This summer, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP received an unusual request: A client wanted the firm's lawyers to use a generative AI tool developed by a third-party service provider for discovery work for its matters.
Stephen Dooley, the firm's director of electronic discovery and litigation support, said it was the first time a client had demanded use of a specific AI platform. He declined to name the client or the generative AI tool. Attorneys at the firm were already familiar with the tool, he said.
The client closely monitored whether lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell were using the tool to handle the initial information-gathering, Dooley said.
"Ultimately, what they're looking for is: Are the lawyers using it in their witness prep?" Dooley told Law360 Pulse. "Are they using it in developing factual scenarios?"
The client also wanted to see whether lawyers were becoming more comfortable with prompting the generative AI platform.
More than half of attorneys at U.S. law firms use generative AI, up from less than a third in 2024, according to Law360 Pulse's 2025 AI survey.
Clients are playing a key role in the increased adoption. A survey late last year found that 78% of in-house professionals were encouraging their law firms to use generative AI, an increase from 63% the year before. Cost savings might be driving the shift: 65% of respondents said they expect broader generative AI adoption to lower spending on outside counsel.
"The clients know this stuff exists," said Mark Allen, the chief technology officer of Porzio Bromberg & Newman PC. "They're not going to be paying for 30 hours for something that might take us five with AI."
Allen added that some lawyers at his firm recognize the value that comes from generative AI and are encouraging partners to adopt the technology.
Corey Thomas, the chief technology officer at Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC, said clients are increasingly bringing up AI in attorney meetings and asking where the technology can increase efficiency.
"They kind of want to know what we're doing on that front," Thomas said.
Thomas said that clients are inquiring about the types of generative AI tools the attorneys have access to.
Sullivan & Cromwell's Dooley said clients are at different stages in their AI journeys, and that often reflects how their company leaders view the technology as a competitive advantage. In practice, he added, that perspective often translates into new compliance requirements for law firms using the technology.
Highly regulated industries such as financial services tend to be more conservative about the use of AI on legal matters, Dooley said. Even within those highly regulated industries, there's a growing "appetite" among clients to explore the use of generative AI on legal matters, provided it boosts efficiency and can be implemented in a way that minimizes potential compliance risks, he added.
Law firms say they are filling out questionnaires from banking clients, for instance, on the compliance and cybersecurity safeguards of the firm's AI tools.
Generative AI carries risks, including leakage of sensitive information. Law firms can guard against this by using AI governance frameworks, installing access controls and deploying data loss prevention tools.
"Today, maybe less than a handful of clients say 'no AI at all,' but I could see [those holdouts] in the next six to nine months changing their perspective on it," Dooley said.
--Editing by Robert Rudinger.
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