More Than A Lawyer with Holly Cope

In this episode, I'm talking with Brett Dixon, Vice President of the Law Society of England and Wales and a long-time advocate for access to justice, legal innovation, and procedural reform.

Brett brings a unique perspective from both frontline legal practice and legal policymaking, offering a thoughtful view on how AI should - and shouldn’t - be integrated into the justice system.

We explore one of the biggest questions facing the legal profession today: can AI strengthen access to justice without undermining trust in the legal system?

Brett shares why integrity, transparency, and human oversight must remain at the centre of any AI-driven future, and explains why he prefers to think of AI as augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why the UK legal system's reputation depends on maintaining transparency and accountability.

The dangers of AI hallucinations in legal practice and how lawyers can spot them.

Why human judgment remains essential in courts and legal decision-making.

How AI can improve access to justice without replacing lawyers.
The risks of bias in AI systems and how training data shapes outcomes.

Why common law relies on human creativity and legal evolution.
What regulation of legal AI may look like in the coming years.

The growing divide between large firms adopting AI rapidly and smaller firms struggling with resources.

Why the future of legal services is likely to be AI-assisted rather than AI-replaced.

How law firms can approach AI strategically while protecting client trust.

The future of legal AI isn't about removing humans from the process.

It's about using technology to enhance human expertise while preserving the principles that make justice work: integrity, transparency, accountability, and access for everyone.

As Brett argues, the legal profession has always been full of problem-solvers and innovators. The challenge now is ensuring AI serves those values rather than replacing them.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special compilation episode, I am joined by a powerhouse lineup of legal innovators, practitioners, and tech leaders who are actively reshaping the industry:

Zack Shapiro, founder of an AI-native law firm, Rains LLP.

Alexander, Co-lead of AI Research at Thomson Reuters.

Sandy MacDonald, the Senior Director and Head of Legal Operations at DocuSign.

Dharshi Harindra, a tech lawyer, Assistant General Counsel, and Executive Coach.

We talk about the profound shift toward agentic AI in the legal sector and how mastering detailed prompting, continuous feedback, and custom workflows creates an unassailable competitive advantage for forward-thinking lawyers. You’ll hear perspectives on overcoming the legal trust gap, avoiding "AI slop," and leveraging entrepreneurial mindsets that most traditional law firms are completely missing.

We dive into:

The Tech-Lawyer Trust Gap: Why legal tech companies miss the mark by pitching software features rather than understanding the granular, day-to-day challenges and cultural mindsets of practicing lawyers.

The Blueprint for Custom AI "Skills": How to move past simple one-line prompts and instead use an essay-length context or voice rants to build hyper-specific digital assistants that compound in value through continuous feedback.

The Breaking Leverage Model: Why traditional firms relying on bloated billable hours face an existential threat from lean, entrepreneurial, AI-native practitioners.

The "Half-Lawyer, Half-AI" Evolution: How junior lawyers and trainees can create massive, unprecedented value by stepping up as the bridge between pure computer science and legal practice.

AI Slop vs. Human Judgment: The critical importance of keeping your brain turned on, verifying citations, and using AI for heavy cognitive lifts rather than as an excuse for lazy output.

Compliance and Regulation Blind Spots: Why rushing into technology without understanding data protection boundaries - like using WhatsApp groups for firm operations - creates massive regulatory red flags.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Anna Popowicz - Pazdej, Global Senior Data Privacy Lawyer at Dentons.

Anna walks us through the heavy-lifting required to move a firm from a "proof of concept" to full operational readiness, ensuring that innovation never comes at the cost of client confidentiality.

We talk about the meticulous process of implementing AI—starting with the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and ending with firm-wide AI literacy. You’ll hear perspectives on why your architectural diagram is your best defense against data leaks and how to prevent your client’s trade secrets from becoming part of a vendor’s training set.

The Compliance Blueprint: Why the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is your primary tool for assessing data residency and encryption risks.

Architecture Matters: Understanding the data flow between models and the importance of encryption both in transit and at rest.

The Hallucination Fix: How Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) databases can minimize AI errors by grounding responses in your own secure data.

The "Shadow AI" Threat: The dangers of using unassessed AI tools that may retrain their models using your sensitive client data.

Operational Readiness: Balancing innovation with policy through specific guidelines, retention periods, and tiered training for junior vs. senior lawyers.

Vendor Warranties: Essential clauses for your Data Processing Agreements (DPA) to ensure vendors and subprocessors do not use your data for their own model training.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with Dharshi Harindra, a tech lawyer, Assistant General Counsel, and Executive Coach.

She is the founder and host of the Unbiased podcast, a platform dedicated to exploring the legal industry through the lens of curiosity and leadership.

We first met at Legal Tech Talk in London in 2025, and after a brief chat for my show, she invited me onto hers to dig deeper into the "why" behind the work I do.

We talk about the transformation of the legal industry and how the widening mindset gap between generations is the primary barrier to AI adoption. You’ll hear perspectives on reclaiming your career autonomy and the importance of upskilling in an era where AI is rapidly automating junior-level tasks.

In this conversation, we explore:

The "Inside-Outside" Perspective: My journey from training as a lawyer to building a freelance career that supports a digital nomad lifestyle.

The Gen Z vs. Traditional Firm Conflict: Why law firms are no longer just competing with each other, but with the flexibility of consultancy models.

The Trust Gap in AI: Why most legal tech marketing misses the mark and how practitioners can bridge the knowledge gap.

The Global AI Skills Summit: Reflections on the November 2025 summit and the necessity of mandatory AI training for the future of the profession.

Living Intentionally: A closing question on whether your daily actions actually align with your long-term goals.

I usually spend my time interviewing others, but Dharshi gave me a rare opportunity to share my own story. I’m sharing this here because many of the themes we discussed - specifically the mindset shift required to survive the AI era - are the core of why I created this podcast. I hope you enjoy the "other side" of the microphone as much as I did.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm talking with James Smither, Global Head of Risk Management at Freshfields. James is a self-described "risk geek" dedicated to redefining how law firms perceive uncertainty as both a massive upside and a critical downside.

We talk about the "apocalyptic spectrum" of AI risks - from the common trip-ups like hallucinations and citation errors to the looming threat of quantum computing breaking modern encryption. You’ll hear why the traditional graduate recruitment model is officially obsolete and how firms must pivot to training "AI natives" who can balance technical curiosity with human scepticism.

Defining Risk 101: Why risk is the "impact of uncertainty on objectives" and why that matters for your bottom line.

The Talent Gap: The disconnect between "AI natives" who instinctively use the tools and the "analogue generation" who know how to spot their mistakes.

The End of the Billable Hour?: Why AI efficiency is creating a tangible, existential threat to traditional legal pricing models.

The Human Value-Add: Why your unique insight and reliability are the only things that will distinguish winners from losers when everyone uses the same machines.

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Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders.

I analyze the market and track emerging trends in this AI era.

In my newsletter called The Future Lawyer Market Intel for the AI era

I'm focused on:

What AI is exposing
The opportunities
The blind spots
And the shifts shaping the next five years.

This is how you see the chessboard before everyone else does:

https://hollycope.my.canva.site/thefuturelawyer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.