The legal service industry is in a state of rapid evolution, driven by the rise of technology. The intersection of law and technology has opened new avenues for innovation, making it an exciting time for those involved in this field. The industry is witnessing a shift towards automation and the use of AI, which is reforming the way legal work is done and enabling lawyers to focus more on strategic legal work.
Amid this transformation, a key figure emerges, Tyrilly Csillag, Director of Legal Transformation, a visionary leader with a passion for adopting technology to drive change in legal practice. With a background steeped in legal expertise and a keen understanding of technological developments, she is dedicated to driving forward the adoption of innovative solutions within the legal sphere.
Fueling this transformation is Thomson Reuters, a notable leader in legal services renowned for its excellence and innovation. With a legacy of pioneering solutions and a commitment to empowering legal professionals, Thomson Reuters serves as the key to Tilly’s mission to drive legal transformation. Together, they usher in a new era of legal practice, where technology and expertise merge together to unlock unique opportunities for legal professionals worldwide.
Let’s explore how Tyrilly is shaping the future of legal practice through innovation:
Journey from Tech Enthusiast to Legal Innovator
Tyrilly has been fascinated by technology from a young age, a passion that dates back to when her father brought home their very first home computer. She always had an interest in pursuing law as a career. When she enrolled at university, there weren’t many courses available that explored the intersection of technology and law; it was a nascent field, but that only sparked her curiosity further!
After several years of legal practice spanning private practice and in-house roles, she began working as an in-house lawyer at IBM. The transformative potential of technology across multiple industries truly piqued her interest. Nearly a decade later, she was thrilled to join Thomson Reuters in a role that had a direct impact on the way lawyers work.
Thomson Reuters’ extensive investment in AI technology, coupled with its trusted reputation for legal content and know-how, made it a full-circle moment for her. She is now working in a space that is core to her passion and is transforming the way her legal peers work for the better.
Driving Transformation in Legal Practice with Technology
In her role, she has access to a breadth of legal know-how and technological solutions that she would have appreciated in her own legal practice. She understands firsthand that every legal team, whether in a firm, corporation, or government department, is at a unique stage in its technology transformation journey, and it truly is a journey.
The practice of law is evolving as rapidly as the interests of its clients. By bringing together the latest market research and industry insights, along with a deep understanding of how a particular team of lawyers is currently functioning and their aspirations to support their clients’ growth, she can strategize how legal technology can enable their transformation to achieve that growth outcome.
It’s an exciting time to be a lawyer and, for their clients, a lawyer with access to transformational legal technology tools.
Leading Legal Transformation Through Thought Leadership
In any given week, one can find Tyrilly hosting a roundtable, speaking at an event, or moderating a workshop, sharing the latest legal industry trends and their implications for lawyers and the broader legal community. She is also quick to share the latest thought leadership reports and insights from the Thomson Reuters Institute on social channels like LinkedIn.
Recently, she has been hosting the Thomson Reuters’ Enabling Legal Innovation podcast, which has gained popularity. Having worked in the legal community for many years and being actively involved in a range of industry representation groups, she has a strong network that enables her to converse with lawyers as both a peer and an advisor.
She believes it’s important to understand the team and the business environment in which lawyers operate so that they can support the implementation of legal technology that is appropriate for the present and can scale over time.
Unlocking Growth Opportunities with AI in Law
Research indicates that lawyers aspire to engage in meaningful legal work. However, a significant portion of a lawyer’s daily tasks are dedicated to process and administration. These tasks include drafting emails, obtaining approvals and signatures, checking budgets, reviewing invoices, and managing service providers.
These are all tasks that can now be automated and handled by trusted technology, thereby elevating the capacity of the lawyer to engage in strategic legal work. Research suggests that this shift has a significant impact on recruiting and retaining talent, among other benefits such as generating data-driven insights that enable informed conversations with the C-suite.
Another enhancement involves ensuring that lawyers have access to the most up-to-date legal content quickly and wherever and whenever they need it. This enables them to offer tactical advice that opens opportunities for their client’s interests to develop and grow. For instance, the ability to utilize AI-enabled legal technology to identify trends can unlock growth opportunities and/or save the client money.
Embracing the Podcast Revolution in Legal Tech
Tyrilly has been thrilled with how popular the podcast has been and how well it has been received! The focus is on bringing the latest insights on how rapid technological advances, such as AI, are driving innovation within the legal industry and unpacking those themes in a useful way for listeners.
So far, the audience has heard from the Managing Director, Chief Product Officer, Vice President, and more, and in addition to the technology itself, they’ve covered emerging issues such as AI ethics and model governance. In the coming episodes, listeners will hear from a variety of experts, including partners, in-house counsel, and trailblazing lawyers across different practice areas. The goal is to ensure they’re clarifying the complex and informing the way forward.
The Power of Networking in Legal Industries
One of the joys of Tyrilly’s role is connecting people with common purposes and interests to do good work and achieve great things. Within Thomson Reuters, she is part of several working groups and project committees and supports diversity and well-being initiatives. As part of the legal community, she has sat on different committees and worked with various associations to support conversations and bring about positive change. From her time as a young lawyer, she has always been involved in professional groups within and beyond the workplace, which has helped her to understand how different people think and work, what they need, and how she can help.
Thomson Reuters is an active part of the legal community. In their capacity as a service provider across legal industries and spanning geographies, they are uniquely placed to bring legal professionals together to enable peer learning and networking.
Their corporate purpose is to inform the way forward, so fostering collaboration and innovation across the legal community and within Thomson Reuters is core to that purpose and fundamental to her role.
Excellence in Customer Experience
It’s important to Tyrilly that every customer experiences the best of Thomson Reuters in every interaction with them. As a company, they want to strategically partner with their customers to help them and their businesses grow, and they know they have the best people and the best technology to make that happen efficiently and effectively.
This transcends their legal transformations into tax, accounting, and professionals more broadly. It’s a continuous conversation underpinned by trust, expertise, and commitment.
Investing in the Future of Legal Technology
Tyrilly always feels truly empowered because she has full access to Thomson Reuters’ complete suite of legal solutions: Westlaw and Practical Law for legal research and know-how, HighQ for matter management, contract lifecycle management, and document automation, and Legal Tracker for managing external counsel spend.
With the launch of CoCounsel Core earlier this year, they now also have an AI legal assistant for lawyers, which will entirely transform the way lawyers work across the board.
The most exciting thing is that in addition to acquiring innovative technology companies such as Casetext, Thomson Reuters is investing at least $100 million+ USD annually into growing the capabilities of their existing solutions, including AI enablement. So, the ways of working for lawyers will just get better and better, and she has the privilege of being at the heart of the conversation.
Empowering Lawyers
In her view, an innovative mindset will always serve lawyers well in enhancing their own ways of working, and it will also help them be an effective, strategic advisor to their clients.
She is already seeing junior lawyers graduating with the expectation that their employers will provide them with the tools necessary to perform at their best: legal research, know-how, and process solutions that empower them to do impactful legal work and develop professionally.
Nearly 20 years ago, when she started her legal practice, these were tools for the lucky few. Nowadays, and certainly going forward, lawyers cannot work effectively, keeping up with legal developments, regulatory changes, and evolving business needs on a large scale, without them.
