AT&T Rethinking In-House Legal Work with OpenAI

AT&T is implementing a new knowledge layer powered by OpenAI to transform its in-house legal operations, allowing legal professionals to spend less time gathering context and more time applying their expertise.

The Challenge in Legal Intake

Before legal teams can advise the business, they must assemble facts, documents, and relevant past work, often requiring expertise drawn from various internal teams. This process of gathering context and understanding the issue is a critical part of protecting the business and is currently time-intensive.

AT&T’s in-house legal department comprises hundreds of lawyers and legal professionals globally, and the ability to easily access accumulated institutional knowledge is central to improving the department’s effectiveness.

The AI Solution: Building a Knowledge Layer

AT&T is collaborating with OpenAI to build a comprehensive knowledge layer that connects the company’s accumulated expertise to the work arriving on a lawyer’s desk. This initiative builds upon LegalEdge, AT&T’s existing team dedicated to applying AI to major legal matters.

Natural Language Intake System

One planned initiative is an intake system featuring natural language intake. This system is designed to streamline the initial stages of legal requests by performing several key functions:

  • Classification and Prioritization: The system will classify and prioritize incoming requests.
  • Contextual Connection: It will connect the request with relevant precedent, research, and past work.
  • Informed Starting Point: It will provide the responsible legal professional with historical context and recommended first steps, giving them a more informed starting point.

Bill Ryan, AT&T’s Chief Compliance Officer, notes that this system aims to help the department bring its judgment to a greater scale across the business.

Strategic Implications and Guardrails

The partnership is fundamentally designed to enhance efficiency and scale the department's ability to provide legal judgment. By automating the initial material gathering, lawyers can dedicate more time to high-level assessment and advice.

David McAtee, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, emphasized a core principle guiding this work: "The decision making will always remain with the lawyers." The partnership's objective is to put better information within reach so that legal professionals can maximize the application of their expertise.

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