Holiday Read – The Innovators – ‘Civil War’

[ Artificial Lawyer is on holiday until Wed, Aug 5 – here’s Part 4 of ‘The Innovators’. ]

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‘We have a leak,’ Timothy Marks told the assembled group. ‘A very serious one.’

Katie, Angela – the head of PR, and Tabitha – the head of marketing, all looked at each other. The only other person in the room was Harry Harmer, the firm’s feared General Counsel.

Harmer was one of those people you never wanted to meet. He was rarely seen – spending most of his life on a plane, dealing with hush-hush matters the firm was involved with in distant corners of the planet. And if he ever did suddenly appear at the office and tap you on the shoulder, it usually meant something quite terminal for your career.

He waited for Tim to finish his summary of the damage caused by the ‘senior insider’ who had spilled to Redline about the Project Rubicon AI fiasco. The managing partner added that whatever hole they had dug for themselves by backtracking on the plan, they were several miles deeper underground because of the leak.

Now Harmer spoke. He was a short man – hard to put an age to, perhaps anywhere between 40 and 65. He had no wrinkles, a ruddy complexion, and was as bald as a billiard ball. He cracked his fingers and began.

‘From the limited forensic work I have been able to conduct: phone logs, audio files – direct and indirect, location tracking, personal device inference, timings, and so on, we can assume that it was no-one in this room.’

‘Of course not!’ Angela suddenly blurted out.

Harmer paused and looked at her very carefully, as if adding that outburst to his files. Then he continued.

‘No-one here had a motive. So, we have someone in ExComm who wants to sabotage the leadership of this firm. No-one else knew the details, aside from Katie’s team.’

Timothy, who didn’t seem that surprised by the conclusion, nodded.

‘I can assure you, everyone on my team – in fact, the whole of the IT and KM groups – are onboard. They would never leak,’ Katie said, feeling she had to say something.

‘Indeed,’ Harmer replied with a thin smile. ‘Forensics support that. Besides, the Redline story said ‘senior insider’. Their journalistic pride was very helpful.’

She let out a sigh of relief.

‘Of course, your call to the head of innovation at another law firm, complaining about what we were doing, was not very helpful,’ he added.

She gulped and decided not to add to that. Tim then handed out some damage control orders and ushered Angela and Tabitha out. Katie was surprised to be told to stay where she was.

‘It’s Keating,’ said Tim, leaning forward, pressing his palms onto the desk, as if he were about to leap up onto it.

‘Without a doubt,’ Harmer concurred. ‘They’ve been geolocated with the editor of Redline three times in the last year. Their personal phone was tracked to the Red Lion pub on the Strand last night. Redline’s office is nearby.’

‘Bastard!’ Tim let out, then blushed slightly.

‘Erm….are you sure you need me in this meeting, much as it’s fascinating to learn you’re tracking our personal phones as well?’ Katie asked.

Tim explained that they very much did need her in the meeting. And what Harmer said next was even more surprising.

                                                                      

Katie was walking out of Liverpool Street station when the black Mercedes pulled up next to her at the side of the road. A darkened window scrolled down and Sara Keating leaned out.

‘Get in, we need to talk.’

The chauffeured car drove on, seemingly without any specific destination. Katie sat next to the firm’s head of property – someone who had quite possibly damaged her reputation, and based on what she’d heard from Harmer, was extremely disloyal and a serious threat to the firm.

‘My apologies about the Pinocchio picture in Redline, I had no idea they were going to do that,’ she said and brushed back some strands from her perfect brunette bob.

‘So you admit it?’ Katie shot back, stunned.

‘Of course; and Tim knows, he’s always known.’

‘Why the cloak and dagger then? Why not just pop down to my little office if you wanted to chat about stabbing people in the back.’

Sara Keating paused for a moment, then forced a smile.

‘Because I’m staging a coup and Harmer has the place under surveillance. Plus, it’s more fun like this, don’t you think?’

Katie was just starting to frame the best way to ask to be let out of the car when it pulled over again. Standing at the side of the road was another partner she recognised, but didn’t know well. He deftly opened the front passenger door and slipped in. The Mercedes peeled away and lost itself in the morning rush hour.

‘Sunil,’ said the partner and reached out a hand, which Katie took on impulse. ‘Welcome to the rebellion.’

Katie had plenty of questions. Some they answered, others they were vague about. But the key message they wanted to get across to her was this: Timothy Marks was leading the firm into oblivion, partners were leaving, clients were slipping away, he was strategically lost – lurching from one failed plan to another – and getting nothing done.

The AI debacle was just the latest example of his mismanagement, they both stressed. For now, in part because the legal market was so buoyant, many of his mistakes were getting papered over, profits were still – even now – good enough to keep many partners on-side.

But, they added, all it would take was a market hiccup that triggered a drop in transactional work, or the loss of two or three more institutional clients, and that was it. The death spiral would accelerate beyond their ability to control things.

Katie wasn’t sure she agreed. She had seen the PEP figures. How on Earth could anything really be the matter? They saw the incredulity on her face.

‘Look,’ explained Sara, ‘Smyth & Marmalade was once one of about five top firms in London. Now that little group that serves our segment of the market has swelled to about a dozen, mostly because of all the US firms that have grown like wildfire over here.

‘Today, we are at the bottom of those dozen in terms of profitability, once we were number one in this market. In a world where everyone is working 24/7, mostly for the same type of clients, doing the same type of work, what difference does it make where you are? Only the money matters at the end of the day for some of our partners.’

‘At the moment it’s just a trickle of departures, but soon it could swell. Once we get a real exodus then that’s it. The firm implodes. Of course, ExComm would never let it get out of hand. We’d find a rescue merger partner. But it would be on their terms. Our 100-year history, our culture, would be over.’

Katie tried to absorb what they were saying.

‘Then I don’t see how damaging the firm in public like that helps,’ she replied curtly. ‘Seems like you’re just going to make things worse.’

Sara tutted and Sunil chuckled.

‘You have no idea, do you?’ Sara asked rhetorically. ‘We have been trying to dislodge Marks for years, since soon after he started his term. He will not listen to reason. We have no choice now.’

Katie paused, then had to ask: ‘Why did the partners elect him then?’

Sara looked to Sunil, who grimaced.

‘It’s a long story. What’s important right now is what we can do today.’

‘But, I don’t understand why you want me to even know about this. I’m just the head of innovation. I run software PoCs and put stuff on your computers that you never even use. What’s this got to do with me?’

‘First, don’t be so modest, the future of this firm is in your hands, even if you don’t see it,’ Sara replied. ‘AI and new ways of working are going to totally change the legal market. We all know it. It’s just a question of time. Maybe it takes five years, maybe more. But, it’s coming. And as far as I can see, you’re better-placed than anyone else in this firm to help us do something about it.’

Now Katie really was intrigued.

‘And your last-minute intervention on the Rubicon thing – well played there,’ added Sunil. ‘It was a bold idea, but too much for us to swallow in one go. Marks typically fluffed the delivery before you’d even got started. You saved the day.’

The Mercedes had done a loop of the centre of the City and Katie noticed the time. Her team would be wondering where she was.

‘OK, look, I think it’s cards on the table time – and I should warn you, Harmer and Marks told me to expect you to reach out,’ she stated.

‘And you’re to report back to them, of course,’ Sara added.

‘Yes.’

‘Then you need to decide: which side are you on?’

Katie shook her head with disbelief. The idea of trying to build their own AI system seemed a lot simpler and saner than getting in the middle of a civil war between the partners.

‘I still don’t understand how I can be of assistance.’

‘You understand technology. We don’t. Central to our plan is to do a merger deal. And to do a merger deal on our terms – before we get so weakened that it becomes a takeover.’

‘But…?’

‘Our goal is to find a US law firm that can help us through this period of AI turmoil. Now, we can get any managing partner on the phone that we like, our name still carries a lot of weight. But, we have no idea if they’re talking nonsense about their AI strategy or not. You will though.’

‘You think?’

‘You gambled your career on stopping Rubicon at the last minute,’ Sunil noted, ‘so, yes, we do believe you know what you’re doing.’

‘And there’s something else: you stepped up to do that speech when most people would have run for the hills. That takes courage,’ added Sara.

                                                                       

They drove on until they returned to where she’d been picked up outside Liverpool Street station.

‘So, what happens if I tell Tim about this?’ Katie asked as she went to open the door.

‘We’d probably be forced out and the firm would continue its nosedive,’ Sara told her frankly.

‘And if I do what you want, and help you with merger talks behind the back of our own managing partner…..which I guess would mean instant dismissal or worse for me if it all goes wrong?’

‘Then we build the law firm of the future, a transatlantic giant with AI at its core, and you’d become the most important head of innovation in the market,’ Sara replied.

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Parts One to Three of The Innovators are below.

Part One – Introduction. 

Part Two of ‘The Innovators’ is here.

Part Three – ‘Press Conference’

[ Copyright © 2026, Richard Tromans, Published by Artificial Lawyer Limited in the U.K. All rights reserved. This work of fiction may not be republished or reproduced without permission. The moral right of the author has been asserted. All characters are fictitious and any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or virtual, is purely coincidental. ]