How the Jonathan Lea Network Is Transforming Legal Services with AI

A year into a firmwide embrace of artificial intelligence, Sussex law firm the Jonathan Lea Network (JLN) is demonstrating how thoughtful AI adoption can enhance client service, increase efficiency, and set new standards for the legal profession.

Leading the Way in AI

In an industry steeped in tradition, JLN is embracing the future. Over the past year, we’ve integrated AI across almost every area of our operations and into nearly every task — using it as a practical tool to improve the speed, quality, efficiency, and value of the service we deliver to clients.

Early adopters like Kent Reynolds and I immediately saw productivity gains when experimenting with ChatGPT. Many of our clients are also leading AI and tech start-ups, inspiring us to follow their example. With support from AI consultant Mary Kemp of AI Potential, we’ve increasingly embedded AI into the fabric of the firm.

A key part of this has been the expansion of our intranet to share prompts, best practices, and new AI-enabled procedures with our team.

Why ChatGPT?

So far, we’ve focused our efforts on ChatGPT, rather than Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, or costly legal-specific tools like Harvey or CoCounsel. The reasons were clear:

• Accessibility and flexibility: ChatGPT is easy to adopt and can be applied across every area of the business.

• Cost-effectiveness: Legal-specific tools often carry high costs without offering sufficient value at our scale.

• Continuous innovation: The platform allows us to create custom GPTs tailored to our exact workflows, such as generating client emails or drafting engagement letters.

“Custom GPTs give us reusable, secure virtual assistants for tasks like drafting letters or generating emails for common scenarios.”

AI in Action: Transforming Daily Operations

We’ve embedded AI into nearly everything we do. Some standout examples include:

• Legal research and case analysis: Summarising large volumes of information, identifying key insights, and accelerating the research process.

• Drafting and reviewing documents: Producing strong first drafts of contracts, letters, and memos — enhanced by a lawyer’s final input.

• Email review and response: Analysing high volumes of email, pulling out key points, and drafting tailored replies efficiently.

• Client service: Enabling our one-hour fixed-fee consultations by speeding up file set-up and review — ensuring we can deliver real value within the hour.

• Systems and administration: Streamlining processes, improving compliance, and speeding up tasks such as conflict checks.

We also use AI to support HR, respond to client complaints, and advise on firm strategy — helping us make more informed decisions, faster.

Security and Confidentiality

One of the biggest concerns for law firms adopting AI is safeguarding client data. We addressed this from the outset by upgrading to enterprise-level ChatGPT accounts with enhanced encryption and data privacy. Additionally, we anonymise contracts and documents before submitting them to AI tools, ensuring no identifiable client data is ever exposed.

“Our clients can be confident that AI use at JLN never compromises confidentiality or security.”

The Human Element

AI works best when combined with human intelligence. The quality of the prompts we use determines the quality of the outputs. Every AI-generated draft is reviewed by a qualified solicitor, who applies experience, context, and the human touch clients rightly expect.

“AI makes us faster and more accurate, but it’s human expertise that ensures quality and builds trust.”

More Work, Not Less

Initially, we feared AI would lead to less billable work. The opposite has been true. AI allows us to complete tasks faster and to a higher standard, which keeps more clients satisfied within the same time frame — and when that happens, more work naturally follows.

Sharing Our Insights Nationally

Our AI journey has attracted attention beyond the local legal community. In September, we’ve been invited to speak to senior government figures at the Westminster Employment Forum policy conference: The Future for AI in Employment – Priorities for Policy, Regulation and Industry Best Practice.

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning. We plan to:

• Develop fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) trained on our own data.

• Expand our use of custom GPTs and AI agents for specific tasks such as email triage, compliance monitoring, and client onboarding support.

• Continue refining how we use AI in ever more sophisticated ways — and in doing so, ensure a strong, forward-thinking AI culture throughout the firm.

For us, AI isn’t a replacement for lawyers. It’s a tool that empowers us to deliver greater value and innovation for our clients.

Final Word

We hope our example inspires other law firms to embrace AI thoughtfully. Even in one of the most traditional professions, innovation has its place — and the benefits for clients, employees, and the firm itself are already clear.

Author:
Jonathan Lea, Founder of the Jonathan Lea Network, a Sussex-based law firm specialising in corporate, commercial and dispute resolution work — particularly for SMEs and high-growth tech companies.

www.jonathanlea.net