:Harvey: Power Users: The "Aha!” Moment

Chanley Howell: Yes, definitely. Kelly and I both found each other because we were independently working to accelerate the firm’s adoption of AI. We've been the two most active users with Harvey. We're certainly at or near the top of the list.

Kelly Boyd: Absolutely. When I first saw Harvey, I saw immediately that we were at the start of what I believe to be the equivalent of a second Industrial Revolution hitting our profession in a way that perhaps other disruptive technologies have not. It's like a bomb dropped in the middle of the legal profession, and anytime you have disruptive technology like that, the opportunity is incredible.

Kelly Boyd: I have found certain tasks that would have taken me five hours now take me one. So roughly 25% of the time.

Chanley Howell: I'd say the same ratio. For reviewing and marking up some agreements — something we do every day with technology, software, and cloud agreements — it probably takes 25 to 30% of the time from start to finish. And the work product often is better. We can then use that time to tighten our analysis and provide additional insights.

Kelly Boyd: Part of it is personality. Where some people see mostly risk, others see opportunity. While Chanley and I definitely understood the risks from day one, we also saw immediately where things were inevitably headed and that understanding the tools and the responsible use of the tools would be the way to unlock the opportunity.

Chanley Howell: There are some people who, when they deal with computers and technology, it just lights up their brain. I was in high school in the 80s when personal computers were brand new, and I've been a technology geek ever since. But you also need to reach that "aha!" moment where the benefits become clear.

Kelly Boyd: Law firms are very distributed, every partner has their own mini-business. You're dependent on people understanding the value and using it. We've had to figure it out as we progress, like every firm. I go to the Harvey training sessions almost every week now, and every single time I still learn something. And I've been using it avidly since the day my license was activated. But it’s important to note that buying the license is just the first step — then you've got to do all this work to build adoption. That’s why the firm is now formalizing our approach. Our management team put in place an AI Steering Committee and hired an AI Director, Sean Monahan, to help lead the charge. Together, the team is on a mission to increase training resources, expand support, and build out peer teams so we can help more people reach that “aha!” moment, while also giving power users like us the structure to move from experimentation to delivering real value.

Chanley Howell: You're going to need to invest a lot of time learning and training — that's number one. The second most important thing is to be open-minded and flexible, and recognize it's a tool. It's not going to do your job or do everything 100% accurately for you, but it will absolutely allow you to do things quicker and better. We always talk about quicker, but there's a lot of better to it also, the thoroughness of it in reviewing contracts or spotting compliance issues.

Kelly Boyd: Instead of getting initial drafts from a person, you're getting it from a system. But just like any work, it needs to be thoroughly reviewed prior to having a client-ready version. The key is getting people to that "aha!" moment, where they tell two friends, and then those two tell two friends, and so on and so on. And then it starts really building.

Chanley Howell: I run prompts almost daily now, and I'm like, "wow, that was good." One time I put a transcript of a client call into Harvey with a little context, and it gave me almost client-ready advice. Sometimes it feels like you're cheating because what used to be tedious is now so easy.