More Than A Lawyer with Holly Cope

Holly Cope
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I'm your host, Holly Cope. I'm an ex-lawyer turned entrepreneur. Join us for some epic conversations with some of the top lawyers in the world. They all have inspirational stories to tell, each with their own valuable lessons. I'll also be talking about how to stand out, build authority and influence as a lawyer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 4d ago

    The Future Legal Organization of 2030 with Ex-Dell Legal Director France

    In this episode, I'm talking with Alexandre Verrien. He used to be the legal director of France for Dell Technologies, but now he works for himself as a legal executive. With decades of experience at the intersection of law and technology, Alex offers a unique perspective on how AI is reshaping legal departments, law firms, and the future role of lawyers themselves. We explore what an AI-first legal future actually looks like and why many legal teams still aren't prepared for the transformation already underway. Alex shares practical insights on legal tech adoption, the mindset barriers holding teams back, and why successful AI implementation is far more about people and processes than technology alone. Key Topics Discussed: Why the future of law will be increasingly technological and AI-driven. The mindset challenges preventing legal teams from embracing change. Whether AI will replace lawyers and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. How AI is already reducing workloads and reshaping legal team structures. Why junior lawyers are still essential despite automation. New roles emerging inside legal departments, including Legal AI Engineers and Legal Data Analysts. The importance of clean data and "human-in-the-loop" review processes. Why many legal departments lack a clear AI strategy. The risks of a "wait and see" approach to legal technology. How legal leaders can prepare their teams for the next decade Alex argues that while AI can accelerate drafting, review, and administrative work, it cannot replace negotiation skills, business judgment, or the human understanding required in complex legal situations. The Legal Department of 2030 Will Look Very Different. --- Each week I take what I'm hearing in conversations with legal leaders. I analyse 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.

    40 min

  2. Jun 14

    Exclusive Interview: Law Society Vice President on Danger of AI Justice

    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. --- 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.

    52 min

  3. Jun 7

    The Best Skills Lawyers Can Learn NOW

    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.   --- 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.

    29 min

  4. May 25

    AI Governance & Compliance Masterclass with Dentons Global Senior Data Privacy Lawyer

    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.

    32 min

  5. May 9

    The Biggest Problem With AI in the Legal Industry with Holly Cope

    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.

    33 min

  6. May 3

    Are Compliance Jobs the "Safest" in an AI World? With Global Head of Risk Management at Freshfields

    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. -------- 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.

    44 min

  7. Apr 19

    An AI-First Culture Looks Like This with DocuSign's Head of Legal Operations

    In this episode, I'm talking with Sandy MacDonald, Senior Director and Head of Legal Operations at DocuSign. Sandy is recognised for building an "ahead of the curve" team that treats AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborative digital assistant embedded into the very fabric of their workflow. We talk about the cultural shift of AI adoption and how focusing on individual "pain points". You’ll hear perspectives on "human-in-the-loop" governance and why the most successful legal teams are moving away from "AI slop" toward high-value, verified automation that lawyers actually trust. Overcoming the Fear of Replacement: Sandy explains that the primary cultural hurdle is fear; however, she emphasises that AI won't replace lawyers, but lawyers who use AI will replace those who do not. The "Foot in the Door" Strategy: Instead of massive overhauls, the team focuses on "narrow use cases" such as using Gemini to generate images for presentations - to build curiosity and comfort. "Human-in-the-Loop" Governance: DocuSign implements a strict governance model where humans remain responsible for validating every piece of AI-generated output. Peer-to-Peer Learning Over Formal Training: Sandy shares why monthly "AI wins" segments in Town Halls are more contagious and effective than top-down mandates or formal one-hour training sessions. Criteria for AI Adoption: How to identify the best starting points for automation by looking for tasks that are high-volume but low-risk, such as processing customer questionnaires. The Evolution of Legal Ops: The shift in the Legal Ops role from being CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) experts to becoming "AI evangelists" and builders who design their own custom workflows. -------- 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.

    49 min

  8. Apr 12

    How To Create a Claude- Native AI Law Firm with Zack Shapiro

    In this episode, I'm talking with Zack Shapiro, founder of an AI-native law firm, Rains LLP. Zack is a corporate lawyer focused on startups and business law who has transformed his two-person practice into a high-leverage powerhouse serving over 200 clients. Despite describing himself as "uniquely bad at using tech tools," he has pioneered a "Claude-native" workflow that uses agentic AI to handle his legal work. We talk about the shift from "billable hours" to "high-judgment lawyering" and how prompting is becoming the most critical white-collar skill of the next decade. You’ll hear perspectives on why most legal tech "wrappers" are actually counterproductive that most lawyers are missing. The Power of "Bare Metal": Why Zack avoids expensive legal AI platforms in favor of direct, "bare metal" interaction with reasoning models like Claude. Prompting as an Essay: Moving beyond simple queries to 2,000-word "context dumps" that capture the nuance of a client's specific leverage and goals. Building Custom "Skills": How to use your own past work as a reinforcement learning environment to create agentic workflows that compound in value over time. The Entrepreneurial Opportunity: Why now is the greatest time in history for small, AI-empowered legal teams to steal market share from rigid, legacy firms. The Hallucination Filter: Practical strategies for using AI to check itself, ensuring that "turning your brain off" never becomes an option. -------- 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.

    48 min
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About

I'm your host, Holly Cope. I'm an ex-lawyer turned entrepreneur. Join us for some epic conversations with some of the top lawyers in the world. They all have inspirational stories to tell, each with their own valuable lessons. I'll also be talking about how to stand out, build authority and influence as a lawyer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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