Exclusive: Law firm Shoosmiths ties bonuses to AI usage
Law firm Shoosmiths has become the first major firm to link a firmwide bonus to its workforce’s use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The firm exclusively told CityAM that it set a “clear and ambitious annual target”: one million Microsoft Copilot prompts to unlock a £1m bonus pot for staff in the new financial year.
The bonus metric will form one element of the firm’s multi-million collegiate bonus pool, available to all staff except partners and business services directors.
If the AI target is achieved, Shoosmiths staff will share £1m of the reward, which equates to one per cent of each individual’s salary.
The firm’s partners can and are encouraged to contribute to the target.
The firm worked out that if every staff member uses its AI just four times per working day, the target “will be comfortably” surpassed.
The target will be tracked and shared transparently across the firm, with monthly updates internally.
David Jackson, CEO at Shoosmiths, stated, “This initiative is about creating a culture where everyone plays a role in embracing change and using technology to raise the bar on client service.”
“We don’t fear AI—it won’t replace our people. Instead, it frees them to spend more time on the human-to-human work that really matters: solving problems, building trust, and supporting clients through complexity,” he added.
Shoosmiths gears up for growth
This comes as Jackson told CityAM last October, as part of the Eyes on the Law column, that the firm has sharpened its structure over the last couple of years, becoming one of Europe’s busiest corporate law firms.
Kirsten Hewson, chair of Shoosmiths, added that over the last two years, the firm has been doing a lot of work internally to “get ourselves structured properly” and reach the “objectives for 2030.”
Last July, the firm revealed it had surpassed £200m in revenue for the first time, up six per cent from the previous year’s £194.1m.
Profit rose five per cent to £66m, up from £62.7m. At the same time, its equity partners each took home over £780,000 in profit.
Shoosmiths’ new AI target is a dramatically different approach than Liverpool-headquartered law firm Hill Dickinson, which reportedly blocked general access to several AI tools after it found a “significant increase in usage” by its staff.