Legal Geek Live

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in Amsterdam, this episode features Aniek de Vries, a Legal Ops professional at Just Eat Takeaway, one of the largest food delivery platforms in the world. She works within a legal team of around seventy people spread across more than fifteen countries, with hubs in Amsterdam and London.Earlier that day, she took the stage alongside her colleague Millie Foster to share how their in-house team has embraced AI, and in this conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, she goes deeper into what that journey actually looks like from the inside.What makes this story striking is not just the tools, but the position: the legal department at Just Eat Takeaway has been the leading adopter of AI within the company, a tech company, nearly every month since April last year. Aniek explains how that happened and what it took:Why it all starts with training, not technology, and why the team invested heavily in learning before building anything, using a driving licence analogy: you need to understand how AI works before you can use it responsiblyHow the team set up a cross-functional taskforce with one lawyer from every sub-team, sharing what they learned weekly and feeding insights back across the department in monthly sessionsThe shift from Gemini to Prosus's Tocon platform, which gave the legal team access to an in-house agent builder, and how that accelerated everythingWhy even simple automations matter: the example of an automated signature page workflow that sounds trivial but saves the team real time every weekHow they built a small chatbot to guide people through privacy assessments, and what it means for a legal department to start delivering self-service tools to the businessThe hackathon where the team tried to build a triage agent that could look at incoming Jira tickets and tell lawyers whether they actually needed to act on them, based on a priority matrix, and why it did not really work but was still one of the most valuable things they didWhy data organisation comes before AI, and how the team first had to invest in getting their Jira workflows, statuses, and ways of working aligned before any AI layer could add valueThe moment when people's eyes light up because they realise they can build things by talking in normal human language, and why that spark matters more than any specific toolHow leadership support and a culture of experimentation made adoption possible, not just one champion pushing from the side but managers actively encouraging their teams to learn and tryThe twelve projects now on the legal team's roadmap, including Jetty, a 24/7 query tool originally introduced by HR that the legal team jumped on, plus horizon scanning, drafting support, and a major playbook project for contract negotiationsAniek offers a practical, grounded look at what AI adoption actually requires inside a large international legal team: not a single breakthrough moment, but a steady process of learning together, building small, sharing what works, and making sure the foundations are in place before scaling up.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in Amsterdam, this episode takes on the question that most law firms are quietly avoiding: what happens to the business model when AI takes over the work that juniors used to do? Frans is a legal management consultant and former Clifford Chance professional who advises law firms on strategy, pricing, and operating models. He has spent twenty years thinking about how legal services are produced and sold, long before AI made the conversation urgent.In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Frans lays out why the traditional law firm pyramid is under existential pressure, and why almost nobody in the profession is willing to say it out loud:Why the bottom of the pyramid, trainees and junior associates, will be the first to go, and what that means for firms that have built their entire economics around billing a thousand hours per junior per yearThe math that nobody wants to hear: clients are paying roughly 250,000 euros a year for someone straight out of university, and Frans asks plainly why any client would keep doing thatWhy the billable hour is not a measure of value but a calculation trick designed to guarantee partner income, and why even so-called "fixed fees" are just the same hours repackagedHow Clifford Chance was already experimenting with annual retainers and product-based billing twenty years ago, models that most firms are only now beginning to considerThe story of a law firm that started charging clients for document storage by the byte, and the partner who said "that's not us" until it worked and turned into free moneyWhy KPMG once walked into a law firm and announced a technology surcharge on their audit fees, and what that tells you about how other industries think about pricingHow young lawyers are already asking firms in interviews how much they use AI, and walking away from firms that don't have an answerWhy law firms never needed marketers, strategists, or business developers, the partner model was self-sustaining for thirty years and why that's now becoming a vulnerabilityThe question Frans puts to every firm he works with: why does a client come to you? Not because of your AI, but because of who you are and the example of Arne Grimme at De Brauw, who clients seek out for reasons that have nothing to do with technologyFrans' closing advice: take a day off, sit back, and seriously think about what happens when 40% of your work can be done by a machine. That question, he says, is where it all startsFrans offers a blunt, experience-backed perspective on why the legal profession's business model is more fragile than it appears and why the firms that start rethinking now will be the ones still standing when the volume shift hits.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in Amsterdam, this episode gets to the heart of why so many legal AI projects stall after the first workshop. Hans Albers, Director of Legal Management Consulting & Managed Services at Deloitte Legal, advises law firms and in-house legal teams on AI strategy, operating models, and change management. Before Deloitte, he led worldwide legal operations at Juniper Networks and served as EMEA General Counsel at both Juniper and Cisco.In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Hans shares what he sees on the ground when legal organisations try to make AI work:Why law firms are adopting AI faster than in-house teams, and why competition is driving that speed in a way that internal legal departments simply don't feelThe firm where senior associates were quietly thriving with AI but didn't dare mention it, because the partners above them weren't ready for that conversationHow a workshop with one law firm's leadership revealed that the tone from the top was positive all along, they just hadn't realised it needed to trickle downWhy "communication, communication and communication" is Hans's answer to every AI adoption question, and why one business case presentation is never enoughHow an insurance company went from months of manual claims review to processing ten thousand documents in two weeks, at a price the client would actually payWhy lawyers treat AI like a finished product they can buy and install, and why even the iPhone after 25 years is still not doneThe temptation of building your own legal AI tool with Copilot and Office 365, and why Hans has seen it go wrong: "The man who built it left five years ago, so we have no idea how to fix it"Why junior lawyers should be training the partners, not the other way around, and the co-creation model that makes that workHow AI is quietly threatening the billable hour from two sides: firms can no longer charge for work that takes minutes, and clients are starting to do it themselvesWhy "start small" is only half the advice, the other half is to stop thinking about efficiency and start rethinking how legal services are delivered entirelyHans offers a refreshingly practical perspective on what legal AI adoption actually requires, not just the right tool, but the strategy behind it, the patience to keep communicating, and the willingness to accept that the product will never be finished.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in Amsterdam, this episode takes you inside one of the largest generative AI rollouts in the legal industry. Bert Vries, Director of Information Technology & Innovation at CMS Netherlands, led the global deployment of Harvey across 7,000+ lawyers in over fifty countries a journey that started with a simple email in 2023 and is still going.In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Bert shares the real story behind CMS's AI transformation:- How CMS went from pilot to global rollout, and why it took two and a half years- The shift from horizontal, firm-wide AI features to vertical, practice-specific use cases- Why Banking & Finance uses Harvey differently than Labor Law or Corporate M&A- The concrete example of reviewing 10,000 invoices and why no lawyer signs up for that- How AI doesn't just drive efficiency, but can genuinely improve the quality of legal advice- Why the ROI of legal AI isn't measured in euros saved, but in changing how people feel about their work- How the billable hour model is being challenged, and why Bert believes in a nuanced, hybrid approach to pricing- What the dotcom era taught Bert about innovation hype and why today's AI wave feels eerily familiar- Why so many firms get stuck in analysis paralysis, and Bert's Columbus analogy for breaking free- How CMS chose Harvey: no lengthy RFP, no feature matrix just experimentation and momentumBert offers a refreshingly honest perspective on what it actually takes to land AI in a global law firm, not just the technology, but the patience, the conversations, and the willingness to experiment while others are still analysing.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in London, this episode dives into the fast-moving world of agentic AI with Jeremy Coleman, Vice President, Legal Research & Development at ContractPodAi. Jeremy breaks down the shift from GenAI experimentation to real-world implementation, and explains why legal teams should be planning, not panicking.In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Jeremy explores:What agentic AI really is, and why it’s not as scary as it soundsHow agents bring more control, not less, by working within user-defined guardrailsWhy we’ve already been preparing for this through workflow automation, machine learning, and GenAIHow legal work will shift from individual tasks to coordinated agentic systemsWhy the biggest opportunity lies in connecting departments, not replacing themHow ContractPodAi’s platform Leah helps in-house teams build real-world agentic workflowsWhich legal tasks (e.g. real estate, regulatory prep) are ripest for automationWhy law firms may not become tech companies, but already operate like themJeremy offers a clear-eyed view on what’s changing in legal tech, what will remain the same, and how to build smart AI systems that augment lawyers rather than replace them.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in London, this episode features Jody Glidden, serial entrepreneur and founder of Postilize (and previously Introhive), sharing how AI can transform the way legal professionals build relationships, generate revenue, and stay ahead of the billable hour crunch.In this dynamic conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Jody breaks down:Why law firms must shift from reactive to proactive business developmentHow the billable hour is being eroded by AI, and what should replace itWhat he learned from working with the top rainmakers at 50+ global law firmsHow his framework turns signals into new legal matters using automationWhy relationships are still the most valuable asset in the age of AIHow lawyers can build scalable, empathetic, high-value connectionsWhy sales, empathy, and strategy are the future-proof skills every lawyer needsThe real reason so few associates become rainmakers, and how AI levels the playing fieldWith insights from a founder who’s worked on both sides of the legal table, this episode is a practical, energizing roadmap for lawyers looking to thrive in an AI-first, relationship-driven future.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in London, this episode features Alex Fawcett, VP Product, CoCounsel Platform at Thomson Reuters, offering an inside look at how one of the world’s biggest legal tech players is shaping the future of AI in law, with a deep focus on trust, content, and domain expertise.In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Alex unpacks:Why law firms aren’t tech companies, and what they should (and shouldn’t) build themselvesHow verified content, legal domain expertise, and AI engineering power TR’s product ecosystemWhat makes “professional-grade AI” different from ChatGPT and other consumer toolsWhy hallucinations and trust are the critical battlegrounds in legal AIWhat sets TR’s agentic workflows apart, and how human oversight is built in by designWhy most firms lack a proper AI strategy, and how TR helps bridge that gapHow Thomson Reuters uses 600,000+ automated tests and a team of lawyers to ensure accuracyIf you're wondering how enterprise legal AI is built, governed, and scaled, this episode is packed with practical insights from one of the industry's biggest players.

Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in London, this bold and inspiring episode features Helen Burness, legal marketer, personal branding expert, and founder of Saltmarsh Marketing, on how lawyers (especially women in law) can show up, speak out, and lead online.In this conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Helen shares:Why owning your voice is no longer optional in the AI and algorithm eraHow platform bias and people bias make visibility harder for women, and what to do about itWhy personal branding is about future-proofing your career, not just marketingThe fear lawyers face around visibility, and how to move past itHow law firms can better train and empower their people to be strong brand advocatesThe role of LinkedIn as the “world’s biggest B2B conference”, and how to show up at your own paceWhy listening and staying human are the keys to long-term relevanceHelen blends honesty, humour, and strategy in a must-hear episode for legal professionals navigating visibility, identity, and professional leadership in a digital-first world.