Law firm CMS is pushing ahead with its AI ambitions by announcing plans to roll out the Harvey AI legal assistant across its entire global network after lawyers reported substantial time savings.
The firm is extending the AI tool – named after the sharp-suited character from the television series Suits – to all 21 CMS member organisations spanning more than 50 countries, as reported by .
Harvey has already gained significant traction within CMS, boasting over 1,100 daily active users and close to 3,000 monthly users. Lawyers have been deploying it primarily for contract review, due diligence work, and regulatory analysis.
Internal figures revealed that 93 per cent of users experienced productivity improvements of up to 117.9 hours per lawyer annually.
According to CMS, these efficiency gains "allow the firm to reduce write-offs, reduce the load on lawyers, offer the most competitive prices to clients, and maintain profitability".
The expanded agreement with Harvey represents the largest investment in user access licences for the platform by any law firm across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Stephen Millar, managing partner at CMS º£½ÇÊÓƵ, said: "Expanding Harvey across our global organisation is about scaling the best of CMS – our judgement, sector insight and cross-border capability – with the power of AI."
Winston Weinberg, chief executive of Harvey, said: "We are proud to have CMS as a long-standing customer of Harvey, and to see their decision to extend access to all of their lawyers and team members."
The $8bn AI startup Harvey was established in 2022 by Winston Weinberg, an ex-securities and antitrust solicitor, and Gabriel Pereyra, formerly a research scientist at Google DeepMind.
Just last week, Harvey announced it had secured $160m in fresh funding, catapulting its start-up to an $8bn valuation. Its client roster includes legal heavyweights such as A&O Shearman and Latham & Watkins.
This development follows Max Junestrand, CEO of legal tech company Legora, telling City AM that AI will reshape the future of recruitment in the legal sector.
CMS has English offices in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading and Sheffield. It also has offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
