I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a cohort of extraordinary lawyers at Baker McKenzie about business development. As part of our program, I shared several ways artificial intelligence can help lawyers save time, strengthen marketing and business development efforts, and ultimately serve clients more effectively.
The conversation was a reminder of what makes this firm so forward-thinking. Baker McKenzie is not only experimenting with AI on behalf of clients — they are ensuring their lawyers understand its practical application in their own work.
With their permission, here are a few of the points we discussed.
1. Generating insights to support strategy
AI can help identify trends, issues, and developments within companies or industries. These insights can support pitch preparation and inform business development strategy. While firms may have more advanced tools within their knowledge management functions, even simple AI searches run on a regular basis can help lawyers stay current in their sectors and follow up with clients in a more thoughtful, timely way.
2. Repurposing content across platforms
AI can transform one piece of content into many. A speech can become a LinkedIn post, a partner briefing, or a set of client guidelines. Longer text can be summarized into key points tailored to specific audiences. For busy lawyers, this ability to scale content efficiently is invaluable.
3. Using AI to draft follow-up notes
When trained on your writing style and preferred tone, AI can generate an initial draft of a follow-up note that sounds remarkably like you. While personalization remains essential, AI can provide a time-saving first version that accelerates the process.
My closing message to the group was simple: only by experimenting with AI can we truly understand its application to our own work — and, more importantly, to the needs of our clients. Innovation in law is no longer theoretical. It is practical, tangible, and already reshaping how firms build relationships and deliver value. It was inspiring to see Baker McKenzie leaning into that reality.
My thanks to the entire Baker McKenzie team, and especially JeanMarie Campbell and Katrina Iobst, for the invitation and for being such exceptional marketing and business development leaders.
