Al Hounsell joins Gowling WLG as national director of AI, innovation and knowledge

Gowling WLG has tapped Al Hounsell as the firm’s national director of AI, innovation and knowledge in Canada – a role that will involve spearheading initiatives around AI innovation and fine-tuning the firm’s legal operations, Hounsell told Law Times on Wednesday.

“The goal here is to really drive more value for clients, especially through AI and innovative technology, which Gowling is investing quite seriously into,” Hounsell says, adding there is already a “rich history of innovation” at the firm. 

Hounsell joins Gowling after over 10 years at Norton Rose Fulbright, where he most recently served as director of strategic innovation and legal design. There, he led a team that helped legal departments optimize their processes and workflows by equipping them with AI and automation tools. 

Hounsell is an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, teaching courses in artificial intelligence, legal innovation, design, and technology. He is also a member of the Ontario Bar Association’s AI task force.

This background has undoubtedly shaped Hounsell’s approach to AI. While there has been a lot of buzz in recent years about the possibilities of generative AI, Hounsell says that as with any new tools, “there are things that the technology does well and there's things that it does not do well.” 

The plan at Gowling is to determine what generative AI currently excels at, like document review and generating certain types of legal content, and “as AI gets better and better over time, to continue to invest in further areas and deploy it across higher-value functions,” he says. 

Hounsell says a common mistake law firms make is immediately expecting AI to do more than it actually can, which “can result in some unmet expectations.” 

“We’re really looking at the long-term vision,” he says. “People overestimate the short-term impact of AI and underestimate the long-term impact of AI.” 

This openness to change and adaptation aligns Hounsell with Gowling, which he describes as having “not only this rich history of innovation and a willingness to try new things… but also an understanding that the role of lawyers may change over time.”

As AI grows more sophisticated, “it may be the case that lawyers’ value moves more toward becoming business partners for our clients,” he said. In the future, the legal industry could see “lawyers, plus AI in an intertwined manner, that is delivering that client value.”

At Gowling, “there seems to be an excitement toward this evolving role of the lawyer as a consultative business partner for clients,” he adds.