What to do if you get stuck in GenAI Catch-22

Webinar Recap: Insight Webinar on GenAI Readiness in Legal

Despite the headlines and the hype, most law firms are still struggling to unlock real, bottom-line value from GenAI. 

That was the central theme of our recent Pace Insight Webinar. With contributions from Pace leaders Sam Jordan (Legal Sector Director), Nicholas Lory (Director of Data & AI), Christof Taylor-Smith (Director of Transformation), and special guest Joshua Sutherland, we explored why so many law firms remain stuck when it comes to GenAI, and what they need to do differently.

The Diagnosis: 
We outlined five core reasons GenAI isn’t delivering in legal: 

• The GenAI Catch-22: You can’t justify the investment until you prove the ROI. But you can’t prove the ROI until you’ve invested.
• No operating model: Firms lack a GenAI delivery engine, whose job it is to turn ideas into working, usable products that operate effectively within the firm’s business architecture.
• No consistent value measurement: Failure to define and track what ‘success’ looks like means you don’t know when you’ve ‘hit it’ or ‘missed it’. You aren’t able to learn from mistakes, and you aren’t able to optimise solutions that work.
• Change resistance: Underestimating the cognitive and behavioural shifts GenAI demands. It’s not the same as rolling out a new piece of software.
• Scattered initiatives: Exciting use cases with no structure or prioritised roadmap behind them.

The Solution: 
Our core message was this: if firms want to realise real GenAI value, they need to build capability, not just run experiments. That means:

1. A sequenced use case portfolio, prioritised by business impact, cost, and feasibility
2. A GenAI Studio: a cross-functional team that prototypes, tests, and deploys tools.
3. A human-centred change model that addresses trust, behaviour, and adoption from the outset.
4. Strong data, process, and governance foundations, designed with AI in mind

Breaking the Catch-22: 
Many firms are stuck in a loop, unsure where to begin, hesitant to commit until they’ve seen impact. At Pace, we have developed the Pace GenAI Enablement Suite for Legal which we use to help firms move from ideas to solutions that deliver measurable benefit.

If you’d like to explore how we support firms in building sustainable GenAI capability, or would like to access the webinar slides, get in touch.