Aligning a sceptical partnership on AI
A half-day session at the partners' retreat on where AI creates value in the firm.
- Services
- Strategy
- Period
- Feb 2026
- Format
- A 90-minute remote session to the equity partnership at its retreat
A partnership that had seen demonstrations, not evidence
The firm is an independent South Australian practice of around ninety people across four offices, owned and run by its equity partners. Its work with AI had gone no further than a small set of Copilot licences and two vendor demonstrations. One partner was using the tools every day and getting real time back on advice work. He could not persuade the others.
The chief executive had a slot at the partners' retreat and a partnership that was, in the main, sceptical. Accuracy was the stated objection. Underneath it sat a fair question nobody had answered: what would AI actually change about the way this firm works?
Show the firm's own work, not someone else's
Most of the effort went into preparation rather than material. We interviewed a partner about a workflow he runs every month and rebuilt the session around it. An early draft leaned on examples from the largest national firms; those were replaced with firms closer to this one in size, and the technical detail was cut back for an audience of practising lawyers.
Half the session was presentation and half was discussion. The question put to the room was what an AI-native version of this firm would look like.
A session built on two of the firm's own workflows
The keynote covered where AI has reached in legal services, an adoption map of the Australian market, and an honest placement of the firm on it. Two demonstrations were built on the firm's own scenarios, using anonymised material.
- Intake
- A live demonstration of an incoming client email read, matched to the right matter and opened in the practice system.
- Billing
- A month of invoices reviewed in one pass and turned into a working dashboard, built from dummy bills modelled on a partner's own.
- Discussion
- Five prompts on paper: what we do now, opportunities, threats, the cost of doing nothing, what next. The partners answered them.
- Follow-up
- A hosted copy of the deck, a four-point call to action and a short reading list. The last of the four points was that it is easier than it looks.
A starting position, not a strategy
The partners engaged and argued. The chief executive reported that the session was valuable and that it stimulated discussion.
The firm did not leave with an AI strategy. It left with partners willing to back one, and with four things to do next.
The demonstrations ran short of the depth they were built for. Ninety minutes with a non-technical audience does not leave room for both breadth and detail.
The firm had already commissioned a separate review of the systems underneath the practice. This session set the context for it.
I enjoyed the session and felt that the partners found it valuable; it did certainly stimulate some discussion. As ever, the key will be what we do next.
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Strata: Simon — Unsplash