In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. This time around, we asked: To date, have the investments the firm has made into AI tools made a return on investment? If no/not yet, what do you believe have been the main barriers to it? If yes, in what way?
Oleksiy Feliv, Impacta Law, Ukraine: At Impacta Law, we view Al as a practical tool for strengthening the quality and clarity of our legal work, both for existing clients and for those discovering the firm for the first time. We integrate Al into internal processes where it helps lawyers focus on substantive legal advice, while ensuring that the firm is presented consistently and transparently in leading international legal directories. This approach opened a unique opportunity for the Ukrainian legal market, which we deliberately chose to leverage. Impacta Law was among the first firms in Ukraine to introduce Ranking Copilot into internal workflows, and it has already demonstrated tangible practical value. Ranking Copilot supports the preparation of submissions, deal descriptions, and structured summaries required by international legal directories. By adapting content to each directory’s format and tracking completion levels within one system, it significantly reduces time spent on routine questionnaire work. This, in turn, strengthens our visibility in key rankings such as Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, and IFLR1000 and enables us to prepare submissions quickly and thoroughly while maintaining a strong client-centric focus.
Kostadin Sirleshtov, CMS, Bulgaria: CMS is investing substantially in Al tools. Recently, CMS has entered a global partnership with Harvey, one of the world’s leading generative Al platforms. This partnership puts CMS, operating in 47 countries, at the forefront in using GenAl to enhance the delivery of legal services to clients. Furthermore, at CMS, we use 10+ AI products. Personally, I am not into the figures of the investment and its return, but alongside the rest of the international law firms, CMS is embracing the Al revolution, and we see the first solid results. Our lawyers are using various Al tools, and these are extremely helpful. We have received very positive feedback from clients on the products created with the Lawyers are not “early adopters,” and this is the main barrier to the massive use of Al. Therefore, we at CMS create various ways to incentivize the use ot Al, and at our last Global meet-ing, 10+ vendors demonstrated their products to us, and it was very useful indeed.
Janos Tamas Varga, VJT Partners, Hungary:
Our investments in Al have delivered a return primarily through improvements in quality and how effectively we meet client expectations, At VJT & Partners, this has not been about automation for its own sake, but about strengthening the human-led delivery of legal services. Al supports stronger first drafts, while the real value is created through how our lawyers frame the right questions, guide the process, and critically review and refine the results. We have also seen efficiency gains through the reduction of repetitive tasks, allowing our lawyers to focus more on higher value-added legal judgment. This can improve turnaround times in certain types of work, although matters requiring careful legal evaluation continue to depend decisively on human expertise. Understanding how these systems behave in practice and how to work with them effectively, from framing to validating the results, is a differentiating capability that directly affects the quality and safety of the final advice. Overall, this approach supports higher internal standards, strengthens client relationships, and helps us remain an attractive, modern firm for top talent. Throughout this process, we are clear that Al should assist lawyers, not replace them, and that integrity and professional responsibility remain central to our practice.
Tijana Kojovic, BDK Advokati, Serbia: We have developed two internal Al-based appli-cations, utilizing Azure OpenAl and Google LLM models. Both are hosted within our secure and isolated infrastructure. These tools have a measurable positive impact on our work. They have significantly reduced the time required for legal translations, document drafting, and summarizing extensive documents. In 2025, we have achieved an 8.27% rise in turnover compared to 2024, with an 9.33% drop in the number of billable hours spent. While we cannot link the entire efficiency gain to Al, a meaningful part of it is certainly attributable to the mentioned Al tools, as well as to the document production software Draftomat we use for certain aspects of our employment and general corporate law work. While Al and legal tech tools are important efficiency drivers, we do not use them as a replacement for the human factor. We have a strict policy in place, requiring that any Al-generated output undergo rigorous verification and approval by qualified attorneys before use.
Pal Jalsovszky, Jalsovszky, Hungary: We make huge investments into Al and legal technology. Further, we have a 3-member in-house team to investigate and test the products available on the market and to develop our own tools. While we have already realized income out of the use of legal technology, such income is negligible compared to the costs. But we do not measure these investments purely on a short-term financial cost/benefit basis. Following technology developments and being at the forefront of this trend is a core function of our firm. We consider that technology will fundamentally change the way law firms work. For us, the aptitude to efficiently use technology (whether Al-based or not) is a question of future success.
Nenad Popovic, JPM & Partners, Serbia: The answer is twofold. When the definition of investment includes all internal costs – such as the time required to make Al tools operational and to train staff – the firm has not yet achieved a return on investment. However, if investment is defined narrowly to include only the cost of the tools themselves, then the return has been positive. The most significant barrier to realizing full ROI is clients’ expectation that legal services supported by Al should be priced lower than traditional services. A related challenge is the need to establish new pricing models that reflect the value created through Al-assisted work. Several firms, particularly in the US, are experimenting with alternative models to determine a sustainable structure that balances client expectations with the required investment. As Al tools become a permanent feature of legal practice, developing such pricing frameworks will be essential.
Jolanta Nowakowska-Zimoch, Greenberg Traurig, Poland: To date, we have seen a positive ROI from Al when it is based on three factors: well-defined legal and business processes, knowledge management, and the right culture. In these workflows, Al has been instrumental in reducing time and enhancing efficiency. However, it is important to note that there is no ROl in Al without genuine commitment from the leadership. This commitment must be communicated throughout the organization, with dedicated support from all levels of the company. Great individuals and disruptors generate ideas, but we are the ones responsible for providing them with the right environment to innovate. The primary obstacles to effective implementation of Al are not typically technological. They are often organizational in nature, including issues such as unclear ownership of tasks, fragmented processes, and insufficient investment in training, Without this complex approach, Al becomes merely a conference trend or a buzzword in social media, rather than a good catalyst for business.
Eszter Kamocsay-Berta, KCG Partners, Hungary: Our investments in Al tools are currently in a piloting phase, and at this stage, the return on investment is not yet fully quantifiable. Our initial focus has been on developing internal processes: identifying where and how Al can be applied, determining when human validation is required to ensure accuracy, and maintaining a high level of confidentiality and data security. While efficiency gains – such as cost savings through workflow automation – are an important objective, innovation is equally relevant, even though it is less easily measurable. In practice, we do see increased efficiency, but we have not yet been able to translate this into clearly quantified growth. Some types of legal work, such as routine translations, are disappearing, while other tasks are increasing or even creating an additional burden within the firm. A recent experience illustrates this well: a transactional document was commented on by a client using an Al tool without human validation, which led to inaccuracies and ultimately generated more work on both sides. This confirmed our view that Al creates real value only when supported by well-designed processes governing its use – something that must be in place before efficiency gains can be converted into measurable financial returns.
Olexiy Soshenko, Redcliffe Partners, Ukraine: To date, yes, we have already seen a tangible return on our Al investments, with the clearest example being Ranking Copilot, an Al-powered platform, founded by Dmytro Fedoruk and Olexiy Soshenko, Partners at Redcliffe Partners, that automates legal directory submissions to Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, and IFLR1000. In our 2025 submissions cycle, Ranking Copilot replaced spreadsheet-driven tracking and manual formatting with a single secure workspace that centralized matter collection, prompted fee-earner input, generated structured first drafts, and managed internal approvals end-to-end. It materially reduced non-billable preparation time – in many cases, compressing what previously took several days of coordination into a short, focused review and sign-off process. The impact was felt across both marketing and lawyers: less administrative drag, faster turnaround, and more consistent submission quality. Just as importantly, it improved the clarity and structure of our submissions and reduced avoidable errors, which we believe has contributed to stronger outcomes, including improved firm and individual recognitions in rankings.
This material was originally published in the Issue 12.12 of the CEE Legal Matters.