MONTREAL, April 15, 2026 /CNW/ - Lavery is taking another step in its integration of artificial intelligence into the legal and intellectual property practices by announcing a series of strategic initiatives that will significantly precipitate its technological shift.
Invested in artificial intelligence since 2017 with the launch of its Lavery Legal Lab on Artificial Intelligence (L3AI), Lavery has made the bold decision not to use commercial solutions, but rather to develop custom internal tools as part of a unique, well-thought-out and controlled approach, resolutely focused on creating value for its clients.
By developing unique solutions to support the legal and intellectual property practices, Lavery is providing its professionals with the means to concentrate their efforts where it counts the most--serving clients.
A clear vision: innovating without compromising rigor
To realize this ambition, Lavery is announcing that it has named Loïc Berdnikoff as its new Chief Innovation Officer. Mr. Berdnikoff is thus adding this innovation role to his responsibilities as General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer.
This nomination reflects a clear vision: integrate innovation and the highest industry standards as well as the rigor that the practice of law requires.
"In our profession, innovation, and in particular the use of artificial intelligence, must coexist with a number of compliance parameters aimed at ensuring the highest confidentiality and quality standards. My role is to allow our firm to take bold steps forward, while ensuring security and quality and meeting our professional obligations," says Loïc Berdnikoff.
With the appointment of a new Chief Innovation Officer and the unique expertise of Benoit Yelle, Éric Lavallée and Gaspard Petit, the members of L3AI, the firm will be better able to:
- translate technological challenges into concrete solutions for the practice of law
- roll out capacity-building initiatives more rapidly
- closely align innovation with industry standards and our day-to-day work
"This is the beginning of a movement. Our firm's ambition is clear: We want to build a model where artificial intelligence spurs excellence and is at the service of both our clients and our profession. Innovation is at the heart of our strategic trajectory, and we are making every effort to hold our position as a leader in technological development in the legal industry in Quebec. This new appointment aims to solidify our commitment in this regard," says the firm's CEO, Anik Trudel.
Lavery is rolling out a tool called "Billy," a closed-loop generative artificial intelligence interface
Since 2023, Lavery has been developing an internal generative artificial intelligence tool for all of its members to access, in a controlled environment, different versions of its chatbot designed specifically for the Quebec legal context.
Today, Lavery is rolling out a new assistant for its members, called "Billy" as a tribute to the firm's heritage. It is entirely secure, ensuring that no information entrusted to it or produced by it can be transmitted or accessed by a third party.
With the creation of this new personalized interface, Lavery is consolidating its position as a pioneer in artificial intelligence applied to legal and intellectual property services, combining innovation and security. Designed by the L3AI in collaboration with our members and professionals from our IT group, the interface illustrates the firm's commitment to remaining a leader in the responsible adoption of new technologies, for the benefit of its clients.
Innovation to serve our clients
Billy will host the artificial intelligence tool on dedicated Lavery servers. It therefore no longer depends on an interface from an external provider, making it possible to use the assistant without exposing client data to a third party. To our knowledge, it is the first tool that can offer such a guarantee in the Quebec legal services market.
The tool assists with legal and intellectual property work, but the work remains entirely guided by the expertise of our legal and intellectual property professionals. We are integrating artificial intelligence to focus more of our energy on what really creates value for our clients: strategic analyses, risk anticipation, negotiations and decision-making assistance.
Our new personal assistant will coexist with Lavery's artificial intelligence tool, built on the most powerful external language models. We will continue to actively develop our tool to stay ahead of artificial intelligence technological developments.
The starting point of an ongoing transformation
These announcements are part of a broader effort.
They are the starting point of a series of initiatives aimed at responsibly integrating artificial intelligence into all of the firm's activities, for the long term.
Lavery intends to continue not only to invest, but also to deepen its collaboration with various organizations involved in artificial intelligence development and actively contribute to the evolution of legal and intellectual property services in the age of artificial intelligence.
SOURCE Lavery
Media Contact: Jean-Francois Lemieux, 514 877-3002, [email protected]
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