10 things I wish I'd had AI for when I was first legal hire

Earlier this week in Dublin, I hosted ITGC’s Q3 meet up for a forward-thinking group of GCs based here. We spent 2 hours talking about different aspects of AI, and how modern legal leaders globally are leveraging it to build and run a future-fit team.

It got me thinking about the time I spent as GC and first legal hire at Tines, where my top goal was to build the legal function from scratch as the company scaled globally, ensuring that it was fully aligned with business goals (especially fast revenue generation!).

At the time, legal ops was exploding in Europe and the methods I used to deliver fast service levels were cutting edge: outsourcing, automating what I could, building a self-service culture, owning the budget and team finances.

But sitting at that GC roundtable a few days ago - listening to current GCs sharing how they currently use AI, their biggest challenges with it, and so on - I quietly wondered to myself how on earth I ever practised law without it. Let alone build out the legal function at Ireland’s latest unicorn…

The legal AI tools on the market today are slick and faster at fixing major pain points for in-house legal teams:

🚫 No visibility on intake or deal flow

🚫 New stuff landing daily (hires, markets, functions)

🚫 No one to bounce ideas off

The list goes on!

If AI had been available to me - where it is today in fact - my life as GC would have been so much easier.

Here are 10 things I wish I’d had AI for when I was General Counsel.

In partnership with:

1️⃣ A “junior associate”

After my first week, I knew I needed support. I outsourced to an ALSP after 90 days and hired months later, but I WISH I'd had AI to help from day one so I could have focused on high impact, strategic work sooner. Before you can justify more headcount, AI levels the playing field by providing legal intelligence and efficiency at a fraction of the cost of hiring additional staff or outside counsel.

2️⃣ SPEED

Rapid scale requires rapid solutions. One contract can make or break revenue. AI is simply faster, and helps you keep up (from what’s happening in Slack day-to-day to moving deals on).

3️⃣ Accuracy

Late nights at EOQ/EOM are inevitable in-house, especially if you are first legal hire working by yourself across timezones. I wish I'd had Al for instant risk-flagging, summaries and sanity-checking redlines when I was tired or jetlagged and needed a second pair of eyes.

4️⃣ First-pass reviews

When you're first legal hire, you don't have decent (maybe any!) templates. You negotiate a lot of 3rd party paper. I frequently had to wade through long MSAs for simple SaaS deals, not tailored to our product or industry. AI can instantly flag risk in long contracts, and create issues lists to help you identify risk and negotiate faster.

5️⃣ Playbooks

Mine started in Google Sheets - manual and messy and became so gigantic it took on a life of its own. Al can automate all that for you instead so you can use it where you redline (in legal Al assistant tools, or as a plug-in to MS Word if that's where you want to stay).

6️⃣ Instant Legal insights

If you have no one to bounce things off, Al tools can provide quick guidance on common questions (legal and otherwise), helping to navigate compliance, regulatory issues, and risk assessments. And of course, instantly flag potential issues in contracts & suggest revisions.

7️⃣ Automate routine work

First hire means low resources. AI can automate admin, draft outlines, help you prepare for big meetings, and provide quick prompts so you can focus on impact.

8️⃣ Bulk contract analysis

No storage, no processes, contracts scattered in sales reps’ inboxes... With decent Al tools, you can bulk upload and have the Al review limitless contracts to check things like renewal dates or due diligence classics like change of control rights if you're managing a funding round (as you inevitably will if you work in rapid scale!).

9️⃣ Research & updates

When you're first legal hire and distracted focusing on supporting revenue generation, Al assistants can help you keep up with important regulatory updates and fast legal research so nothing slips down the list.

🔟 To feel empowered

By fixing all the paint points in this guide, Al empowers you by freeing up your time for high impact work while still maintaining oversight, and helping you position yourself as a strong business leader and enabler.

I will always be super proud of the job I did at Tines as first legal hire - it helped land me a place recently in Ireland’s top 100 women in tech after all (see below)! - and yes I did a great job of positioning myself as a strong business enabler.

But I could have done it much faster if l'd had an Al assistant to"delegate" to!

When Elaine Burke and Charlie Taylor (Business Post) say you’re one of the most influential women in Irish tech (legal), you best believe it ✨ 

Tines is where I realised it was time to turn my love of legal + tech + automation + founders into something of my own.

Today I run a global community and consultancy for forward-thinking in-house legal teams supporting the world’s most exciting companies from the inside.

While simultaneously getting to help the best scaling legal tech founders grow their brand and generate leads with their ICP via my media business.

Shoutout to everyone in this, defying the bros! 👉🏼 Read here.

Do you need help navigating an overcrowded market to find the right legal AI tools for your team, or to justify budget for one?

I am launching a private inner circle for an exclusive group of first legal hires and solo GCs wanting ongoing support and to learn as you go. ✨

You will get:

✅ authentic connection with peers in the same boat

✅ personalised attention from me

✅ private space away from public feeds

We kick off in early November. Click here to join the waitlist.

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Join me on there as I share candid insights from my journey - from lawyer to founder - and go deep on what I’m learning along the way.

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Curious about in-house practice or simply want to reach out?

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Let’s connect! 💜

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