Together with

Table of Contents

• EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

• FEATURED REPORT 📰

• TOGETHER WITH CMS* 🤝

• IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

Every big commercial law firm says they’re “innovative”.

But I’ve never heard a firm actually explain what law firm “innovation” looks like on a random Tuesday.

I’m super excited for this week’s newsletter. Because we’ve sat down with CMS to answer this exact question:

What does innovation actually look like inside a law firm — day to day?

Once you’ve read the newsletter, complete this poll further down. I’d love to get your thoughts about this article (especially if you enjoyed it). Your comments are a huge help in us getting to work with more firms.

– Idin

P.S. Applications for CMS’s Insight Programme are open for the next 9 days. It’s paid (£475/week) and if you complete it, you could be fast-tracked to a training contract assessment day.

FEATURED REPORT 📰

🔍 How CMS actually uses AI (and why you should care

What’s going on here?

Every law firm says it’s “innovative” — but it’s hard to know what that means day to day.

At CMS, innovation shows up in practical ways. For example, the firm has:

• rolled out Harvey across 50+ countries

• built AI workflows that are already used on live client work

• created programmes that let trainees spend time on innovation projects

We spoke to CMS’s Innovation team to find out what they’ve built, who does the work, and how trainees can get involved.

What did CMS actually build using AI?

Here’s one example of how CMS has used Harvey on live client work.

CMS supports a major bank with regular contract review. The bank sends document packs, often with multiple agreements bundled together.

⏳ The old way: Every pack is different. Before any detailed legal review could start, a senior lawyer had to read through the documents, work out what general issues were relevant in each document, and decide which specialist should handle each part. That sorting step alone could take hours each week.

⚙️ The new way: CMS built a workflow with Harvey to handle that review and sorting process. When a pack arrives, it’s uploaded into Harvey as part of the team’s process.

Harvey then:

• summarises the documents

• flags any key issues

• identifies what type of review is needed

• suggests which lawyer should be allocated the work

The senior lawyer then just checks Harvey’s recommendations.

✅ The result: CMS saves around four hours of lawyer time a week on this one task. That lawyer’s time can go into higher-value work, like advising the client on risk and approach, rather than sorting documents.

Does innovation always mean AI?

No, not always. Some of the most useful innovation work is simply fixing how work flows through a legal team.

Here’s a real CMS example.

The law firm was asked to help one of their clients (a global technology company). Their employment team was receiving requests from different internal groups (HR, employee relations, people operations) across a range of topics. The requests came in by email in different formats. There was no consistent tracking, and it wasn’t always clear who was handling what.

CMS helped build a central intake and workflow platform, so there was one place to submit requests and track them through to completion.

Who makes up a law firm’s Innovation team?

At CMS, innovation work isn’t handled by one single group. It sits across five different teams who work with both clients and lawyers.

Here’s what each of them does:

1. Legal Technology: This team finds and tests new tech tools — like Harvey — and rolls them out across the firm. But they don't just introduce lawyers to a new tool and leave them to it. They work alongside legal teams on live matters to make sure the technology gets used properly in real work.
   

2. Legal Operations & Project Management: When a legal matter is complex — with a lot of moving parts, tight deadlines, or multiple stages — this team helps keep it on track. They help plan the work at the start, monitor progress as it moves forward, design the workflow so nothing gets missed, and figure out the right resourcing and pricing.
   

3. Legal Innovation: This is the team responsible for creating the conditions for innovation throughout the firm. For example, they run CMS Innovation Hours, a programme that lets lawyers get “billable hours” credit for time spent working on innovation projects. They also run CMS: Ignite, which gives teams support and funding to test new ideas.
   

4. Managed Legal Services: This team builds and runs large-scale, ongoing solutions for clients — like the employment law platform we covered earlier. These aren't one-off pieces of advice. They're structured services, often combining custom processes, technology, and dedicated people to handle a client's legal needs on an ongoing basis.
   

5. Knowledge: This team makes sure every lawyer at CMS has access to up-to-date legal research, know-how, precedents, and guidance — so they're not starting from scratch every time they work on something. They manage the firm's research tools and internal resources. This is important because the performance of the AI tools can depend on the depth and organisation of a firm’s knowledge.

Can trainees actually get involved in this?

Yes, and CMS even has a Trainee Innovation Accelerator programme. This lets trainees spend up to 25% of their time on innovation training, development, and projects.

In practice, trainees might:

• test new tools before they’re rolled out

• map how a task is currently done and suggest a better process

• help automate repetitive work (for example, first drafts of standard NDAs)

• support training so teams actually adopt new tools

The main things to show are curiosity, confidence to suggest better ways of working, and comfort working across different teams.

💡 Editor’s note: It’s Idin here — I can personally vouch for CMS's commitment to bringing trainees into the Innovation team. I spent six months of my training contract in the Legal Technology team at CMS!

What's the biggest challenge firms face when rolling out AI?

🔄 Tech adoption: Buying or building the tool isn’t usually the hard part. The hard part is adoption — getting busy teams to change how they work.

And, counter-intuitively, sometimes the busiest teams can be the slowest to adopt new tools, even though they'd benefit the most. Since they’re already stretched thin, learning a new way of working feels like one more thing on the pile.

👀 Responsible use: Human lawyers are personally accountable for the quality and accuracy of the advice they give — that doesn't change just because AI was involved in producing it.

That's why CMS treats Harvey as a super-charged assistant rather than a replacement for legal judgement. The firm’s lawyers are trained on how to validate AI outputs, handle confidentiality, and sense-check anything the tool produces before it goes to a client.

How can you use this in your applications?

💡 Most applicants talk about innovation in vague terms — you can get specific: It's easy to write in an application that “technology will handle lower-value tasks so lawyers can focus on higher-value work”. That's not wrong, but it doesn't stand out.

Instead, use firm-specific proof points (pick one or two):

• “CMS uses a Harvey workflow to speed up first-pass review of bank document packs, saving around four hours of senior lawyer time a week on one job.”

• “CMS built an intake and workflow platform so employment law requests are routed to the right specialist and tracked to completion.”

• “Innovation at CMS sits across multiple teams — including legal technology, legal ops & project management, managed legal services, and knowledge.”

Name the tools, describe what they do, and identify the different teams. That's what separates a strong, tailored written application from a generic one.

💡 If you discuss AI in an application, talk about the challenges too: Most candidates focus on the benefits AI can bring. Fewer can explain the challenges.

Show that you understand rolling out any new tech has challenges like adoption (busy teams don’t change easily) and accountability (lawyers still own the output).

Then mention what firms can do to address these — things like training, clear processes, and protocols for safe use of data.

This shows you’ve thought about the practicalities of innovation in a commercial law firm.

💡 Innovation isn't a separate career track. It's becoming part of the job: If innovation interests you, don’t shy away from it.

CMS has hybrid roles where practising lawyers split their time between fee-earning and innovation work — sometimes even 50/50. The firm’s Trainee Innovation Accelerator even lets trainees spend up to 25% of their time on innovation projects.

So, don't think you have to choose between being a "real lawyer" and being interested in how legal services evolve.

Your comments are a huge help in us getting to do more with law firms.

TOGETHER WITH CMS* 🤝

This one-week programme could fast-track you to a training contract

CMS’s Insight Programme shows you exactly what it’s like to work at a top commercial law firm (and it’ll help you get there yourself).

You'll gain real-life experience and practical advice from working lawyers. And, after you complete the programme, you could be fast-tracked straight to a training contract assessment day.

The Insight Programme lets you:

• Shadow trainees, associates and partners

• Build your commercial and networking skills

• Join socials, lunches and coffee chats across the firm

Plus, you’ll be paid £475 for the week.

🎓 Who can apply? First-year LLB students, penultimate-year non-law students, and Scottish applicants (second-year LLB or first-year accelerated LLB).

⏰ Deadline: 27th February (only nine days left)

* This is sponsored content

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• 🥛 Oatly has lost its long-running legal battle to trade mark the phrase "Post Milk Generation" in the UK. The Supreme Court ruled that using the word "milk" in connection with oat-based food and drink — even in a slogan — was a breach of EU dairy regulations (that are still in force in the UK). The court said the phrase describes a type of consumer, not the product, so it doesn't qualify as a protected trade mark for Oatly's drinks range. But, it can still use the slogan on T-shirts.

• 📰 The government has ordered an investigation into the proposed £500 million takeover of the Telegraph by Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). The investigation was called over concerns the deal could affect the range of voices in UK media. Ofcom (the UK’s communications regulator) will look at the public interest impact, while the CMA will assess competition issues. The Telegraph has had a difficult few years — its previous owners, the Barclay brothers, racked up debts that forced a sale, and an earlier bid backed by Abu Dhabi's ruling family was blocked over foreign ownership concerns.

• 🅿️ Euro Car Parks has been fined £473,000 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for ignoring a request for information. The CMA sent the parking firm seven separate requests — by post, by hand, and by email — but they didn’t respond for three months, claiming it thought the emails were a scam. The CMA wasn't convinced, making this the first fine issued under its new powers granted by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Euro Car Parks has appealed.

• 🏢 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is moving (just a bit) to its new London office. The firm signed a deal for a new London headquarters at 1 Appold Street — just a short walk from its current base near Liverpool Street. The move, expected in 2030, will bring together lawyers currently split across two offices in the City and Canary Wharf. Construction for the new building hasn’t begun yet, but supposedly it will include a rooftop terrace and cycling facilities. Slaughter and May advised on the lease deal itself — a reminder that even law firms need lawyers.

STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

• 💻️ Free application advice: Check out my YouTube channel for actionable tips and an insight into the lifestyle of a commercial lawyer in London.

• 📁 Law firm application bank: A growing library of real, verified successful applications for training contracts and vacation schemes. Helpful if you want to learn from others who answered the same questions you’re stuck on.

• 📝 Write winning law firm applications: A practical course to help you write clearer applications, faster. Avoid common mistakes, learn how to structure answers properly, and get lifetime access to future updates. Try it for 14 days, risk free.