Is AI Making Lawyers Less Collaborative?
How AI is changing teamwork in law firms - and why office culture, mentoring and human connection still matter for junior lawyers.
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Dr Heidi K. Gardner is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and the author of Smart Collaboration and co-author of Smarter Collaboration. An organisational behaviour researcher and former McKinsey consultant, she has spent years studying how professionals share expertise, build trust and work together to solve complex problems. Her work explores a question that is becoming more pressing as AI changes legal work: how do you turn a group of talented individuals into a team that delivers better outcomes for clients?
In this conversation, we explore what happens when lawyers ask AI questions they would previously have taken to a colleague, why bringing people back to the office doesn’t automatically create collaboration, and how junior lawyers can keep learning from the people around them.
We discuss:
What happens when lawyers turn to AI agents instead of colleagues.
Why office attendance alone doesn’t create collaboration.
What juniors learn in the three minutes before and after a client call.
Why the billable hour can discourage teamwork.
How trust and shared goals help law firms collaborate better.
