Implementing AI Governance in a Legal Services Firm
A national legal services provider partnered with Peritus to establish safe AI usage, reduce shadow AI risk, and introduce governance controls that protected client confidentiality and regulatory compliance.
70%
reduction in unapproved AI tool usage
Governance
clear AI usage policies aligned to legal and regulatory obligations
Visibile
full visibility into AI activity across users, teams, and applications
1. The Challenge
The firm a multi-site legal services organisation handling sensitive client matters, case files, and regulated data had seen a rapid rise in staff using generative AI tools to assist with research, drafting, and administrative workflows.
However, this introduced significant risks, including:
employees pasting confidential case information into unapproved AI tools
no visibility into which apps were being used or what data they processed
inconsistent understanding of what “safe usage” looked like
no governance, monitoring, or escalation procedures
regulatory exposure and compliance concerns around data handling
With client confidentiality a core obligation, the organisation needed a structured way to enable AI safely while reducing shadow AI risk.
2. Our Approach
Peritus delivered an AI Governance and Monitoring engagement designed specifically for professional services and legal environments.
Our work included:
Mapping AI usage across the organisation to identify risks and patterns
Implementing monitoring to track interactions with AI platforms
Establishing acceptable-use policies tailored to legal-sector requirements
Creating guardrails for sensitive data handling and prompt security
Providing executive and staff training on safe AI usage
Recommending configuration changes to reduce risk from unapproved tools
Defining governance processes and escalation pathways for incidents
This allowed the firm to embrace AI innovation while protecting client data and meeting regulatory expectations.
3. The Outcome
The introduction of structured governance and monitoring delivered measurable improvements:
70% reduction in unapproved AI tool usage
Clear, firm-wide AI usage policy aligned to legal confidentiality standards
Full visibility into AI interactions, enabling early detection of risky behaviour
Reduced exposure of client information to external AI platforms
Improved staff confidence and understanding of what “safe AI” means
A repeatable governance framework supporting future AI adoption
Peritus helped the organisation move from unmonitored, high-risk AI experimentation to controlled, compliant, and secure AI enablement.
“Peritus helped us get ahead of the risks around AI. Their guidance was clear, practical, and tailored to the realities of a legal environment. We now have visibility, control, and confidence in how AI is being used across the firm.”