing can be versatile and take into account different factors to assess the provided service based on its added value. Factors might include:
- Urgency: If a case or legal advice is particularly time-critical
- Seniority level/expertise of the fee earners involved
- Complexity of the case
- Outcome-oriented billing
Technology and Artificial Intelligence
Business Law Magazine: How do you assess the role of AI in the legal field, especially in areas like document analysis, contract management, or legal research?
Karsten Kühnle: AI is increasingly becoming a strategic tool in the legal field, especially in areas such as document analysis and contract management. AI enables the rapid and precise analysis of large data sets, significantly enhancing efficiency and reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks. For example, AI can be used to automate contract reviews, where the software identifies clauses, assesses risks, and highlights deviations from standard templates.
Gunnar Skoeries: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an enduring technology. Similar to Moore’s Law, its capabilities are expected to improve at an exponential rate, which may be challenging to quantify mathematically for legal professionals. However, it is clear that we must engage more intensively and substantively with AI. Key questions arise regarding its application within legal departments: In what areas can AI provide new insights? For instance, AI tools like a Legal Horizon Scanner, which assists in identifying applicable laws across global jurisdictions, offer promising potential. Furthermore, we should consider what currently unimaginable advances might become commonplace in the future.
Lena Haffner: While AI significantly enhances certain aspects of the legal field, it’s crucial to acknowledge that it is not a panacea. Legal Tech solutions, such as cloud-based collaboration tools, enhance document and case management. Visualization tools are also crucial, simplifying complex data into clear graphics that help legal professionals and clients quickly understand and make decisions on project statuses. It’s vital to recognize that the primary goal of integrating AI is to facilitate continuous process improvement, supported by a robust and effective Legal Tech Stack.
Business Law Magazine: In which areas do you think AI can support human lawyers, and in which areas is human expertise still indispensable?
Karsten Kühnle: AI can assist in many routine tasks, helping to identify risks and process data efficiently, allowing lawyers more time for strategic and creative tasks. However, human expertise remains indispensable in complex and sensitive areas such as negotiations, strategy development, or complex legal issues of a global scale.
Gunnar Skoeries: Artificial Intelligence can certainly make legal processes more efficient. But I also agree that the human factor will continue to play a major role. This becomes particularly evident in the ethical and moral decisions we face in legal practice. Subtle nuances often play a crucial role here, and as a human, I understand cultural, social, and emotional contexts that a machine simply cannot fully grasp. Especially in complex negotiations, this human judgment is essential.
Our clients often seek legal support when they’re going through crises or making difficult life decisions. In such moments, empathy, active listening, and understanding individual life stories are crucial for building trust and finding tailored solutions. When it comes to negotiation skills and strategic decisions, the ability to adapt negotiation strategies and think through complex scenarios intuitively remains a strength of human lawyers. While AI can provide suggestions and analyses, it struggles to simulate situational judgment and creative thinking in negotiations and court proceedings.
As an experienced lawyer, I can assess the reactions and arguments of judges or opposing parties based on previous encounters, non-verbal communication, and subtle social cues. This kind of “gut feeling” develops through years of experience – something AI cannot yet replicate. Last but not least, as a lawyer, I bear personal responsibility for my decisions. Particularly in areas where errors could have serious consequences, a responsible person must make decisions and be able to stand behind them. This is an ethical requirement that cannot be delegated to AI.
New ways of working and flexible work models
Business Law Magazine: How has the way of working in your law firm or legal department changed in recent years, especially through remote work and flexible work models?
Karsten Kühnle: The way we, and also most of our clients, work, has become more agile. Remote work, office-based work, working at clients’ offices, and flexible work models have become the new standard. We have established a model that includes a mix of remote work and office-based working. Office spaces have been and continue to be redesigned. Elements like a “Social Heart” create social spaces that encourage dialogue. Other offices areas are designed to unlock creativity, permitting legal-design and activity-based working.
Gunnar Skoeries: For companies and legal departments, flexibility in work models is crucial, rather than strictly remote work. The office should remain inviting, not through coercion or perks like free coffee but through meaningful interactions – shared lunches, morning coffees, and personal check-ins. These small interpersonal moments are what attract people to the office.
Business Law Magazine: What challenges and advantages do you see in the implementation of hybrid or fully remote work models?
Gunnar Skoeries: As previously mentioned, these models have their justification. For example, in the context of Legal Service Providers. If I locate these in a shared service center, I can also consider offering them remotely. I think that the topic will branch off in the future: Legal departments will always come together as a team at one or more locations. But when it comes to defining legal services that can be outsourced to a shared service center, I think they can indeed be completely remote. I also think that this will become a topic in connection with demographic changes and the shortage of skilled workers, something better to address now and define solutions for.
Karsten Kühnle: Absolutely. Hybrid work models offer the advantage of flexible working hours, which give employees more freedom. At the same time, it is important to promote human encounters in the office, as these undoubtedly cultivate and foster team spirit and interpersonal dialogue. The challenge lies in finding a balance between flexibility and regular personal interactions to maintain team dynamics.
Employee development and recruiting
Business Law Magazine: What skills and competencies do you think will be in high demand in the future?
Lena Haffner: In the future, lawyers will need a broad range of competencies that go beyond legal expertise. A growth mindset and an understanding of business interrelations are central, as lawyers increasingly act as strategic advisors and consider entrepreneurial aspects. Soft skills such as empathy and user orientation are particularly important, as innovative approaches like legal design require focusing more on the end-user – in this case, the client – to improve the user experience of legal services and promote a human-centered approach in legal advice. Additionally, digital competencies and project management skills are needed as lawyers increasingly work in multidisciplinary teams.
Gunnar Skoeries: “Stay curious”. Curiosity is already essential and will become even more important in the future. Curiosity to change, to adjust to new circumstances. To learn, to keep learning. Otherwise, all the aforementioned topics also apply to the legal department, with an emphasis on being customer centric.
Business Law Magazine: How do you see the development of the role of lawyers over the next 5 to 10 years? Do you believe that legal careers will fundamentally change?
Karsten Kühnle: The role of lawyers will change significantly in the coming years. Technological advances and AI applications will not only take over routine tasks, but at the same time require new skills and a pronounced adaptability.
Lena Haffner: Lawyers must possess “T-shaped” skills, combining legal expertise with competencies in data analysis, technology, and interdisciplinary thinking. New professional fields such as Legal Technologists, Legal Engineers, Legal Designers, Legal Process/Data Analysts are emerging, driving innovation and bringing a deep understanding of optimizing law firm processes. Law firms will need to become more flexible and technology-oriented, leading to new job profiles and career paths. Lifelong learning remains crucial to cope with technological demands while maintaining empathy for clients, which remains indispensable for trust and authenticity despite technological support.
Gunnar Skoeries: Who knows what the world will look like in 2 years, let alone in 10 years? Because of this very fact, legal careers will need to fundamentally change. It will become more technical but also more human. Like many other areas, legal experts will need to be able to adapt more to new circumstances. Flexibility of mind will become more important. What was right yesterday may not be right tomorrow.
Author
Karsten Kühnle
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Frankfurt/Main
Partner, Head of Frankfurt
karsten.kuehnle@nortonrosefulbright.com
www.nortonrosefulbright.com
Author
Lena Haffner
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Hamburg
Innovation Lead
lena.haffner@nortonrosefulbright.com
www.nortonrosefulbright.com
Author
Gunnar Skoeries
MANN+HUMMEL International GmbH & Co. KG, Ludwigsburg
Group General Counsel