On 22 June 2026, MinterEllison appointed Pooyan Asgari as its first Chief AI Officer, bringing in a senior data and AI leader from the Domain Group. The role is new in Australian law, the brief is broad, and the timing is deliberate. Source.
The appointment is interesting in itself. It is more interesting as a signal. The firms moving fastest on AI are placing leadership at C-suite level rather than treating it as a tools-and-training project. This piece looks at what that shift may mean for lawyers at every stage of their career, and for the firm leaders deciding whether to follow suit.
Key Summary
- New role, new model: MinterEllison has created Australian law’s first Chief AI Officer, filled by Pooyan Asgari (previously Chief Data Officer at Domain Group). (Lawyers Weekly)
- A leadership stack, not a single hire: Asgari will work with Managing Partner AI Simon Ball and Chief Digital Officer Gary Adler, alongside the firm’s existing proprietary tools and Legora. (Lawyers Weekly)
- Australia has room to grow on adoption: 37% of Australian legal professionals report regular use of integrated AI tools, compared with 57% globally. (Lawyers Weekly / LexisNexis)
- The role of the lawyer is evolving, not disappearing: AI may take on more routine work, and the work that is most valued is shifting toward judgement, supervision, drafting and client strategy.
- Governance is part of the story: regulators and law societies are examining how AI is being used in practice, which is why “responsible integration” is in the Chief AI Officer’s brief. (VLSB+C)
- For candidates and firms: new senior career paths exist, and AI leadership is becoming a real factor in how firms position themselves.
What MinterEllison Did, and What It Actually Means
On 22 June 2026, MinterEllison announced Pooyan Asgari as its inaugural Chief AI Officer. Asgari joins from the Domain Group, where as Chief Data Officer he led an enterprise-wide AI strategy and built a proprietary predictive AI engine. CEO Virginia Briggs described the appointment as accelerating the firm’s “leading-edge AI strategy” and embedding AI more deeply into how the firm delivers value to clients. Source.
The role does not stand alone. Asgari will work closely with the firm’s Managing Partner, AI, Simon Ball, and Chief Digital Officer, Gary Adler. MinterEllison already runs proprietary tools including Cortex (an AI-driven legal data engine), Stockatoo, CASEowary and HelpME, and last October added Legora to its toolkit. The firm has also launched an AI Accelerator program to embed AI-enabled workflows across its teams. Source.
Read together, this is not a tools announcement. It is a leadership architecture announcement. MinterEllison is signalling that, for it at least, AI is now a strategic function with its own seat at the table, owned by someone whose remit is strategy and integration rather than software procurement.
The shift in one line: the question for firms is no longer “which AI tools do we use?” but “who leads our AI strategy, and where do they sit in the firm?”.
Why C-Suite AI Leadership Is Showing Up in Australian Law Now
1) Australian firms have room to close a global gap
Recent industry analysis suggests Australian law firms have generally trailed global peers on AI adoption. Lawyers Weekly reporting on a 2026 LexisNexis sentiment survey notes 37% of Australian legal professionals use integrated AI solutions regularly, compared with 57% globally, with daily use of legal-specific AI sitting at 16% locally versus 49% globally. Source. and Source. That is a competitive opening for any firm that can move from ad hoc tool usage to coordinated, strategic deployment.
2) Productivity gains can only be banked if someone owns them
The Law Society of NSW’s Law Society Journal has reported on how AI is starting to reshape productivity inside Australian firms, with leading practices embedding the latest tools across workflows. The dividend can be real, but it is rarely realised by a single team or a single tool. It tends to require a coordinated rollout, clear standards, and ongoing measurement. That is exactly the kind of remit a Chief AI Officer can hold. Source.
3) Governance expectations are rising
Regulators and law societies are taking a closer look at how AI is being used in legal work. New research commissioned by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner is examining AI use in the Victorian profession, with a focus on confidentiality, supervision and quality. Source. As governance expectations sharpen, having a named leader accountable for responsible integration becomes more than a presentational choice; it becomes part of how a firm demonstrates that it is doing AI carefully.
Industry analysts also point out that the firms turning AI investment into measurable value tend to be the ones that align strategy, training, change management and tooling under unified leadership, rather than running parallel pilots. Source.
What It Means for Legal Careers
The role of the lawyer is evolving alongside the tools. The most useful way to read it is that AI is changing the shape of the work, not the importance of the lawyer. Different stages of career will feel that shift differently.
Early-career lawyers
Tool fluency is becoming table stakes. The differentiating skills are judgement, supervision, verification of AI output, and the ability to communicate clearly with clients and supervising partners. Junior lawyers who learn to use AI well, while also building the legal reasoning that lets them check it, are positioning themselves for the work that firms most want to keep in-house. For more on how firms are training first-year cohorts, our piece on AI training for 1st-year lawyers covers the territory in detail, alongside the trends for 2026 early-career lawyers.
Mid-career lawyers
Mid-career is where the value shift is most interesting. As AI handles more routine work, the lawyers who design how AI is used, who set quality standards, who train and supervise juniors, and who own client relationships, become disproportionately valuable. The pivot is from “doing the work” to “shaping how the work is done”, and it sits squarely in the mid-level remit. Firms tend to reward this transition, because it cannot be automated.
Senior lawyers and partners
New partnership-track and C-suite roles are appearing. MinterEllison’s Managing Partner, AI position is one example; the Chief AI Officer role is another. For senior lawyers with an interest in firm strategy, technology adoption or change management, this is a fresh path that did not exist 24 months ago. Even for senior lawyers staying on the legal track, AI literacy is becoming part of the partnership conversation, particularly on quality, risk and client value.
Non-lawyers in legal
A meaningful new career path is opening inside law firms for data, AI engineering, product, governance and change-management specialists. Asgari’s own move from Domain to MinterEllison is a clean example: the talent does not have to come from inside legal. For people in adjacent industries, law firms are now a viable destination.
The career headline: lawyers are not being replaced; the work is being repackaged. The candidates who do best are the ones who lean into the parts of practice that AI cannot do alone, including judgement, supervision, client trust and ethical reasoning.
What It Means for Firms (and the Leaders Designing Them)
Not every firm needs a Chief AI Officer. The MinterEllison appointment may still be worth studying for the questions it forces a firm to answer.
Three questions worth asking
- Who is accountable for our AI strategy today? If the honest answer is “nobody” or “everybody”, that is the gap the new roles are designed to close.
- Are we extracting value from the tools we already pay for? Industry analysis suggests value tends to come from coordinated deployment, not from buying more software. Our 2025 ranking of Australia’s legal tech platforms is a useful starting map.
- How are we training our people, supervising their AI use, and tracking quality? Governance is part of the leadership remit, not a separate compliance task.
When formal AI leadership may be premature
- Scale: smaller firms can often achieve much of the same effect by giving a senior partner explicit AI oversight, rather than creating a new C-suite role.
- Maturity: a Chief AI Officer with no mandate, budget or executive backing can become a vanity role. The MinterEllison example is notable because it sits alongside existing AI investment, not in place of it.
- Strategy: if a firm has not yet decided how AI fits into its client value proposition, a leadership hire may be early. Strategy first, structure second.
When it may be the right move
- The firm already runs multiple AI tools and pilots, and wants to coordinate them.
- Clients are starting to ask about AI use, quality controls or pricing implications.
- The firm has a workforce strategy that depends on AI augmentation working well at every level.
- Governance, supervision and quality control need a single accountable owner.
Conclusion
MinterEllison’s Chief AI Officer appointment is a single move by a single firm, but it lands in a moment when the Australian profession is collectively deciding what AI leadership looks like. The signal is that AI is now strategic, governed and partnership-relevant, not just operational.
For lawyers at every stage, the opportunity is to lean into the parts of practice that AI cannot do alone and to build fluency with the tools that can take routine work off their desks. For firms, the question is less about whether to invest in AI and more about how to lead it. The firms that get that leadership question right are the ones most likely to grow into the next decade of practice, with their people growing alongside them.
Disclaimer: This blog is a general overview and should not be construed as professional legal, financial or medical advice.
FAQs
- What does a Chief AI Officer in a law firm actually do?
In broad terms, the role leads the firm’s AI strategy, coordinates how AI tools are deployed across practice groups, and is accountable for responsible integration. At MinterEllison, the role works alongside a Managing Partner, AI and a Chief Digital Officer, with a remit that includes strategy, value delivery to clients, and embedding AI into firm workflows.
- Why did MinterEllison create this role now?
The firm has been investing in AI for some time, including proprietary tools such as Cortex, Stockatoo, CASEowary and HelpME, an AI Accelerator program, and the adoption of Legora in late 2025. The Chief AI Officer role brings strategic ownership of those investments into one accountable senior position.
- Will AI reduce the importance of lawyers?
It is more accurate to say AI is changing the shape of legal work. Routine tasks can be performed faster with AI assistance, while the value of judgement, supervision, client strategy and ethical reasoning is increasing. Lawyers who develop strong AI fluency alongside their legal reasoning are well placed for the work that firms most want to keep in-house.
- How exposed are mid-career lawyers to these changes?
Mid-career lawyers may sit closest to the most interesting opportunity. As AI takes on more routine work, the value of those who design how AI is used, set quality standards, train and supervise juniors, and own client relationships, tends to rise. The pivot is from doing the work to shaping how the work is done.
- Do smaller and mid-sized Australian firms need a Chief AI Officer too?
Not necessarily. Smaller firms can often achieve a similar effect by giving a senior partner explicit AI oversight, with a clear mandate and budget. The principle that matters is single-owner accountability, not the specific title.
- What should candidates do to position themselves well as AI reshapes legal work?
Build tool fluency, deepen the legal reasoning skills that let you supervise AI output, and look for chances to be involved in your firm’s AI rollout or governance work. For non-lawyers in adjacent fields such as data, AI engineering or change management, law firms are now a credible destination for senior career moves.
Information Sources
- Lawyers Weekly: MinterEllison creates chief AI officer role (22 June 2026)
- Lawyers Weekly: Where legal AI is headed in 2026
- Lawyers Weekly: Australian law firms lag global counterparts in AI uptake
- LexisNexis 2026 Australia AI Sentiment Survey: Legal AI and the Future of the Legal Profession (PDF)
- Law Society Journal (NSW): AI reshaping productivity inside Australian law firms
- Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner: New research examines AI use in the Victorian legal profession
- Artificial Lawyer: How to Unlock the Real Value of Legal AI (April 2026)
- Legal IT Insider: Charting Change in Legal: AI-first law firms, big tech, and the future of legal work (May 2026)
