Axiom's AI Legal Talent Bench Surpasses 200 Lawyers

Axiom's large global bench of AI legal talent is helping in-house legal teams design and implement AI data governance, privacy, and compliance programs; conduct AI regulatory assessments and AI bias reviews; evaluate AI's impact on IP protection; and drive AI technology selection decisions, implementation, and usage

NEW YORK, May 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Axiom announced that its on-demand legal talent network has surpassed 200 lawyers with specific AI experience, giving in-house corporate legal teams and businesses of all sizes immediate access to a large global bench of experienced, high-quality AI talent in the legal services industry—at precisely the moment the industry needs it most.

These 200 lawyers are the deep expert "core" of Axiom's broader network of over 1,000 legal professionals with varied AI experience—a talent network where only the top 3% of applicants are accepted. In collaboration with clients, Axiom builds focused AI legal teams that help clients address the key areas they say require top AI legal talent today: Commercial and Contract Law, Data Privacy and Cybersecurity, Legal Ops, IP Regulatory and Compliance, Finance, and AI Technology and Product Development.

"We anticipated high demand for legal AI talent over a year ago and have focused on recruiting the highest-quality legal AI talent to the Axiom network ever since," said David McVeigh, CEO of Axiom. "The industry has passed the tipping point with the high volume of new AI regulations globally, concerns around ethical AI use, an AI skills gap internally, and AI technology evolving faster than legal teams can keep up. Many companies are finding demand for high-quality AI legal talent outstripping supply and extraordinarily expensive. With Axiom's deep bench of high-quality AI legal talent, we can help in-house teams quickly meet their AI talent, compliance, and technology needs without breaking their budget."

It's no secret that corporate in-house legal teams are embracing the transformative power of AI to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their legal operations. GCs and legal ops leaders increasingly recognize this era as a transformative moment for corporate law and want to invest in AI to automate and streamline processes in their day-to-day work. And in the case of technology and services vendors, in-house legal teams are being called upon to support the integration and use of safe, effective, and regulatory compliant AI into new products and services.^{1 2}

But there's a catch. A recent study of 300 small, mid-sized, and large enterprise businesses found 41% of GCs reporting AI as among the new or emerging practice areas most likely to be in demand in the next two years—yet most in-house legal departments said they're unprepared to meet the daunting challenges posed by AI. More than two-thirds (65%) reported a lack of technology and product development lawyers in-house, about half (47%) had no data privacy and cybersecurity lawyers on staff, and most (70%) lacked in-house resources for new or emerging practice areas such as AI and machine learning (ML).

"Legal teams and technology developers are under immense market pressure to use AI for strategic business advantage and advancement, but they also need to be in lockstep with a rapidly evolving global regulatory landscape, and ensure their AI use is trustworthy and safe," said C.J. Saretto, Chief Technology Officer at Axiom. "It's crucial for in-house legal departments to invest in experienced legal talent to harness AI's power while ensuring safe, effective, and legally acceptable use. The shift towards AI-savvy legal teams is quickening and having the right AI legal talent at the right time will be the decisive factor between success or failure and effective risk mitigation."

Axiom is no stranger to helping in-house legal teams and legal operations with complex legal technology matters, having completed more than 1,400 technology engagements in the past five years. And even while building the company's deep legal AI talent bench, Axiom talent was stepping up to help Fortune 100 clients, other large enterprises, SMBs, and innovative startups capitalize on AI's capabilities and navigate related policy, regulatory, and operational challenges across industries and practice areas. Some of Axiom's recent AI engagements include:

• Helping a high profile, cutting-edge legal AI startup train and ensure the trustworthiness of its legal AI models. A large project team approaching 100 Axiom lawyers is embedded within this startup's legal and application development teams to review and test the company's forthcoming research tool, which employs AI to review, analyze, and answer complex legal research questions based on published case law, filings, regulations, and other sources. Then, in the final phase of a three-phase approach, a fresh contingent of more than 750 Axiom lawyers will stress test the tool to help optimize it at scale and verify accuracy for niche law subsets and specific regulations.
  
  
• Helping a global Fortune 100 pharma company launch a new digital technology group operating at the complex intersection of MedTech, AI/ML, and pharma and healthcare law. A project team of seven Axiom lawyers with specialized digital and AI technology roll-out experience, led by an Axiom project manager, drafted and negotiated vendor agreements, statements of work, and affiliate agreements. The team ensured data processing, privacy, and healthcare regulations such as HIPAA and anti-kickback rules were properly addressed. Additional Axiom technology IP lawyers were also brought in to support patent drafting for the innovative digital tools the new organization was developing internally and/or acquiring and integrating from third parties.
  
  
• Helping a global Fortune 100 financial services corporation define, enhance, and manage generative AI risk assessment, data privacy, and information security policies and processes across the organization. An Axiom lawyer was embedded in the company's generative AI technology group to attend meetings, compile notes, and provide detailed risk analysis; develop communications, training, policies, and processes for gen AI use; recommend and incorporate regulatory changes into action plans and controls; track AI usage and other metrics; maintain the company's AI tools inventory; and provide executive reporting and updates on AI risk management. Still another Axiom lawyer is addressing the privacy and information security implications of the EU AI Act and other relevant regulations in all of the company's contracts and workflows.
  
  
• Helping a global Fortune 100 technology company ensure responsible AI use across their product offerings. Five Axiom lawyers advise business teams on AI product development on relevant matters at each stage of AI model creation, from training to adversarial testing to general availability release. This includes IP, privacy, and ethics; model accuracy, fairness, inclusivity, and bias mitigation; data use and copyright (fair use); LLM development, expansion, and sustainability; and more. The team also helps ensure the company's products are compliant with US and international AI regulations (GDPR, CCPA, EU AI Act, etc.). And some 15 Axiom lawyers with AI experience are embedded in business and product teams as part of their overall work, including projects where AI is not the primary focus but intersects or otherwise has a role to play.

And those are just for starters.

"When you need top-quality AI legal talent, you'll find it at Axiom," said Catherine Kemnitz, Chief Strategy & Development Officer at Axiom and Managing Director of Axiom Advice and Counsel. "This might be the biggest bench of AI all-stars in the industry, reflecting Axiom's history of leading legal services transformation—such as establishing our Arizona-based affiliated law firm. Axiom is disrupting the industry again with the most robust bench of on-demand AI legal talent out there, which we'll continue to invest in for our clients. Our bench lets clients deploy large numbers of the best legal minds to train legal generative AI models and establish innovative partnerships between technology and human talent. This ensures legal AI meets the trustworthiness and compliance standards both lawyers and tech vendors need before they can harness the power of AI."

For more information or to talk to an Axiom representative, visit https://www.axiomlaw.com/practice-areas/artificial-intelligence. For more information about Axiom, please visit our website, hear from our experts on the Inside Axiom blog, and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Related Axiom News

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• National Study Reveals In-House Legal Teams Face a Perfect Storm of Rising Law Firm Costs and Talent Shortages Amidst Increasing Workloads and Complexity
• Axiom Introduces New Permanent Recruitment Solutions
• Axiom Achieves Industry-Leading Scores for Talent Quality
• Axiom Marks First Full Year of Innovative Law Firm Practice, Now Offers Industry's Broadest Array of Law Firm Services and Solutions
• Axiom Continues to Invest in C-Suite Leadership Team with New CFO Appointment

About Axiom Advice & Counsel

Located in Arizona, Axiom Advice & Counsel (AA&C) is setting a new standard for the modern law firm. From prioritizing clients and the lawyer experience, to finding the right legal talent for the right legal matter, AA&C's approach to the law firm model provides clients with better value for every dollar spent on outside counsel. AA&C represents a diverse set of clients, ranging from growing mid-market businesses to global multinationals with large in-house teams. The firm focuses on corporate law including general counsel services, real estate, litigation, labor and employment, mergers and acquisitions, data privacy, intellectual property, and regulatory matters. For more information, please visit https://www.axiomadviceandcounsel.com.

About Axiom

Axiom is where high-caliber legal talent meets full-service law firm work. We invented the alternative legal services industry 24 years ago and now serve more than 1,500 legal departments globally, including 68% of the Fortune 100, with 95% client satisfaction. Axiom gives small, mid-market, and enterprise clients a single trusted provider who can deliver a full spectrum of legal solutions and services across more than a dozen practice areas and all major industries at rates up to 50% less than national law firms. To learn how Axiom can help your legal departments do more for less, visit axiomlaw.com.

¹ https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/insights/legal/b/thought-leadership/posts/corporate-legal-departments-are-seizing-the-genai-opportunity
² https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2023/11/07/reinventing-the-legal-department-a-roadmap-to-integrating-ai-for-strategic-business-advancement/

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