Stinson integrates Harvey AI into its operations firmwide

After initial wariness, law firms are rapidly adopting generative AI. Stinson has announced that it has adopted Harvey, an advanced generative AI platform, firmwide.

Harvey is a specialized generative AI platform that is an industry leader, with many law firms adopting it. It is one of the reasons that Stinson, after an intensive pilot program, adopted it. The other reason is that many of Stinson’s key clients were already using Harvey, which has been adopted by many companies, including many in the Fortune 500. The firm hoped, by using Harvey, that it would create operational efficiency and streamline time-intensive legal work, as well as further collaborate with clients using AI.

Before jumping in, the firm conducted a comprehensive internal evaluation and launched a pilot program. It engaged more than 100 attorneys of all levels of experience from multiple practice groups to test the platform in real-world scenarios. “We captured a really good sampling,” Allison Murdock, managing partner at Stinson, said.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. “It really quickly showed us that this is going to be very useful,” Murdock said.

Participants cited clear, measurable improvements in efficiency, speed, consistency, and collaboration. They noted that the technology allowed them to reallocate time toward higher-value legal analysis, strategic planning, and proactive risk mitigation. Attorneys used Harvey to automate transcript review, generate deposition outlines from extensive testimony, and streamline standard contract clause analysis and M&A due diligence summarization.

The platform also helped jump-start legal research, conduct litigation trend analysis, and identify general contract issues and support clause drafting.

“Some of it is what you might predict, the generative summaries that otherwise might be very time-intensive,” Murdock explained. “We also saw a lot of benefit in the corporate practices, too. They were using it to perform initial analysis and summaries of complex legal documents and applying it, for example, to purchase agreements or terms sheets to see, OK, how are they matching up, how are they differing?”

“That’s what was really illuminating. It wasn’t just what you might think, where it would be really useful for litigation,” Murdock emphasized. “Across all of our divisions, they were really finding it useful.”

The short-term strategy of improving efficiency leads into Stinson’s long-term strategy of client service. “How do we do what we do in a way that’s better, that provides more value for the clients to really provide a higher level of excellence in how we deliver our client service?” Murdock asked. “Improving client service is at the heart of our commitment to AI.”

Murdock also stresses that, while Harvey will help Stinson serve clients more effectively, it will not be a replacement for the firm’s legal talent. “It is not a replacement for all of those things that we do on a daily basis as lawyers of exercising our professional judgment, applying our legal analysis,” Murdock avowed. “Our professional judgment is our stock and trade, always has been and always will continue to be, no matter what tools we are using in our profession.”

Attorneys and paralegals will have the opportunity to use Harvey. Anyone using Harvey will be trained before having any access. “The training requires everybody to understand that Harvey is, simply, a tool. It provides an output to which, then, professional judgment, legal analysis, supervisory review all must be applied,” Murdock stated. “That is really at the heart of what we are doing from an ethical perspective.”

The firm also touts security features that Harvey has built in. “The attorney that is creating the database, where you have to input the information that you want Harvey to apply to, only that attorney has access to the output of that search, of that application, because there are guardrails so security is maintained,” Murdock explained.

Stinson has some clients that are happy the firm uses AI, and others who ask that the firm not use it. “Outside counsel guidelines are specific to each client, so we track that very carefully,” Murdock said. “We have to respect all outside counsel guidelines and ensure that those are being complied with so that AI is not being used for any clients who have directed us not to use it.”

While Murdock notes that, a few years ago, outside counsel guidelines tended in the direction of not using AI, over time things have shifted. “Other clients not only welcome AI but want to know, ‘how is it being used to more effectively serve me?’”

“Our lawyers are really excited to continue to use Harvey, and we think that it is really going to allow us to create great value for the clients,” said Murdock. “It’s another tool for us to provide better client service.”