The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) recently revealed that almost two-thirds of the investigations it opens involve ethical issues. It also highlighted some of the pressures that can make ethical decision-making more difficult in practice, including commercial pressures, workplace culture and the increasing use of technology and AI.
For practice managers, COLPs and others responsible for supervision within law firms, this raises an important question about visibility. How do you effectively supervise client interactions when so much of what happens between a solicitor and their client is difficult to see?
The visibility gap in client communications
A significant part of the relationship between a solicitor and their client still happens over the telephone. Advice is discussed, expectations are set, costs and timescales are explained, difficult situations are handled and vulnerable clients may disclose important information. Sometimes the origins of a complaint can also be traced back to something that was said, or misunderstood, during a conversation.
Yet telephone conversations have traditionally been one of the least visible parts of a law firm’s client communications. There may be a file note afterwards, information may be entered into the case management system and, if something goes wrong, somebody might listen back to a recording if one exists and can easily be found.
For anyone responsible for supervision across a large number of client-facing employees, this can create a significant blind spot. It is difficult to understand patterns in client communication, investigate concerns or identify areas where additional training may be needed when the underlying conversations are not readily accessible.
What role should AI play in law firm supervision?
The SRA has also raised an important point about the role of AI in ethical decision-making. Solicitors should not rely on technology to make ethical judgements for them. Professional judgement, accountability and responsibility ultimately need to remain with people.
There is, however, an important distinction between using AI to make a judgement and using technology to provide people with better information.
AI-powered call transcription is a good example. When telephone conversations can be transcribed and made searchable, the people responsible for supervision have a much clearer record to work with.
If a concern is raised, a supervisor can establish what was actually discussed rather than relying solely on recollection or a summary written after the event. Over time, having access to this information can also make it easier to identify recurring themes across client conversations.
This does not require AI to decide whether somebody has acted appropriately. The technology provides visibility, while the interpretation and professional judgement remain with the people responsible for the firm.
Moving from reactive to proactive supervision
Greater visibility into client conversations can also change when supervision happens.
Traditionally, a particular telephone conversation may only receive close attention when something has already gone wrong. A client complains, a compliance concern is raised or a supervisor needs to establish what happened during a particular interaction.
Making conversations searchable gives firms the opportunity to take a more proactive approach. Practice managers and supervisors can identify recurring issues, understand how clients are being communicated with and determine where additional guidance, training or oversight may be useful.
It can also make investigating individual concerns considerably easier. Instead of searching through recordings or piecing together different accounts of a conversation, supervisors can search the transcript and review the relevant interaction.
Bringing calls into the firm’s wider client record
Visibility becomes even more useful when telephone conversations are not treated as a separate source of information.
Emails, calls, recordings and transcripts collectively contain a significant amount of knowledge about a firm’s relationships with its clients. When these communications sit in different systems, however, finding the complete history of an interaction can be difficult.
Threads’ Intelligent Message Hub brings client communications together and can push data into your case management system or desired location, including emails and AI-powered call transcripts. Conversations can be associated with the relevant contact or organisation and made searchable, giving authorised users a clearer view of the communication history surrounding a client.
For law firms, this can provide more than an efficiency benefit. It creates a more accessible record for the people responsible for client service, supervision and compliance.
Better visibility, not automated judgement
As law firms adopt more AI, much of the discussion understandably focuses on what the technology should and should not be allowed to do. In areas involving professional ethics and conduct, human accountability remains essential.
One of AI’s most useful roles may therefore be relatively straightforward: making information that already exists within a firm easier for the right people to find and review.
Good supervision will always require professional judgement. Technology does not need to replace that judgement to make it more effective. By giving practice managers and supervisors greater visibility into the conversations taking place across their firms, it can help ensure that when a judgement needs to be made, the evidence is available.
Learn more about how Threads uses AI-powered call transcription to make client conversations searchable.