2025

An audience of more than 150 in-house counsel, as well as private practice lawyers and other tech enthusiasts, gathered in Westminster last week for the inaugural Legal Business AI Summit.

The event, held at the QEII Centre and sponsored by LexisNexis, Burges Salmon and Taylor Wessing, covered a range of issues across the AI spectrum.

Emma Dickin, head of public sector practice area group and in-house sector strategy at LexisNexis, opened the summit with a keynote speech discussing how legal technology, up to and including Gen AI, has changed the way lawyers work over the years.

The first panel: ‘Horizon Scanning: What GCs Need to Know’, explored the role AI can play in helping companies stay ahead of the curve in today’s fast-moving world.

The panel was moderated by LexisNexis sales director Kingsley Daniels, who was joined on stage by Colt Technology Services deputy GC Alessandro Galtieri and London Stock Exchange Group senior legal director Nayeem Syed, who discussed how Gen AI can help organisations track the vast amount of information needed for effective horizon scanning, filtering out ‘the signal from the noise’ to determine which data is worth attention.

Burges Salmon director and solicitor advocate Tom Whittaker chaired the second panel: ‘AI regulations – where are we, where are we going, and how to navigate’, joined by Burges Salmon senior commercial lawyer Madelin Sinclair McAusland, EBRD principal counsel Barbara Zapisetskaya, Informa AI governance manager Federico Marengo and Fountain Court barrister Jacob Turner.

The panel opened with Sinclair McAusland inviting the audience to consider whether the current lack of cohesive AI regulation in the UK is a help or hindrance, and went on to discuss the impact of the EU AI act and possible signposts as to the UK government’s regulatory intentions.

This was followed by an in-depth discussion about the impact standards such as ISO 42001 can have, despite not being part of law.

The third panel of the day: ‘How companies are leveraging AI, and what role the GC plays in that’, saw Dickin return to the stage joined by Fremantle chief legal officer Matt Wilson, Boston Consulting Group managing legal counsel Luis de Freitas, Aviva head of legal group digital and data protection Daisy Godfrey, and Crafty Counsel founder Ben White.

The panellists shared how AI is used in their industries and discussed practical approaches to its implementation. They highlighted unexpected benefits, such as increased job satisfaction among in-house lawyers who automated routine tasks and potential shifts in lawyers’ roles as a result of this automation.

Next up, Taylor Wessing head of product liability and product safety Katie Chandler led the day’s fourth panel: ‘AI disputes – discussing recent cases and the takeaways for business’. Chandler was joined by Taylor Wessing partner Xuyang Zhu, BenevolentAI general counsel and company secretary Will Scrimshaw, and Cloudera VP and head of legal EMEA Alexandra Gartrell.

The panel examined the AI disputes landscape, discussing the current state in the UK and beyond. They explored reasons for the relative lack of AI disputes in the UK and how and in which areas this might change in the future. The discussion then shifted to practical strategies for mitigating risk and identifying where some risk may be justified.

After a break for lunch and networking, Simmons & Simmons partner Peter Lee chaired a panel titled: ‘AI governance – how to operationalise AI risk management’. Lee was joined by Society for Computers and Law AI committee vice chair Shanthini Satyendra and Simmons managing associate Wil Dunning.

The panel explored various AI governance approaches, weighing the pros and cons of assigning responsibility to different corporate functions. They also discussed the positive impact of the AI literacy article in the EU AI Act, the role of lawyers in shaping AI strategies beyond compliance, and the necessity of aligning AI governance with an organisation’s principles and purpose.

Next, LexisNexis knowledge lawyer Rob Muskett chaired the day’s sixth panel: ‘Privacy and cybersecurity – data protection concerns around AI’

Muskett was joined by Hogan Lovells partner Nicola Fulford, Taylor Wessing partner Christopher Jeffrey, and ZoomInfo chief strategist for privacy and AI Simon McDougall.

The panel examined issues such as algorithmic bias, unfair outcomes in data processing, transparency challenges posed by black-box systems, and cybersecurity risks. They also discussed emerging legislation, including the EU Data Act, and practical strategies for organisations operating at the frontier of current regulation.

Finally, Legal Business data editor Ben Wheway led an interactive session featuring Microsoft AI technical specialist Theresa Yurkewich Hoffmann, Arreoblue field chief data officer Rob McKendrick and Kainos head of AI ethics and governance Suzanne Brink.

The four presented interactive questions to the audience, highlighting real-world examples with ethical implications, such as: “Would you use AI to extrapolate data not explicitly disclosed in candidates’ CVs?” They then unpacked and explored the issues raised by these questions.