What is the Due diligence desk?
The AI-powered Diligence Desk is a dedicated team of business assistants embedded more closely within the M&A practice. Using advanced AI workflows, the team serves as the central hub for drafting and formatting due diligence documents. This includes both commonly used annexes and entire chapters of AI-generated first drafts. Once these are prepared and incorporated into the report, associates can focus on verifying accuracy and adding transaction-specific insight and value for the client. They retain full responsibility for the product and are no longer sidetracked by the administrative burden that is usually associated with a due diligence.
Why is the Diligence Desk valuable?
The Diligence Desk has delivered clear benefits across several dimensions. By shifting operational tasks to the Diligence Desk, M&A lawyers have more time to focus on deeper legal analysis during due diligence. This leads to better advice, sharper risk assessments, and greater added value for clients.
For clients, the model improves turnaround times. It also enhances consistency, structure, and presentation of due diligence deliverables through a more standardized process.
Why is this innovative and original?
The innovation lies not only in the use of AI, but in the way work has been redesigned around it. The Diligence Desk fundamentally rethinks how work is divided in M&A due diligence. Rather than merely adding AI to existing workflows, we deliberately retrained business assistants. They now fulfil a new role within the due diligence process. These professionals now support the M&A team by operating advanced agentic workflows. They prepare standardised diligence drafts and manage outputs efficiently and at scale. AI is also used to streamline other time-consuming tasks previously handled manually by associates, such as data room allocation and managing new documents uploaded to the data room.
The originality of the model lies in three elements:
- It institutionalises a new support function within the law firm. Business assistants specifically (re-)trained to work with AI-enabled processes.
- It creates a clear separation between operational execution and legal judgment, allowing lawyers to focus on analysis, risk assessment, and client advice.
- The Diligence Desk is embedded directly within the daily practice of the M&A team, enabling close collaboration, consistency, and faster turnaround.
About the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards
The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards are among the legal sector’s most prestigious innovation awards. Each year, the programme recognises law firms, legal teams and individuals who are developing new approaches to legal services, technology, strategy and client delivery. The awards highlight initiatives that help shape the future of the legal profession.
