AT&T General Counsel David McAtee: Using AI to Reduce Lawyers' Time Finding Materials, Decision-Making Authority Remains Unchanged
AT&T's legal department is collaborating with OpenAI to build a knowledge layer and a natural language case classification system. General Counsel David McAtee and Chief Compliance Officer Bill Ryan described the specific architecture: AI handles classification, prioritization, and linking of historical precedents, while final judgment authority remains explicitly with lawyers. The system is currently in the planning phase.
AT&T’s in-house legal team consists of hundreds of lawyers and legal professionals distributed globally. Before they can provide advice to the business, they need to assemble facts, documents, and relevant past work products, often drawing on expertise from different teams across the organization.
David McAtee, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, believes that making this experience more accessible is central to improving the department’s work. He stated that the collaboration with OpenAI aims to build the infrastructure supporting the company-wide knowledge layer, enabling all legal professionals to access the information they need. This partnership builds upon the LegalEdge team, which comprises attorneys, legal professionals, technologists, and project managers focused on applying AI to major legal matters.
Bill Ryan, AT&T’s Chief Compliance Officer, described a planned intake system that uses a natural language interface to classify and prioritize requests, linking them to relevant precedents, research, and past work products to provide the responsible lawyer with historical context and preliminary recommendations. McAtee emphasized the guiding principle: decision-making authority always remains with the lawyers.