Firm Announces Pilot Programme to Pilot More Pilots

Pemberton Rook has announced a new pilot programme to establish which of its existing pilot programmes might eventually be suitable for a pilot involving actual work.

The Super Sister firm has described the move as a decisive break with its previous approach, under which pilots were simply allowed to become permanent without anyone having to say so.

Its head of innovation, Imogen Staveley, confirmed that the new scheme would introduce firm deadlines.

“Every pilot will now have a date by which we must agree a different date.”

The firm currently has fourteen AI pilots. Nine are testing the same product, LexNonsense, in different practice groups whose partners were unwilling to participate in a pilot invented by another practice group.

A tenth is testing whether the other nine are comparable. They are not. One partner insists on assessing the software using a transaction from 1987, on the grounds that he already knows the answer.

Another has rejected the results because the AI completed a task in forty seconds that he remembers taking a fortnight. He has asked for it to be rerun properly.

Participation has been enthusiastic. Eighty-six partners volunteered to sponsor a pilot. Four volunteered to use the software, although three have since clarified that they meant attend the launch.

The remaining volunteer has subsequently discovered he was already sponsoring a competing platform and has requested that neither vendor be told.

The new programme will be managed through Later, a platform designed to organise the interval between buying enterprise software and permitting anyone to benefit from it. Its dashboard tracks demonstrations attended, enthusiasm expressed and decisions approaching sufficient maturity to be rescheduled.

A proposed measure called “work completed” was removed after consultation with the partnership.

“It would have disadvantaged the pilots that haven't done any,” explained Staveley.

The managing partner said that Pemberton Rook, one of Britain's Super Sisters—the seven biggest firms, all named after men—had a duty to approach change responsibly.

“We cannot simply follow the market,” he said. “We must wait until Wetherby Dodd follows it, then determine whether we were there first.”

A six-lawyer competitor has meanwhile used the same software to complete the client matter selected for Pemberton Rook's original trial.

The firm says the comparison is unfair because the competitor was not conducting a pilot.

The matter has now closed. Pemberton Rook has asked the client to keep the documents available, as they may be needed when the pilot reaches its live phase.

The client has agreed, provided someone explains this to the company that bought it.