Legal AI Is Not the Finish Line: Estelle Thiebaut On Building Mature Legal Functions
- Cosmonauts Team
- Jun 5
- 4 min read
The conversation around legal AI is rapidly evolving. Across France, legal departments are moving beyond their traditional remit as risk managers and becoming strategic business partners, expected to deliver measurable value, greater efficiency, and stronger operational insight.
In this interview, Estelle Thiebaut, Lawyer Product Specialist at Thomson Reuters, explores what legal operations maturity looks like in practice, where AI is already delivering tangible results, and what will separate the legal teams that thrive from those that fall behind in the years ahead.
These are themes she will continue to explore at Legal Innovators Europe - France later this month, where she joins our In-House Day and leads a live demonstration, From Trusted Legal Content to GenAI in Practice: CoCounsel for the French Legal Market, examining how legal teams can move from AI experimentation to responsible, real-world adoption.
Read on for her perspective on the future of the in-house legal function in France.
How is the role of the in-house legal team evolving in France, and what does "legal ops maturity" actually look like in practice?
Legal departments in France are playing an increasingly strategic role today: they are no longer just functions of expertise or risk management, but true strategic partners, expected to demonstrate their ability to create value for the business.
The notion of maturity of legal departments refers, quite concretely, to the degree of organization of the legal function: the way it structures its processes, equips itself with tools — particularly in the area of artificial intelligence, which is increasingly integrated into legal workflows — and monitors and evaluates its activity over time through indicators.
In practice, maturity levels remain uneven: although the use of tools is now well established, some teams still rely on them only occasionally, while others have fully integrated them and are already seeing tangible benefits.
AI is generating enormous excitement in the legal sector, but where are in-house teams in France actually seeing measurable impact, versus where is it still mostly hype?
The growing interest in legal AI can be explained by the tangible benefits it already brings to legal departments. Its most significant impact is currently seen in well-defined areas such as contract management, legal research, regulatory monitoring, and the preparation of draft documents.
These benefits are reflected in time savings, the ability to handle a higher volume of requests, and, more broadly, improved reliability of analyses. This enables legal departments to focus more on higher value-added work while ensuring greater consistency in practices and strengthening process compliance.
In practical terms, this translates, for example, into faster contract cycles, allowing teams to better meet the expectations of operational stakeholders.
Finally, this impact is expected to continue to grow as teams receive more training, legal departments become more structured, and AI capabilities evolve — particularly with the development of agentic AI.
What are the biggest operational bottlenecks holding in-house counsel back from being true strategic partners to the business and, how is technology changing that equation?
Barriers are both cultural and operational. Legal departments are still sometimes viewed primarily through the lens of risk management, while also facing significant constraints due to heavy workloads and processes that are not yet sufficiently structured.
Technology is helping to shift this situation by automating certain tasks, particularly in the area of contract management, thereby freeing up time for higher-value strategic activities. It also requires stronger collaboration with other functions within the organization, whether to deploy these solutions, ensure their relevance, or support user adoption. In this respect, it contributes to repositioning the legal department at the heart of the company’s projects.
As legal teams are asked to do more with less, how do you build a compelling business case for investing in legal technology - especially in markets like France where adoption has traditionally been more cautious?
The main argument primarily relates to both productivity and quality. Legal departments are facing a continuous increase in requests, while their resources remain limited. Legal AI tools enable them to handle larger volumes in less time, while improving the quality, consistency, and reliability of the service delivered.
There is also an issue of autonomy and cost control. By automating certain tasks and further structuring processes, legal AI tools allow teams to internalize a greater number of activities and reduce their reliance on external law firms.
Finally, it is also a matter of competitiveness. Given the rapid adoption of AI by other
departments within the organization and by market players, these tools are becoming essential to keep pace and meet the expectations of operational stakeholders.
Looking ahead to the next two to three years, what do you think will separate the legal departments that thrive from those that struggle, and what role does technology play in that?
The difference will primarily lie in legal departments’ ability to undergo a deep transformation. The most advanced ones will be those that have successfully structured their processes, identified relevant use cases, and progressively integrated legal AI tools into their workflows, while also leveraging data more effectively to better manage their activity and inform decision-making.
This evolution also requires training and supporting teams to ensure consistent, gradual, and well-managed adoption in day-to-day operations.
Conversely, legal departments that are slow to evolve their practices, optimize their internal operations, or adopt these tools may face increasing difficulties in handling growing volumes and responding effectively to the company’s operational needs, particularly in terms of responsiveness.
Perhaps the most compelling insight from Estelle’s perspective is that the next frontier for legal departments is not AI adoption, but operational maturity. As legal technology becomes increasingly accessible, advantage will accrue to those able to embed it within structured processes, measurable outcomes, and a genuinely business-oriented legal function.
That is why we are particularly looking forward to Estelle’s contribution at Legal Innovators Europe - France, where the conversation will move beyond what AI can do and towards how legal teams can transform the way they operate and create value.
Join us in Paris this June as that transformation story continues to unfold.
📅 June 24th - 25th, 2026
📍 Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel, Paris, France
🎟️ 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝘄 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻-𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀:
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