In a speech that captured the accelerating pace of digital transformation in the justice system, the Master of the Rolls declared last month that what once seemed far-fetched is now fast becoming orthodoxy. “People are considering the hows and the whens; no longer the whethers,” he told delegates at the International Forum on Online Dispute Resolution.
His comments couldn’t have been more timely. Just days later, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced it had authorised the first UK law firm to deliver legal services primarily through artificial intelligence—a move being likened to the introduction of alternative business structures over a decade ago.
That firm is Garfield Law, a five-person startup specialising in small-claims debt recovery. It’s the brainchild of Philip Young, a veteran litigation solicitor, and Daniel Long, a quantum physicist. The SRA hailed the authorisation as a “landmark moment”, with CEO Paul Philip predicting Garfield would be the “first of many AI-driven law firms.”
Media attention quickly zeroed in on one of Garfield’s more eyebrow-raising offerings: a £2 “polite chaser” letter. But as Young told the Law Society Gazette, the firm’s ambitions go much further. Their platform, powered by a robust enterprise-grade large language model, can guide users through the entire small claims process—right up to the courthouse steps. “It can do everything apart from conducting the oral arguments,” he said.
Garfield Law’s origin story is pure 21st-century serendipity. The firm emerged during the pandemic, when Young stepped away from boutique litigation firm Cooke, Young & Keidan—an outfit he co-founded after stints at Hill Dickinson and Baker McKenzie. Then came ChatGPT. “I’ve always been a big nerd,” Young admits. “I had time to play with the software and thought: ‘Crikey, this is going to revolutionise legal practice.’” The release of GPT-4 in 2023 sealed the deal.
The inspiration? A self-employed relative’s struggle to recover small debts. The technical firepower? Courtesy of Long, then deep in quantum physics research. And the name? “It started as a joke,” Young laughs. “But then nobody could think of a better one.”
While sceptics will rightly question how AI fits within the bounds of professional responsibility, Garfield Law’s approval by the SRA signals the regulator’s growing comfort with legal innovation. The shift is clear: AI isn’t on the fringes of legal practice anymore. It’s stepping into the spotlight—polite chaser in hand.
Source: LawGazette.co
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