Project Apollo uses the firm’s own legal know-how and is designed to support contract review and junior lawyer training
Shoosmiths has launched Project Apollo, a generative AI contract review platform developed with support from Microsoft and trained on the firm’s own legal know-how.
The firm said the platform is now being deployed across Shoosmiths following a year-long build and pilot programme. It has been designed to review contracts against playbooks and preferred drafting positions drawn from the firm’s internal expertise, including its M&A know-how.
Project Apollo runs in Microsoft’s Azure environment and is intended to provide lawyers with transparent and auditable reasoning for suggested amendments. Shoosmiths said the tool is designed to show not only what changes have been made to a contract, but why those changes have been recommended.
The firm said the platform differs from “black-box” AI tools because it surfaces Shoosmiths’ own guidance notes and explains its reasoning in a way intended to mirror how a senior associate would justify changes to a partner.
David Jackson, chief executive of Shoosmiths, said: “With our platform, developing lawyers can learn more, faster. Our self-developed generative AI software enables the firm to deploy its collective dealmaking expertise at scale, allowing lawyers to not only see what amendments have been made, but most significantly, why.”
Shoosmiths said the platform would allow lawyers to review contracts more quickly, apply market standards more consistently and make recommendations tailored to each client’s preferred language, risk profile and commercial position.
The firm said a senior lawyer will review and sign off all output from the AI tool, underlining that the platform is intended to support, rather than replace, legal oversight.
Jackson said the firm’s M&A experience was embedded into the platform’s architecture. He added that the tool would cut time in the contract review process, improve consistency of advice, accelerate deal delivery and support the development of junior lawyers.
Darren Hardman, chief executive of Microsoft UK and Ireland, said Project Apollo showed how AI could make the knowledge of experienced lawyers available across a firm at every stage of a lawyer’s career.
He said: “The fact that it explains its reasoning at every step makes it a genuine learning tool, not just a productivity one.”
Shoosmiths said its decision to build its own AI technology reflected a shift away from off-the-shelf solutions and formed part of its wider innovation-led growth strategy.
The launch follows the firm’s introduction of an AI Fluency Framework, a programme intended to encourage and assess the effective use of AI in delivering business and client outcomes.