Law firm Shoosmiths will give staff an extra £1m in bonuses after they hit the firm’s annual target for 1m Microsoft Copilot prompts more than four months ahead of schedule, City AM can reveal.
The firm told City AM in April that it had set a “clear and ambitious annual target” of 1m on its AI tool in exchange for an additional sum to its bonus pot.
Having reached the target, the firm will make an additional £1m available to all eligible staff.
The firm already awarded around £3.5m through its firmwide collegiate bonus pool for the 2024/25 financial year, with all 1,300 eligible colleagues receiving a 5 per cent salary bonus in July.
Shoosmiths was the first major law firm to link a firmwide bonus to AI adoption across its workforce, as operational goals related to bonuses in previous years had been positive.
The firm has embedded many AI technologies into how its people work and is currently exploring additional opportunities with Microsoft as part of the next phase of its AI strategy.
Chief executive David Jackson said: “Hitting this milestone ahead of schedule showcases our people’s commitment and enthusiasm to embrace change and create a new benchmark for what client service looks like.”
The firm will now closely monitor levels of AI prompts over the next few months to ensure that Copilot’s use has become so embedded in people’s daily working lives that usage does not decline merely because the bonus goal has been met.
Race to deploy AI tools
Most business sectors are prioritising investment in AI, and the legal industry is no different.
The surge in AI has seen a flurry of legal tech start-ups hit the market, including Legora, which was founded in early summer 2023. In its short two-year history, its valuation has increased dramatically, from $50m to $1.8bn.
And now the focus is to use those tools and incorporate them globally. Boss Max Junestrand told City AM last month, “When we rolled out with Linklaters, it was a global deployment for all their offices, all the lawyers, and all the practice areas.”
Just last week, CMS revealed it aims to ‘stay ahead of the curve’ by rolling out legal tool Harvey AI across all 21 CMS member organisations, after lawyers reported already seeing “meaningful time savings”.