Why ex-Mishcon partner Simon Leaf left Big Law to build an AI-driven boutique

After 15 years in the City, former Mishcon de Reya partner Simon Leaf recently left Big Law to launch his own tech-enabled firm - and he says the industry’s traditional model is no longer fit for how many clients want to be serviced.

Leaf, who headed Mishcon’s sports group and co-led its technology transactions practice, has set up Three Points Law with fellow former Mishcon lawyer Tom Murray. The firm focuses on technology, sport and commercial/IP work, and is using AI "at the heart and centre of everything that we do" from day one he tells us on The Non-Billable Podcast.

The shift, he says, was driven by frustration with trying to "lawyer in the way that I wanted to lawyer" inside a large City practice. As his hourly rate rose, "I was getting further away from the clients," he says.

The work he does is "almost exclusively transactional in nature," and for many clients, he was "as close to an in-house lawyer as they'll get without actually being in-house." That model, he argues, is difficult to deliver from a traditional private practice environment.

How AI is powering the new model

Three Points is betting that AI changes the economics. The firm uses Legora, Qanooni and other tools across its BD, scoping and delivery workflows.

Research that previously took a knowledge services team "five days" can now be done "very quickly with AI." Fee proposals are built the same way. And on client work, Leaf and Murray have created pre-built workflows for common tasks - a SaaS licence review, for example - so the team can "very quickly get on top of" new matters.

He is unequivocal about the impact: AI is already "100%" replacing the need for junior lawyers. The tools "are good, but they’re not perfect," he says, and "they need to be checked and properly verified." But in the hands of experienced lawyers, "they’re fantastic," helping Three Points stay lean while adding senior-level talent: "We’re already recruiting at the senior end because there’s more than enough work."

Leaf is also ditching the billable hour where possible. Value-based pricing, he says, gives room to be flexible and make "investment decisions" in promising clients - something Big Law often talks about but struggles to execute.

The mechanics of launching the firm were straightforward: Three Points is an LLP, and everything from AML to IT is handled by platform provider Excello. "We’ve cheated a little bit," he says. "We can focus on what we do best."

His advice to other lawyers thinking of breaking away: "Go for it. The one thing people say is, ‘I wish I did this 12 months ago.’"

Listen to the full conversation on The Non-Billable Podcast.