Murray: Entertainment dream
Posted by Scott Jones, deputy editor of Legal Futures
The law is all about precedent and what came before. But imagine you had a blank sheet of paper and could start from scratch. What would you do differently? What would stay the same?
This is the premise of one of the many sessions at this week’s LegalTechTalk [1], for which Legal Futures is a media partner.
Ahead of that, the lawyers speaking at the session have sketched out for us their dream law firm.
We start with Clare Murray, the founder and managing partner of CM Murray, a well-known boutique firm specialising in partnership, employment and regulatory law.
When it comes to location, Ms Murray knows the perfect spot: “Right where we are.” In Cornhill, EC3, the heart of the City of London.
How about changing the structure of the firm? The LLP model is 25 years old this year. Is this the time to rip it up and start again? (As the Scottish band Orange Juice advocated in 1983. More about the music industry later.)
“I love the LLP partnership model. It’s flexible, collaborative, tax efficient and highly adaptive to your business needs as you grow, reshape, pivot and grow again. It is the bedrock of human intellectual professional services, and also adapts easily for AI purposes too.
“If I had to start again, I would do it all again with an LLP. It’s at the heart of how lawyers work best – with that sense of invested commitment and collective ambition.”
So, same location, same structure. This is business as usual, right?
Wrong. On that blank sheet of paper, a new CM Murray is starting to emerge and take to the stage. The future is all about lights, camera, action.
If Clare was to start again, there would be no more partners, founders and executives coming through the door seeking CM Murray’s advice and expertise. In their place would be actors, directors and musicians.
“If this were my alternative dimension dream law firm, it would be all focused around the film, TV and music sectors because that always seems the coolest sector to work in.”
The firm – the real CM Murray that is, not the fantasy firm looking after Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg and Dua Lipa -recently appointed Peter Jackson, the former CEO of Hill Dickinson, as a board adviser to support the firm and its clients with strategic growth. As Clare sketches ideas on that blank piece of paper, the next hire is more likely to be Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of The Rings and the Beatles documentary Get Back.
When thinking about building a new law firm and looking around the legal sector for inspiration, who catches her eye?
“Norm Law – the AI native law firm [in the US]. An elite specialist boutique focused on private equity and institutional clients, built around their own AI, financed by $50m from Blackstone and attracting global market leaders in their area of specialisation, including the ex-chair of Sidley & Austin. That’s client and delivery focused. It’s not a model which would suit everyone but you have to admire the focus and entrepreneurial spirit of it.”
Would Clare’s firm of the future be based around lawyers, clients or AI?
“For me, it has to be led by the clients and the work you love – without that we are nothing and nowhere.”
Being something and somewhere leads on perfectly to ‘purpose’. In a world that faces so many social and environmental challenges, how would CM Murray 2.0 play its part for people and the planet?
“We have long had a very strong focus on investigating and advising on sexual harassment issues in the workplace. I was the specialist adviser to the House of Commons women & equalities select committee inquiry into sexual harassment at work in 2018.
“Many of the recommendations of that committee have gradually led to significant changes in the law and so I am very proud to have been in the room where that happened. That gives me – and us as a firm – a strong sense of purpose that I would want to continue to build any new firm around.”
And finally, as we look ahead to LegalTechTalk, what notes and doodles did she make about AI?
“We love AI. We have already adopted Copilot and CoCounsel, and are trialling Harvey, Legora and Jylo to see which can best help us create internal efficiency, institutionalise our specialist knowledge and ways of working, and to help us create cool tools to better support our clients.
“The opportunities presented by AI are endless and we see it generating fantastic new work for us and our team, enabling us to provide a better experience and training for junior lawyers and paralegals, and genuinely empowering our senior lawyers and partners to provide the best results for clients.”
Tomorrow, we will hear from Shainul Kassam, managing director and solicitor at Fortune Law.