The Brief:
Harvey kicks off its Leading Questions series with brand partner Gabriel Macht, starting with CEO Winston Weinberg before turning to A&O Shearman’s David Wakeling.
The format has split opinion on LinkedIn, with some saying Legora's Jude Law play was the sharper move.
Harvey has doubled down on its fictional lawyer tie-up, launching a new branded interview series fronted by Suits star and brand partner Gabriel Macht.
The series, Leading Questions, opened with Macht sitting down with Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg, covering his path into law and how AI will reshape legal practice.
Macht put it to Weinberg that on the show, Harvey Specter grabs a file and has all the answers within seconds, calling that portrayal a “fallacy.” But Weinberg reckons the day-to-day of a practising lawyer is actually heading closer to how it looks on Suits, and that Harvey Specter himself would’ve been a quick convert.
Weinberg’s reasoning was that Specter’s whole approach to law comes down to relationships and advising clients, and AI doesn’t change that. It just clears the grunt work faster, leaving reading the room as the real skill.
The next episode moved on to A&O Shearman partner and head of AI David Wakeling, unpacking the firm’s early bet on Harvey as its first law firm client.
Wakeling says he caught an early demo before ChatGPT even launched and knew straight away Harvey was onto something. He pitched it to the firm’s then senior partner, who tested it out and told him: “We need to buy them.” Wakeling’s reply: “We can’t buy them, but we can work with them.”
He thinks the tech has made lawyering much more fun. “I remember piles of boxes and paper, hammering through them, hours ticking away. The systems can cut through that and you get on to the important stuff,” he said.
Wakeling doesn’t hold back on where he thinks the profession is headed either.
I just do not see a future where a lawyer is carrying on in the old way, it’s a more fun job, and you can focus on strategy and you can focus on clients.
Not everyone’s sold on the format. Comments on the LinkedIn post argued the series would’ve landed better with Macht playing Harvey Specter, grilling the founders on the tool itself, rather than stepping in as a journalist interviewing them.
Harvey first signed Macht as brand ambassador back in February, and has since piled on more high-profile tie-ups, including a sports partnership with Paris Saint-Germain. Legora answered in April, signing Jude Law for its own glossy campaign.
Source: Harvey