{"id":131733,"date":"2025-08-21T08:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/21\/thomson-reuters-ceo-legal-profession-faces-biggest-disruption-in-its-history-from-ai\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:23:19","slug":"thomson-reuters-ceo-legal-profession-faces-biggest-disruption-in-its-history-from-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/21\/thomson-reuters-ceo-legal-profession-faces-biggest-disruption-in-its-history-from-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomson Reuters CEO: Legal Profession Faces \u2018Biggest Disruption In Its History\u2019 From AI \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post Thomson Reuters CEO: Legal Profession Faces \u2018Biggest Disruption In Its History\u2019 From AI \u00a0<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomson Reuters President and CEO Steve Hasker<\/a> believes the legal profession is experiencing \u201cthe biggest disruption \u2026 in its history\u201d due to generative and agentic artificial intelligence, fundamentally rewriting how legal work products are created for the first time in more than 300 years.<\/p>\n

Speaking to legal technology reporters during ILTACON, the International Legal Technology Association\u2019s annual conference, Hasker outlined his company\u2019s ambitious goal to become \u201cthe most innovative company\u201d in the legal tech sector while navigating what he described as unprecedented technological change affecting a profession that has remained largely unchanged since its origins in London tea houses centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Fundamental Game-Changer<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cThere have been lots and lots of technologies introduced to that process over time, but there hasn\u2019t been one that is quite as disruptive as generative and now agentic AI because in our view, it really does rewrite and rewire the way in which the fundamental work product, the first draft, is produced,\u201d Hasker said.<\/p>\n

The media-only event was presented as a conversation between Hasker and Ragunath Ramanathan<\/a>, Thomson Reuters\u2019 president of legal professionals. After the media event, I sat down privately with Hasker for a brief supplemental interview.<\/p>\n

The CEO, who joined TR as CEO in March 2020, emphasized that while AI doesn\u2019t replace attorneys\u2019 responsibilities, it fundamentally changes how initial legal work is created. \u201cIt does not absolve an attorney, a qualified lawyer, of their rights and responsibilities. It does not enable anyone, including us, to sort of defer to the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

His conversation with Ramanathan came on the heels of TR\u2019s launch of CoCounsel Legal<\/a>, with sophisticated agentic AI and deep research capabilities.<\/p>\n

Wide Adoption, Limited Strategic Planning<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hasker noted that virtually every law firm is experimenting with AI tools. \u201cI can\u2019t find a law firm, large, medium or small, that isn\u2019t experimenting with or adopting one or more AI technologies. There may be a firm out there, but I haven\u2019t found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government entities such as court systems, attorneys general, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Hasker said, \u201care perhaps a half a step behind, but I\u2019ve no doubt that they will also come along.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he observed that few firms have developed comprehensive transformation strategies. \u201cI think there are very few firms that have truly got their minds around the broader transformation required to take advantage of these technologies. And there are even fewer firms that have a laser like view of how they\u2019re going to win in this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revenue Model Challenges<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before joining TR, Hasker was senior adviser to TPG Capital, CEO of CAA Global, and spent nearly eight years as global president and COO at Nielsen. He began his career at PwC and later spent over a decade as a partner in McKinsey\u2019s global media, information, and technology practice.<\/p>\n

In his ILTACON conversation with Ramanathan, Hasker acknowledged that the industry faces significant structural changes, particularly around billing models. \u201cMost of the firms still have a good chunk of their revenues based on per-hour billing. And if you start to meddle with your revenue model, that can be very disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that firms must balance innovation with practical concerns: \u201cAnd they\u2019ve got partners to pay and colleagues to sort of provide apprenticeships to. And the second thing, of course, is that lawyers are the salespeople. And so if you mess with that too much, you lose your sales force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright Protection Concerns<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In a separate private interview I had with Hasker, he expressed strong views on copyright protection in the AI era, particularly regarding TR\u2019s ongoing litigation with ROSS Intelligence<\/a>. While declining to comment specifically on the case, he argued that copyright protection is essential for maintaining incentives for content creators.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, what this is about is incentives for creatives to create, journalists to write and create content, videographers, filmmakers, recorded music artists, or legal editors. Because if the copyright is fundamentally undermined, then so too are the incentives for people to create content,\u201d Hasker told me.<\/p>\n

He rejected arguments that the U.S. should weaken copyright protections to compete with China in AI development. \u201cAnd so where does the U.S. have it fundamental advantage? It\u2019s in the quality of the underlying content that feeds these problems,\u201d he said in the private interview.<\/p>\n

Three-Phased Transformation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

During their conversation, Ramanathan outlined Thomson Reuters\u2019 view of industry transformation occurring in three phases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first is exactly like you said, experimentation. That\u2019s the phase we are in. The second phase will be what we call process reengineering. You\u2019re re-engineering the legal workflows, the processes, the hiring processes. \u2026 The third way, which I do agree is at least five years away, is real business model change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018$10 Billion in Dry Power\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hasker detailed Thomson Reuters\u2019 approach to AI development, emphasizing the company\u2019s financial resources. \u201cWe talk about having $10 billion in dry powder \u2013 by the end of 2027, it will be $10 billion. By the end of 2028, it\u2019ll be $12.5 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company recently acquired Safe Sign<\/a>, a group of scientists from Cambridge and Harvard universities working on specialized legal language models.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know whether the world will continue to rest upon the large language, the foundation models, or whether there will be some really interesting ways in which our products and outcomes can be differentiated on the basis of the work that Jonathan [Schwartz] and the Safe Sign team are doing,\u201d Hasker said.<\/p>\n

The Casetext Acquisition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In my side interview with Hasker, I asked him about TR\u2019s \u201cbuild vs. buy\u201d decision to acquire Casetext for $650 million, given that TR already had a long history of developing AI and its own AI lab in Toronto.<\/p>\n

At the time, Hasker said, TR\u2019s internal efforts were \u201cmoving pretty quickly\u201d around integrating ChatGPT with Westlaw and Practical Law, with Mike Dahn<\/a>, SVP and head of Westlaw product management, leading the charge on Westlaw, and Emily Colbert<\/a>, SVP of product management, doing the same for Practical Law. \u201cWe were already on high alert and acceleration.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the reason he wanted to acquire Casetext was to provide a second option, as he was not sure how long internal development would take before bearing fruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally said that, because we figured out [the Casetext deal] could take a while for us to close, let\u2019s run the internal teams as hard and fast as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, he would encourage Casetext CEO Jake Heller and his team \u201cto run as hard and then the day we integrate, we\u2019ll pick the best code base. Simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may sound dispassionate, but I think in this environment you have to \u2013 and it\u2019s not favoring one person or one team over another. It just says, \u2018Look, we\u2019ll just make a dispassionate call as to who\u2019s made the most progress and we\u2019ll adopt that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, he said, he felt that Casetext had made the most progress in developing an legal AI assistant, while Dahn and his team had made the most progress in injecting Open AI into Westlaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for better or worse, we ended up taking both of those and now we\u2019ve bought them \u2013 truly brought them \u2013 together\u201d<\/p>\n

Small Firm Adoption<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Contrary to traditional technology adoption patterns, Hasker observed that AI tools are seeing rapid uptake among small and solo practitioners. He recounted meeting a solo practitioner who immediately embraced the technology after seeing a demonstration.<\/p>\n

The solo told Hasker he was about to hire another paralegal at a salary of $90,000 a year plus expenses, but he conceded, \u201cI\u2019m not very good at hiring them. I\u2019m not very good at managing them. They come and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

TR\u2019s AI tools would cost him a fraction of that, the solo said, adding, \u201cAnd I think this is going to be able to do their work just as well, and I\u2019d much prefer to manage this than I would another human being in my office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawyer then asked to start using the tool immediately, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve got a big case tomorrow and I really want to start to use the tool today, so can I sign up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Professional-Grade AI Emphasis<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hasker stressed the importance of professional-grade AI that addresses data security and privacy concerns specific to legal practice. He criticized recent comments by OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman about privacy limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was astonished to hear Sam Altman last week just sort of throwing out and saying, well, you know, one of the things that ChatGPT doesn\u2019t have is any form of privacy. You know what I mean? We really need. Okay, but Sam, your people are out there telling lawyers that they can just use that. So pick one. Right. Does it lack privacy or can it be used by lawyers? Because it\u2019s not both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Content-Driven Tech Company<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hasker, who joined TR as CEO in 2020, said he realized almost immediately that TR needed to migrate from \u201cbeing a content company, predominantly \u2013 as some people would have traditionally said, a publisher \u2013 to a content driven technology company.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the company\u2019s focus is now on \u201cthe seamless integration of unique and proprietary content, both ours and that of our customers, that of third parties, where it makes sense to do so with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Hasker and Ramanathan noted the company\u2019s inclusion in the NASDAQ index as a validation point \u2013 both for TR and for the legal industry more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a sort of a signpost along the way,\u201d Hasker said. \u201cIt certainly meant more to our colleagues than I thought it would.\u201d<\/p>\n

His \u2018Aha Moment\u2019 for AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In our separate interview, I asked Hasker whether there was an \u201caha moment\u201d for him regarding the potential of ChatGPT and generative AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it passed the bar exam,\u201d he replied, leading him to think, \u201cOkay, this is going to be a real disruptor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another aha moment came soon after than, when he was at a TR event for managing partners of major law firms. When the topic of AI came up, he described observing their varied reactions, from those planning aggressive adoption to others hoping to \u201chold your breath until retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post Thomson Reuters CEO: Legal Profession Faces \u2018Biggest Disruption In Its History\u2019 From AI \u00a0 appeared first on Above the Law. Thomson Reuters President and CEO Steve Hasker believes the legal profession is experiencing \u201cthe biggest disruption \u2026 in its history\u201d due to generative and agentic artificial intelligence, fundamentally rewriting how legal work products […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":131734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6704-w1LPQB-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}