For Sandersons Solicitors, the law is rarely abstract. As a community-based firm serving individuals, families and businesses across East Yorkshire, much of its work sits at the most challenging and difficult moments in clients’ lives, from relationship breakdowns, loss of mental capacity, preparing for death, and navigating what comes after.
“It’s not necessarily the nicest reasons people come to us. It’s at difficult times in their life,” explains trainee solicitor Tom Watson.
In those moments, technical accuracy alone isn’t enough. For clients, this means understanding not just what the law says, but what it means for them. For the firm, it means equipping lawyers including trainees with the confidence to explain complex issues clearly and accurately, even under emotional pressure.
That places a premium on trusted legal sources and tools that support sound judgement, which is why Sandersons chose Lexis+ AI as a core part of how its lawyers research, learn and advise.
Learning while advising
As a trainee solicitor in the private client team, Tom works at the intersection of learning and delivery. He is expected to handle complex, often non-standard legal questions while continuing to build his own legal knowledge.
Lexis+ AI has become embedded in that process.
Rather than searching across multiple textbooks or databases, Tom can ask a question in natural language and receive a structured response, grounded in authoritative sources.
“You can literally type a question into Lexis+ AI and it will give you an answer and refer you to the case law, statute or whatever act applies to it.”
Crucially, this doesn’t replace learning. It accelerates it.
“It doesn’t just give you the law. It summarises it so you get more of an understanding, so you can actually talk about it with a level of understanding.”
Accuracy as a professional obligation
For Sandersons, the value of Lexis+ AI lies not just in speed, but in certainty.
“We have to give accurate advice to the clients, that’s part of our SRA requirements,” Tom says.
“I know that Lexis+ AI only goes through legal text, so whatever findings it comes up with, they’re accurate.”
That assurance is particularly important when advising vulnerable clients in vulnerable situations, and it’s also what differentiates Lexis+ AI from generic AI tools, which raise concerns around accuracy and professional risk.
With Lexis+ AI, Tom knows he can trust the foundation of the answer and then apply his judgement on top.
Supporting real-world legal workflows
Beyond research, Lexis+ AI fits naturally into day-to-day workflows.
When clients provide lengthy or complex documents, Tom uses the upload and summarisation features to get an immediate overview before reviewing in detail.
“If you’ve got a particular long document that a client sends to you and you’ve got to review it in a short space of time, you can upload it to the AI and it’ll summarise it. That gives you a brief overview of the document before you go into it in more detail.”
Lexis+ AI also supports drafting, which is particularly useful for less routine work.
“I’ve drafted a couple of will clauses” Tom explained, “and it produces it there for me so that I can then use that as a guide.”
Importantly, the lawyer remains firmly in control.
“It produces this draft that you can start to look at and I can amend parts of it and shape it to fit the specific scenario.”
Better learning, without cutting corners
Lexis+ AI has changed how trainees develop at Sandersons.
Rather than escalating every uncertainty immediately, trainees can research independently, test their understanding, and approach senior colleagues with more considered views.
“It allows us go to a partner and say, I’ve got this issue and this is how I think we can solve it, is this right?” Tom described, “It gives us the ability to figure it out for ourselves in a sensible, appropriate way.”
The result is better-quality work, faster turnaround times, and more confident trainees, without cutting corners on accuracy.
“It means I can deliver a better level of service to clients and in terms of development, it’s helping me progress as an individual beyond what I believe it would have been.”
Supporting clients and the next generation of lawyers
Perhaps the clearest indication of Lexis+ AI’s impact is how integral it has become.
“I use it every day and that’s not an exaggeration,” Tom outlined. “If you took it away tomorrow, I’d be very upset. I’d probably beg my managing director to have it back.”
At Sandersons, Lexis+ AI is not about replacing legal judgement. It provides a trusted foundation that allows lawyers to focus on what matters most: applying the law with care, clarity and confidence.
As Tom puts it, “It’s not there to replace us in our job. It’s this safety, this backup, this almost encyclopaedic knowledge at our fingertips.”
Ultimately, it helps trainees build understanding faster.
It gives solicitors assurance when advising under pressure.
And it supports clients at some of the most challenging moments in their lives.
In a profession built on trust, that support is invaluable.
“On the whole, I find it an incredibly useful tool. I do wonder how I survived without it.”
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