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Time to say Yes! to a new era of contracting

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Bernadette Bulacan on why the rise of AI agents is a welcome invitation to innovate

The legal sector is no stranger to disruption. From the rise of e-discovery to the proliferation of legal tech startups, innovation has reshaped how lawyers work, how firms operate, and how clients engage. But the emergence of autonomous systems capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention marks a new inflection point—one that goes beyond automation and into transformation.

Contracts offer a prime opportunity for legal teams to transform their business with artificial intelligence (AI) because contracting remains one of the last manual processes in a company—from request to drafting to execution. While contracts contain rich data that drives better business decisions, the pain point for legal teams isn’t the data itself; it’s the operational complexity, the repetitive manual work and siloed systems. As a result, AI agents are already reshaping the contracting landscape in tangible ways to redefine how commercial agreements are created, managed and enforced.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Sidley—James Inness

Sidley—James Inness

Partner joins capital markets team in London office

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Firm announces appointment of partner as UK general counsel

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Firm appoints first chief marketing officer to drive growth strategy

NEWS

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
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