Allen & Overy

I think one of the things that I got wrong is I assumed that law firms would be ahead of legal departments when it came to the adoption of AI because I just felt like they had more at stake.

And, you know, if you look at, like, kind of the first big deals that were announced, the ones that were, like, real, like, newsmakers, it was, you know, A&O Sherman in very early 2023 adopting a Harvey firm wide, right? Not, not that there weren't also...

You know, Moderna was, like, sort of, uh, noteworthy for adopting AI across their legal department, being one of the first departments in Moderna to do it.

But if you looked at, like, what really, like, made news, it was A&O Sherman.

It was, uh, PwC Legal even-

That's right

He was in the deal as an advisor to FIFA, former CEO of Liberty Media.

And he famously has said himself he had a conversation with Jared Kushner's brother, Josh Kushner, at the Allen and Overy conference in Sun Valley under the shade of a tree to discuss this.

And FIFA inserted themselves in their best place to stop this.

However, you know what? I think as they presented it there, I think complete bollocks.

Guy whose documents they also want.

He was in the deal as an advisor to FIFA, former CEO of Liberty Media.

And he famously has said himself he had a conversation with Jared Kushner's brother, Josh Kushner, at the Allen and Overy conference in Sun Valley under the shade of a tree to discuss this.

And FIFA inserted themselves in their best place to stop this.

But actually, back in 2005, there were two law firms in the world that had the word innovation on their websites.

And that was, shall I tell you who it was? That was Allen & Overy and Eversheds in the UK.

Serena, walk us back from your Chambers Day when that first edition got finally published.

Were you surprised about the reaction when that actually hit the newsstands in effect?

And the lawyers were one step removed because they were just solving the legal problem of documenting these things and not feeling the idea that if you could understand what was in these agreements and you could merge it with transaction and trade data, then it gave it meaning.

So, again, I remember being back at Allen Overy and found that we finished a big securitization deal.

I found myself as being an expert on derivatives in the context of securitizations, kind of niche of a niche area in many ways.

And there was this ridiculous stuff.

Clifford Chance.

Freshfields, Allen & Overy, and Slaughter and May.

Wow.

Nice.