Harrison Drury partners with August to introduce AI workflows and enhance client experience

Independent Northern law firm Harrison Drury has partnered with legal services AI specialist August to co-develop AI workflows across its legal teams and business operations.

The partnership will put Harrison Drury’s people and clients at the centre, allowing the firm to save time usually spent on process-heavy, repetitive tasks and re-invest it in critical thinking, expertise and client relationships.

Rather than adding technology to existing processes, the firm’s partnership with August will enable it to enhance how colleagues deliver work on behalf of clients as well as business operations like marketing and business development, HR and finance.

This means workflows will be specifically designed and tailored to work cohesively with each of the teams’ existing processes. Staff across the firm will be trained and certified in using the technology through the August Academy – August’s dedicated training platform.

Simon England, managing partner at Harrison Drury, said: “What August will give us is the ability to spend more of our time on the things our clients value the most; our knowledge, our relationships, and our attention to their specific needs. The technology will handle a lot of the processes while our people handle the critical thinking, sound judgement and advice to clients.”

Harrison Drury chose US-based August after evaluating multiple platforms, selecting it for the depth of collaboration on offer, including dedicated engineering support, co-developed workflows, and a rollout structured around how the firm actually operates. As August’s anchor UK client, Harrison Drury has priority access to new features and a direct product feedback channel.

That collaboration is already underway with the firm’s teams exploring areas where the platform can make tasks more efficient and working closely with August to make these a reality. During the trial, teams were able to utilise the platform in areas such as due diligence and document analysis to support them on workflows, with plans now in place to tailor these for each team.

Rick Life, partner in the corporate team at Harrison Drury, said “I’m really interested to see the positive impact this will have on our day-to-day tasks and have already seen fantastic application opportunities to enhance our workflows during the initial trial and roll out.

“After twenty years in corporate M&A and having worked at some big firms with a vast array of technologies, I’m genuinely excited to use this platform and see how it can offer even more value for our clients and our teams.”

Malcolm Ireland, legal services partner at Harrison Drury, added: “The difference here is collaboration. We’re not simply subscribing to an AI tool, we’re working with August to build something that fits how we actually operate and deliver what our clients need. That closeness means we can find ways to use the technology that genuinely benefits our people and our clients.”

Harrison Drury’s approach points to what the next generation of law firms looks like, seeing AI not as an add-on but instead tailoring its use within their operations and to support its people’s expertise.

Each department runs through the same platform with the same context and same feedback loop back to the product team. Each workflow is built on Harrison Drury’s own expertise and processes meaning the firm’s institutional knowledge is captured in the system itself and will be available to every lawyer and every team.

John Chesworth, senior partner at Harrison Drury will be working closely with the Head of IT, Martin Holmes to oversee the rollout of August AI within the teams at Harrison Drury. Since joining Harrison Drury in 2007, John has played a key role in overseeing the implementation of technology-led advancements for the benefit of the firm’s clients and its people. He will ensure client relationships are at the heart of the collaboration with August AI.

John said: “I’ve seen first-hand that our success is built on strong client relationships. This partnership with August AI is about protecting and strengthening those relationships by giving our people more time and capacity to deliver their value.”

Rutvik Rau, co-founder and CEO of August, said: “Harrison Drury isn’t treating AI as a checkbox. They’re rethinking how the entire firm can benefit from the support our technology offers, from how lawyers deliver work to how the business functions around them. That’s exactly the kind of firm we built August for.”

Read more about Harrison Drury’s partnership with August.