How Dentsu’s Legal and Compliance Team Turned Pressure Into Strategic Advantage With :Harvey:
“Our industry is going to be transformed in ways I don’t think we can even begin to imagine yet. You have to adapt your thinking — and having :Harvey: in our back pocket, having it alongside us, is invaluable.”
Robert Clark
General Counsel, Global Privacy, Technology, and IP at Dentsu
Key Highlights
- 93% weekly lawyer engagement across 120+ markets
- 4–10 hours saved per week per lawyer
- Reduction in external counsel reliance
- Innovating new ways to deliver solutions via Harvey to Dentsu’s stakeholders and clients
About Dentsu
Dentsu is an integrated growth and transformation partner to the world’s leading organizations. Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan and now present in approximately 120 countries and regions, it has a proven track record of nurturing and developing innovations, combining the talents of its global network of leadership brands to develop impactful and integrated growth solutions for clients. Dentsu delivers end-to-end experience transformation (EX) by integrating its services across Media, CXM, and Creative, while its business transformation (BX) mindset pushes the boundaries of transformation and sustainable growth for brands, people, and society.
In an industry facing direct disruption from AI — as well as new competitive, regulatory, and commercial pressures — its 250-person legal and compliance function sits at the center of how the company navigates what comes next.
Opportunity
For Dentsu, speed isn’t abstract. Every contract drives revenue. Every delayed negotiation delays cash. In a hyper-competitive industry where client relationships turn on responsiveness and confidence, legal sits directly in the path of commercial performance — and the function can’t simply add headcount to keep pace.
“We’re already under pressure to deliver more work, but with less resources,” says Robert Clark, General Counsel, Global Privacy, Technology, and IP at Dentsu. “We could see that using AI to support, not replace, the work we do was going to be key.”
Solution
When a senior technology stakeholder offered to introduce the team to Harvey, the Dentsu team moved quickly. “Straightaway, we were vibing and sharing ideas,” Clark recalls. “It became clear to us that Harvey got it. They knew the pressures that we were under.”
Now, 18 months into their Harvey deployment, Dentsu’s numbers speak clearly. 93% of lawyers use Harvey weekly, saving an estimated 4 to 10 hours per week per lawyer.
Harvey’s integrations with Outlook, Word, and SharePoint mean lawyers don’t have to leave the tools they already use. “We’re meeting the lawyers where they work,” says Russell Davies, Head of Legal and Compliance Operations at Dentsu.
Contract Analysis and Vault
When every contract translates to cash, the ability to move fast on complex agreements isn’t a luxury, it’s a commercial imperative. Clark’s team uses Harvey to dissect agreements at speed. In one case, a large outsourcing agreement with 112 change notes — accumulated over four years — needed to be consolidated and restated. Historically this was a painstaking exercise, requiring considerable time and resources to complete.
“The cost of doing that exercise with external counsel would be considerable,” Clark says. “With Harvey, we could save time and cost on the initial review and documentation of the revised agreement.”
Workflows That Cross Functional Lines
The workflows and agents Dentsu builds in Harvey don’t stop at the legal and compliance department’s door. “They’re not just legal workflows anymore,” says Davies. “Everything from non-compete checks when you’re looking at new customers, all the way through to commercial compliance obligations.” One US-based media lawyer recently built a Harvey agent for data protection impact assessments that cut the process by 75%.
Collaboration With External Law Firms
Through Harvey Shared Spaces, Clark’s team creates a Vault, shares it directly with law firm partners, and collaborates in real time — without the friction of emails or document handoffs. “How can our law firm partners take this opportunity to think about the data they sit on, extract that value, and bring insights back to us?” Clark asks. It’s a shift from transactional handoff to shared intelligence.
A True Partnership
"We have a partnership from Harvey in a way that I've not seen technology companies partner with people before," Clark says. "We speak to them several times a week. They're constantly coming to us — 'Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?'" Davies adds: “The pace of change and response is, compared to other vendors I work with, impressive. We don’t have a big R&D department, so we work very closely with Harvey.”
Impact
The deeper shift is positional. In an industry where AI is simultaneously a challenge and an opportunity, Dentsu's legal and compliance team has capitalized on both, turning disruption into a leadership moment.
Lawyers walk into cross-functional meetings armed with data extracted from contracts, policies, and historical deal terms. The team calls it “peering around corners”: using Harvey to anticipate regulatory shifts, identify hidden contract risks, and deliver proactive counsel before anyone asks.
Leadership reinforces the message across the organization. “Our senior legal and compliance leaders have impressed upon their teams that it’s part of your future career,” Davies says. “If your path is through to GC, using these tools from the outset is a massive advantage.”
“The atmosphere now is incredibly positive,” Clark says. “People have realized this is here to enhance their skillsets. It’s transformative — saves money, saves time. We get a better outcome to the business more quickly. That’s where our legal and compliance department is now. Empowered by and enhanced by Harvey.”