Harnessing GenAI: Why law firms need multi-disciplinary teams

Key insights:

• • • Multi-disciplinary teams unlock AI’s potential — Law firms must integrate a wide range of expertise, including technologists, process experts, and risk professionals, directly into client-service teams to realize the full benefits of GenAI.

    • Clients expect cross-functional expertise — Today’s clients value the assurance that law firms have robust technology, security, and process capabilities alongside legal skills, which takes multi-disciplinary teams from preferable to essential.

    • Sustainable innovation requires ongoing, real-world collaboration — Long-term success with GenAI depends on multi-disciplinary teams working together on actual client matters, ensuring solutions are practical and continuously improved.

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Not surprisingly, generative AI (GenAI) already is driving profound change in the legal industry. Looking beyond the waves of hype, one reality is becoming clear: GenAI will reshape how legal services are delivered. In our view, the only way for law firms to excel in this environment is by bringing together the strengths of multiple disciplines from around the firm into a cohesive client-service model.

A paradigm shift in staffing

GenAI is dismantling traditional assumptions about professional roles. The familiar advice to think outside the box no longer applies, because, in this world, there is no box. Nor is there a map with a bright red X marking a clear destination. There is no manual, no single set of instructions to move from today’s practice to a pre-defined better future.

In this environment, lawyers standing alone cannot fully harness the power of GenAI. As Thomson Reuters’ Future of the Professionals 2025 report put it: “Those organizations that move quickly to establish new roles and rethink old ones will find themselves better able to hire the kinds of versatile, tech-savvy professionals needed to ensure their continued success.”

To be sure, law firms have long drawn on the expertise of other professionals, in finance, marketing, IT, and more. Historically, however, those disciplines were rarely integrated into direct client-service teams.

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The lesson is simple but powerful: Diverse perspectives and expertise produce better results.

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That has begun to change. Firms are increasingly visible in their utilization of innovation leaders, research and development professionals, and technologists. Yet even these professionals often remain on the periphery of client engagement. The opportunity — and the necessity — is to embed them directly into the service model.

At Seyfarth, we took this step more than a decade ago with the creation of what is now Seyfarth Labs, an experimental unit designed to enhance client experience through technology. From the outset, Labs was intentionally multi-dimensional, combining software developers, data analysts, and lawyers-turned-technologists. We quickly learned that the greatest value was created when these professionals worked not only with each other, but also directly with the lawyers serving our clients, as well as with the clients themselves.

The lesson was simple but powerful: Diverse perspectives and expertise produce better results.

Why multi-disciplinary teams matter now

This lesson has only grown more urgent in the era of GenAI. Capturing the potential of advanced technology demands a breadth of expertise. A multi-disciplinary approach balances innovation (what the technology can do) with professional responsibility (what it should do). This approach also reduces risk, accelerates adoption, and ensures that tools deliver real value to both clients and law firms.

From the client’s vantage point, the multi-disciplinary approach isn’t just preferable, it’s increasingly expected. In-house legal departments are no longer evaluating their outside law firms solely on legal expertise. They’re asking harder questions: How does your firm protect our data when using AI tools? What governance frameworks ensure quality control? How do you measure ROI on technology investments? These questions cannot be answered convincingly by lawyers alone.

Clients want to see the team behind the technology: the legal technologists who bridge the gap between AI capabilities and legal requirements, the security professionals who can walk the client through safeguards, and the process experts who can demonstrate measurable efficiency gains. When clients understand that a firm’s AI capabilities are backed by genuine cross-functional expertise rather than vendor promises, trust deepens and competitive differentiation becomes real.

So, what does a truly multi-disciplinary model look like? Consider the following range of expertise:

• • • Lawyers — Practicing and former lawyers provide substantive knowledge to evaluate whether AI outputs are legally sound, aligned with professional standards, and ethically appropriate. Without this input, developers cannot determine whether tools are truly useful in practice.
    • Engineers & data experts — AI engineers and data scientists understand how these models function, how to fine-tune them, and how to mitigate risks such as bias, hallucinations, and privacy concerns. They can explain system limitations and design guardrails.
    • Knowledge management & process specialists — Simply bolting AI onto an outdated process produces nothing more than a faster bad process. Workflows must be reimagined, and AI integrated thoughtfully. Knowledge managers, innovation leaders, and process experts ensure that technology interacts effectively with precedent systems, document management, and knowledge bases.
    • Risk, compliance & security professionals — GenAI raises critical issues around information security, confidentiality, privilege, data security, and regulatory compliance. Risk experts can safeguard alignment with ethical rules (such as ABA Model Rules) and client contractual requirements.
    • Business & strategy leaders — Firm leaders, operations professionals, and business developers bring perspectives on client value, ROI, and competitive positioning. They can ensure that adoption is strategically aligned with both firm objectives and client expectations.
    • Change management & training specialists — Even the best AI tools fail without adoption. Professionals skilled in change management, training, and user experience design ensure that tools are intuitive, accessible, and supported by effective training so that attorneys and staff can work confidently with them.

From pilot to practice

Despite heightened interest — driven by both the pandemic and the rise of GenAI — skepticism remains high. Many lawyers hesitate to trust products built on unfamiliar technology, or to share control with those they see as non-lawyers. Indeed, lawyers want proof of value before adoption.

The answer to this skepticism lies in the teams that build and deploy the tools. If the proof is in the pudding, as we often say, then who is making the pudding? The answer? Multi-disciplinary teams — they are the ones capable of producing not just technology, but sustainable, trusted, and valuable solutions.

However, building multi-disciplinary teams is one thing and sustaining them is another. Many firms launch innovation initiatives with great fanfare, only to see them fade when initial enthusiasm wanes or when budget pressures mount. The difference between a pilot project and lasting transformation lies in integration.

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Law firms have long drawn on the expertise of other professionals, in finance, marketing, IT, and more; historically, however, those disciplines were rarely integrated into direct client-service teams.

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At Seyfarth, we’ve learned that multi-disciplinary teams cannot exist as separate innovation labs disconnected from daily practice. Instead, technologists and process experts must work alongside lawyers on real client matters, solving actual problems in real time. This embedded approach ensures that AI tools are designed for genuine practice needs rather than theoretical use cases.

This integration also creates natural feedback loops in which lawyers see immediate value and technologists understand practical constraints. When multi-disciplinary collaboration becomes part of how work gets done rather than a special project, sustainability follows.

Clearly, GenAI has become a transformative force that will shape the next era of legal service delivery. Law firms need to embrace the multi-disciplinary model by bringing together lawyers, technologists, process experts, risk professionals, business leaders, and change specialists — not in silos, but as integrated, client-facing teams. Those firms that chose do not do this risk being left behind.

The destination may not be marked on a map, but the path forward is clear: Innovation in law firms cannot succeed without collaboration across disciplines.

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You can find more about how GenAI is impacting the legal industry here