Overview
James Phoenix is an R&D AI Lead for Linklaters’ Applied Intelligence Group, based in London. His role sits at the intersection of legal practice and AI delivery: researching, building, shipping and embedding AI tools across the firm’s global network, as well as advising clients upon the implications of AI for their businesses. James practiced as a litigator and investigations specialist for ten years before transitioning into AI full-time, initially through a six-month internal GenAI secondment in 2025.
Between 2023 and 2024 James used AI to “vibe-code” a prototype of the Narrative Checker Tool: an Excel plugin that uses Linklaters’ in-house AI platform Laila to make reviewing legal narratives more efficient. During his secondment from March 2025 James led on the further development of the tool, which launched firmwide on 1 September 2025; providing James with unique expertise on the practical realities of developing and deploying meaningful production AI solutions in an enterprise context.
In his current role, James works across practice groups globally to identify frontier AI developments relevant to the firm, evaluate AI models, and then use AI to productionise those developments by developing scalable production-ready tools and insights for the firm and its clients. James continues to advise clients on the impact of AI developments, particularly in respect of privilege.
James is fully AI-forward, doing most of his work using agentic AI, often with tools he has built for himself, and (as of April 2026) had clocked over 1,000 hours in Claude Code across the prior five working months.
Experience
James’ recent matters include:
- Responsible for inventing, developing and deploying the Narrative Checker Tool firmwide: an AI-powered Excel plugin using Laila to identify and correct billing narrative errors at scale, processing ~1,000 time entries per minute. Press here.
- In January and February 2026, developed a Linklaters-bespoke agentic harness prototype based on Claude Code capable of fully automating Word for agentic AI tasks, for use as an evaluation framework for legal-focused agentic AI tools.
- In his practice as a litigator and investigations specialist, James’ prominent matters included:
- Amec Foster Wheeler: advising in relation to the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into bribery and corruption allegations, including its alleged dealings with Unaoil.
- A FTSE 250 financial services firm: advising in respect of an internal investigation into bribery and corruption issues in Latin America, self-reporting and subsequent parallel investigations by the SFO, DOJ and FCA.
- A FTSE 100 company: advising in respect of an SFO’s investigation into alleged bribery and corruption issues in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
- The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (a UK Charity): advising in respect of ground breaking litigation in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
- A leading payment scheme: advising in respect of the management of thousands of claims brought against it in respect of multilateral interchange fees that are alleged to be anti-competitive.
- DENSO: on the group’s successful jurisdiction challenge in claims relating to alleged participation in a worldwide car parts cartel.
Admissions