Sarah Tyler

Corporate law firms face unprecedented pressure to optimize costs, accelerate service delivery, and demonstrate tangible value to increasingly sophisticated clients. Procurement—the systematic process of evaluating, selecting, and managing vendors for legal technology, outside counsel, and specialized services—represents one of the highest-leverage opportunities for operational improvement. Yet many firms still approach procurement through fragmented, relationship-driven processes that leave significant value on the table. This comprehensive checklist provides a structured roadmap for implementing AI-driven procurement transformation, drawn from successful implementations across leading practices. The stakes are higher than many firms realize. Inefficient procurement directly impacts billable hours, matter profitability, client satisfaction, and competitive positioning. When a firm takes two weeks to onboard an e-discovery vendor while a competitor does it in two days, that's not j...

When our firm closed a $4.2 billion cross-border acquisition last year, the partner leading the deal told me something I'll never forget: the AI tools we deployed saved us from walking away from a deal that became one of the most successful integrations in our client's history. That moment crystallized a truth many of us in corporate law are still grappling with—the transformation of M&A practice isn't coming; it's already here, reshaping how we approach everything from initial target screening to post-close integration oversight. The evolution of AI in M&A has moved beyond theoretical promise into tangible value creation across the deal lifecycle. Having worked on dozens of transactions over the past eighteen months where AI played a central role, I've witnessed firsthand how these technologies fundamentally alter the economics, velocity, and quality of corporate transactions. The stories from these deals—both the successes and near-misses—offer valuable l...