Interview with Carl Bokwall, Founding Partner at BOKWALL RISLUND

‍

How do you and your firm use technology to deliver a better end product to your clients?

‍

We’re a specialist advisory firm focused on public procurement law, competition law and foreign direct investments (FDI), and disputes within those areas. What matters most in our work is a deep understanding of the client’s market and counterparties, combined with a precise grasp of ongoing legal developments. Our assignments often move quickly, so having top-tier, reliable AI-powered legal tech is essential for rapidly and confidently scanning and assessing the legal landscape.

‍
‍

Our internal AI Policy is a critical part of our working procedures — it defines how we handle cases. It’s built on the principle that we should actively use AI tools in investigations to stay at the forefront. However, a cornerstone of this approach is that the lawyer always performs the analysis — not the AI model. Our human expertise remains our most important competitive advantage, and we must never stop thinking critically ourselves.

‍

We simply don’t have time to work in the traditional way. Our pricing model focuses on legal and strategic advice, not “the leg work.” The behind-the-scenes work carries a smaller and smaller share of our pricing, and clients increasingly expect us to have immediate, reliable insight into the law. That’s nothing new — but today, it has to happen even faster. You simply can’t charge premium rates for teams of lawyers to spend hours scanning the legal landscape. That raw material has to be produced instantly, so that we can then add our true value through deeply experienced, situational advice.

‍

‍

How important is it for lawyers to actively engage with technology in order to stay ahead?

‍

It’s crucial to stay involved in any development that affects your market. Whether you’re also driving that development is more a matter of personal interest. Personally, I’m quite interested in understanding and shaping the market conditions I operate in. I also have a daughter studying law, and I feel a strong desire to understand the professional landscape she’ll enter in the future.

‍

‍

What made you decide to purchase Qura now, rather than two years from now?

‍

Two main reasons.
First, it’s essential to start using AI — sensibly, of course — because otherwise you fall behind in both efficiency and the learning curve. Onboarding today is simple, and you can work with several tools in parallel. It’s no longer like it used to be, where you went through a long procurement process for one system and were locked into that investment. The key is to have a clear stance on AI — not to just let it run wild. That’s where our AI policy comes in.

Second, Qura aligns perfectly with our principles on how AI should be used: the human remains in control, and the system doesn’t hand you pre-packaged answers. Instead, AI serves as a powerful support, while the lawyer still performs the legal analysis.

‍

Do you have a concrete example of when Qura has helped you?

‍

Many, but I prefer not to discuss specific cases. What I can say is that knowing our lawyers have such powerful tools gives me great confidence when basing my advice on their work.

‍

What stands out most about Qura compared to other legal databases or AI tools? (And what matters most to you when choosing an AI solution?)

‍

The key difference is the setup: Qura doesn’t feed you ready-made answers or conclusions. Instead, it provides ranked legal sources and findings that you can then interpret and integrate into your own legal reasoning. That’s exactly how it should be.

‍

How do you see the legal profession evolving over the next five years?

‍

That’s always hard to predict, but I believe AI — like all technological advances — will drive automation and efficiency. For external advisers, that mainly means we’ll need to be an even more relevant complement to in-house teams, demonstrating that we add something AI cannot — namely, taking responsibility for our judgments.

‍

The legal profession will probably become narrower, but sharper.

‍