Thomson Reuters CEO: Legal Profession Faces “Biggest Disruption in Its History” from AI  

Thomson Reuters President and CEO Steve Hasker believes the authorized occupation is experiencing “the most important disruption … in its historical past” resulting from generative and agentic synthetic intelligence, essentially rewriting how authorized work merchandise are created for the primary time in additional than 300 years.
Talking to authorized expertise reporters throughout ILTACON, the Worldwide Authorized Expertise Affiliation’s annual convention, Hasker outlined his firm’s formidable objective to grow to be “probably the most progressive firm” within the authorized tech sector whereas navigating what he described as unprecedented technological change affecting a occupation that has remained largely unchanged since its origins in London tea homes centuries in the past.
Basic Sport-Changer
“There have been heaps and plenty of applied sciences launched to that course of over time, however there hasn’t been one that’s fairly as disruptive as generative and now agentic AI as a result of in our view, it actually does rewrite and rewire the way in which by which the elemental work product, the primary draft, is produced,” Hasker stated.
The media-only occasion was offered as a dialog between Hasker and Ragunath Ramanathan, Thomson Reuters’ president of authorized professionals. After the media occasion, I sat down privately with Hasker for a short supplemental interview.
The CEO, who joined TR as CEO in March 2020, emphasised that whereas AI doesn’t substitute attorneys’ duties, it essentially modifications how preliminary authorized work is created. “It doesn’t absolve an legal professional, a professional lawyer, of their rights and duties. It doesn’t allow anybody, together with us, to form of defer to the machine.”
His dialog with Ramanathan got here on the heels of TR’s launch of CoCounsel Authorized, with refined agentic AI and deep analysis capabilities.
Huge Adoption, Restricted Strategic Planning
Hasker famous that just about each legislation agency is experimenting with AI instruments. “I can’t discover a legislation agency, giant, medium or small, that isn’t experimenting with or adopting a number of AI applied sciences. There could also be a agency on the market, however I haven’t discovered it.”
Authorities entities corresponding to court docket techniques, attorneys basic, and the U.S. Division of Justice, Hasker stated, “are maybe a half a step behind, however I’ve little doubt that they may also come alongside.”
Nevertheless, he noticed that few companies have developed complete transformation methods. “I feel there are only a few companies which have really received their minds across the broader transformation required to reap the benefits of these applied sciences. And there are even fewer companies which have a laser like view of how they’re going to win on this setting.”
Income Mannequin Challenges
Earlier than becoming a member of TR, Hasker was senior adviser to TPG Capital, CEO of CAA World, and spent practically eight years as world president and COO at Nielsen. He started his profession at PwC and later spent over a decade as a accomplice in McKinsey’s world media, data, and expertise observe.
In his ILTACON dialog with Ramanathan, Hasker acknowledged that the business faces vital structural modifications, significantly round billing fashions. “A lot of the companies nonetheless have a superb chunk of their revenues primarily based on per-hour billing. And if you happen to begin to meddle together with your income mannequin, that may be very disruptive.”
He famous that companies should stability innovation with sensible issues: “They usually’ve received companions to pay and colleagues to form of present apprenticeships to. And the second factor, after all, is that legal professionals are the salespeople. And so if you happen to mess with that an excessive amount of, you lose your gross sales pressure.”
Copyright Safety Issues
In a separate non-public interview I had with Hasker, he expressed sturdy views on copyright safety within the AI period, significantly relating to TR’s ongoing litigation with ROSS Intelligence. Whereas declining to remark particularly on the case, he argued that copyright safety is important for sustaining incentives for content material creators.
“For me, what that is about is incentives for creatives to create, journalists to jot down and create content material, videographers, filmmakers, recorded music artists, or authorized editors. As a result of if the copyright is essentially undermined, then so too are the incentives for individuals to create content material,” Hasker informed me.
He rejected arguments that the U.S. ought to weaken copyright protections to compete with China in AI growth. “And so the place does the U.S. have it elementary benefit? It’s within the high quality of the underlying content material that feeds these issues,” he stated within the non-public interview.
Three-Phased Transformation
Throughout their dialog, Ramanathan outlined Thomson Reuters’ view of business transformation occurring in three phases.
“The primary is precisely such as you stated, experimentation. That’s the section we’re in. The second section shall be what we name course of reengineering. You’re re-engineering the authorized workflows, the processes, the hiring processes. … The third method, which I do agree is at the very least 5 years away, is actual enterprise mannequin change.”
‘$10 Billion in Dry Energy’
Hasker detailed Thomson Reuters’ strategy to AI growth, emphasizing the corporate’s monetary sources. “We speak about having $10 billion in dry powder – by the tip of 2027, it is going to be $10 billion. By the tip of 2028, it’ll be $12.5 billion.”
The corporate not too long ago acquired Secure Signal, a gaggle of scientists from Cambridge and Harvard universities engaged on specialised authorized language fashions.
“We don’t know whether or not the world will proceed to relaxation upon the big language, the inspiration fashions, or whether or not there shall be some actually fascinating methods by which our merchandise and outcomes could be differentiated on the idea of the work that Jonathan [Schwartz] and the Secure Signal group are doing,” Hasker stated.
The Casetext Acquisition
In my facet interview with Hasker, I requested him about TR’s “construct vs. purchase” resolution to accumulate Casetext for $650 million, provided that TR already had a protracted historical past of creating AI and its personal AI lab in Toronto.
On the time, Hasker stated, TR’s inside efforts have been “transferring fairly rapidly” round integrating ChatGPT with Westlaw and Sensible Regulation, with Mike Dahn, SVP and head of Westlaw product administration, main the cost on Westlaw, and Emily Colbert, SVP of product administration, doing the identical for Sensible Regulation. “We have been already on excessive alert and acceleration.”
However the cause he wished to accumulate Casetext was to offer a second possibility, as he was undecided how lengthy inside growth would take earlier than bearing fruit.
“We actually stated that, as a result of we found out [the Casetext deal] may take some time for us to shut, let’s run the interior groups as arduous and quick as we are able to.”
On the identical time, he would encourage Casetext CEO Jake Heller and his group “to run as arduous after which the day we combine, we’ll decide the perfect code base. Easy as that.
“Which will sound dispassionate, however I feel on this setting it’s a must to – and it’s not favoring one particular person or one group over one other. It simply says, ‘Look, we’ll simply make a dispassionate name as to who’s made probably the most progress and we’ll undertake that.’”
Ultimately, he stated, he felt that Casetext had made probably the most progress in creating an authorized AI assistant, whereas Dahn and his group had made probably the most progress in injecting Open AI into Westlaw.
“So, for higher or worse, we ended up taking each of these and now we’ve purchased them – really introduced them – collectively”
Small Agency Adoption
Opposite to conventional expertise adoption patterns, Hasker noticed that AI instruments are seeing fast uptake amongst small and solo practitioners. He recounted assembly a solo practitioner who instantly embraced the expertise after seeing an indication.
The solo informed Hasker he was about to rent one other paralegal at a wage of $90,000 a 12 months plus bills, however he conceded, “I’m not superb at hiring them. I’m not superb at managing them. They arrive and go.”
TR’s AI instruments would price him a fraction of that, the solo stated, including, “And I feel that is going to have the ability to do their work simply as nicely, and I’d a lot desire to handle this than I’d one other human being in my workplace.”
The lawyer then requested to start out utilizing the instrument instantly, saying: “I’ve received a giant case tomorrow and I actually wish to begin to use the instrument as we speak, so can I join?”
Skilled-Grade AI Emphasis
Hasker careworn the significance of professional-grade AI that addresses knowledge safety and privateness issues particular to authorized observe. He criticized current feedback by OpenAI’s Sam Altman about privateness limitations.
“I used to be astonished to listen to Sam Altman final week simply form of throwing out and saying, nicely, you understand, one of many issues that ChatGPT doesn’t have is any type of privateness. what I imply? We actually want. Okay, however Sam, your persons are on the market telling legal professionals that they will simply use that. So decide one. Proper. Does it lack privateness or can it’s utilized by legal professionals? As a result of it’s not each.”
Content material-Pushed Tech Firm
Hasker, who joined TR as CEO in 2020, stated he realized nearly instantly that TR wanted emigrate from “being a content material firm, predominantly – as some individuals would have historically stated, a writer – to a content material pushed expertise firm.”
He stated the corporate’s focus is now on “the seamless integration of distinctive and proprietary content material, each ours and that of our prospects, that of third events, the place it is sensible to take action with AI.”
Each Hasker and Ramanathan famous the corporate’s inclusion within the NASDAQ index as a validation level – each for TR and for the authorized business extra broadly.
“I feel it’s a form of a signpost alongside the way in which,” Hasker stated. “It actually meant extra to our colleagues than I believed it will.”
His ‘Aha Second’ for AI
In our separate interview, I requested Hasker whether or not there was an “aha second” for him relating to the potential of ChatGPT and generative AI.
“When it handed the bar examination,” he replied, main him to assume, “Okay, that is going to be an actual disruptor.”
One other aha second got here quickly after than, when he was at a TR occasion for managing companions of main legislation companies. When the subject of AI got here up, he described observing their diverse reactions, from these planning aggressive adoption to others hoping to “maintain your breath till retirement.”