Master of the Rolls tells lawyers to ‘embrace AI’ to keep justice relevant
TL;DR:
- Sir Geoffrey Vos, head of civil justice in England and Wales, told the Judicial Institute for Scotland that he expects AI to “be used in every aspect of the work of lawyers and judges” and that the legal profession must abandon the assumption that “the TikTok generation will eventually become like us”.
- He framed two priorities: shaping how AI is used inside justice systems, and rebuilding communication with younger generations who get their information online and on social media.
- Resultsense view: this is the most senior UK judicial endorsement of AI in legal practice published this year. Combined with the FT’s reporting on senior lawyers leaving City firms for legal-AI start-ups, it suggests a profession reorganising itself around AI rather than debating whether to.
The speech, delivered last Thursday at Parliament Square, Edinburgh, was unusually direct in setting the obligation on judges and lawyers as “great responsibility” — “to do the hard work necessary to lay the foundations for justice systems of the future that will use technology to a far greater extent than ever before”.
The TikTok generation argument
Vos was deliberate about generational fracture. “The Facebook generation still uses Facebook and is cautious about Insta and TikTok. Likewise, the Instagram generation regards Facebook as old hat and is cautious about TikTok. The TikTok generation is unlikely to develop so as to embrace mainstream paid journalism, or even in all probability, the BBC.”
The implication for the justice system is that digital-first methods of communication and dispute resolution are not optional adaptations. Younger generations “will expect to find that their judges and elected politicians have created for them a justice system that is modern, technologically effective and can produce just and effective outcomes quickly and at proportionate cost. They will require those outcomes to be delivered in most cases online”.
The risk of inattention
Vos paired the modernisation argument with a warning about scrutiny: “If the importance of justice and the rule of law is not properly understood, there is an enhanced risk that inappropriate uses of AI will pass unnoticed under the radar without proper scrutiny.” That framing — AI in justice as both opportunity and accountability problem — is consistent with the line the ICO is taking on automated decision-making, where the consultation is open until 29 May.
Cross-source context
The speech lands the same week the FT reported a wave of senior lawyer hires at AI legal-tech start-ups Harvey ($11 billion valuation) and Legora ($5.5 billion). UK practitioners — including former Ashurst global head of legal managed services Alex Fortescue-Webb — are taking equity in the technology side of the profession. With the Master of the Rolls publicly endorsing AI inside the justice system, and senior lawyers monetising AI fluency outside it, the profession’s posture has shifted further than its formal training pipelines have so far.
Looking forward
The speech does not commit the UK courts to specific deployments, but it sets a tone. The practical questions — how AI is used in case management, evidence analysis, and access-to-justice tools — will be answered through HMCTS programmes and Ministry of Justice procurement rather than judicial speeches. Vos’s position lowers the political risk of those programmes moving faster.