For Pierre Zickert, Legal AI Adoption is About Momentum, Not Perfection

In our Innovation Spotlight series, we interview innovation leaders about how they approach their jobs and how they’ve implemented and deployed Harvey.

In this edition, we chat with Pierre Zickert, Counsel and Head of Legal Technology at Hengeler Mueller. Pierre leads the development and implementation of legal-tech-based solutions in client matters and drives the digital transformation of the firm’s advisory practice. He also provides legal counsel on matters related to digital transformation, cloud technologies, and artificial intelligence.

Innovation is the creative challenge of developing solutions no one has thought of yet — addressing real problems with ideas that stay grounded, but still make a notable difference. It gives me the freedom to shape new ways of working, turning theoretical concepts into tangible, usable tools that not only support our lawyers but also transform how we deliver legal services on a bigger scale.

For me personally, innovation means venturing into spaces others haven’t explored yet, combining curiosity and courage to push the boundaries of what’s possible in our particular field.

I am naturally drawn to ideas that challenge the status quo — to questions that inspire rethinking, open new paths, and show how things can be shaped in better, more modern ways.

That mindset carries directly into my work at Hengeler Mueller. I genuinely believe that everything can be improved or reimagined, and that encouraging others to think bigger and be bolder creates real momentum. It’s an attitude I try to live by: continuously exploring new ways forward and elevating what we do together.

I’m excited that legal technology has reached a point where the broader tech world genuinely pays attention — we’re no longer a niche, but an active part of the global innovation conversation.

This also means that we as legal tech experts are working at an intersection of interdisciplinary topics like AI, data, and governance that simply did not exist a few years back. What's more, the legal services sector is not necessarily known for its innovative capabilities — and that is precisely what makes it so exciting to be at the forefront of this development with Hengeler Mueller.

Harvey offers a rare combination: a platform that is intuitive enough for newcomers to quickly adapt yet powerful enough for advanced users and their complex workflows, giving our entire firm a strong foundation to build on.

Harvey grasped this particular challenge from day one and developed a solution that exceeded our regular expectations. In this respect, the decision was relatively straightforward for us. And it is repeatedly confirmed — for example, when we hear about new developments practically every week that keep us on our toes in the most positive way.

We’re seeing growth across the entire firm. Corporate/M&A, Dispute Resolution, and Investigations are all adopting Harvey at a remarkable pace — and more importantly, with measurable results.

One standout moment was watching trainees, only days into the firm, build sophisticated workflows for due-diligence tasks and statutory analyses. And we're not talking about beginner prompts or anything like that here, but rather highly-elaborate logic that could be confidently implemented with Harvey.

We started with joint online trainings with Harvey, covering both our AI governance framework and practical Harvey usage. That allowed us to meet the high initial demand quickly and give everyone a solid starting point.

We then launched our in-person roadshow across all Hengeler Mueller offices, offering training sessions and workshops across multiple days. This involved a certain amount of logistical and organisational effort; but it showed us that, especially in the introductory phase of such innovative software as Harvey, it is not only the broad outlines and abstract goals that are important, but also (if not even more so) the smaller, unpolished, individual cases.

This is one of the reasons why we decided to also take a gamification approach and are ending the year with a small “AI Championship Format” in which colleagues can compete in a fun way for the best AI workflow.

In due-diligence projects, Harvey helps us gain a rapid overview of large data rooms, allowing teams to identify key documents and issues significantly more efficiently than has ever been possible by human effort.

Harvey has also proven highly effective in reviewing and comparing draft submissions — especially when checking for inconsistencies or contradictions across multiple versions — and assists our teams of attorneys to summarise complex case materials quickly on a regular basis and with a high degree of reliability.

First, success means consistent and growing usage. The biggest hurdle isn’t writing the prompt — it’s remembering to use the tool. That’s why recurring users and rising prompt volumes are key indicators for us, as we track both closely.

Next, we look at the increasing sophistication of use cases. A strong signal is the number of requests that ultimately lead to new workflows or playbooks, showing that teams are moving from simple experiments to structured, high-value applications.

And finally, the qualitative side matters: When users speak positively about the tool and our trainings, that's the best word-of-mouth promotion we can achieve.

One key factor will be to quickly move from the conceptual level to the operational terrain. Or, to put it plainly: Don’t overthink it! GenAI is evolving so quickly that it’s more effective to respond to new developments than to design a perfect long-term plan. Momentum matters more than perfection.

We have also found that as you start working with GenAI, your perspective shifts: Patterns are becoming increasingly apparent, but so are undesirable developments and stumbling blocks. I think self-reflection plays an important role here, in that you shouldn't just focus on the next steps on the “ladder of knowledge,” but always pause to look back. This is especially crucial for knowing whether you have really succeeded in reaching all (or at least a large proportion) of users and, even more importantly, keeping them engaged.

Ultimately, the success or failure of a software rollout at a law firm the size of Hengeler Mueller also depends on the fun factor. This may seem obvious, but it is often forgotten in large-scale projects such as this one.

GenAI will fundamentally change the scalability of legal thinking by helping lawyers access relevant information more efficiently and generate more work products that build on their own analysis. Brilliant ideas and sharp legal analysis will no longer be limited by an individual’s physical capacity or available hours to digest information or translate legal reasoning into different work products.

In addition, the following rule of thumb may come into play: More output can be achieved with fewer resources. High-quality reasoning, research, and drafting can be leveraged at a much larger scale, leaving more room for strong legal minds who can now focus even more on their core domain — the development of highly-complex legal solutions in a dynamic environment.