With over a decade of leadership experience across Europe and APJ, Heather has worked closely with law firms, investment banks and corporate strategy teams, helping them to embrace innovation through technology. 

Today, she leads a Sydney-based team helping lawyers unlock the full potential of AI with Legora.

The due diligence dilemma 

M&A deals are inherently high-stakes, high-risk, and high-pressure. Lawyers sit at the heart of the process – guiding clients through every stage from planning through due diligence, drafting and negotiation, to closing.

In recent years, as deals have grown more complex and regulation has increased, M&A lawyers have shouldered ever-heavier workloads.

According to Heather, they face a Herculean – and often impossible – task. 

“The job of lawyers is to identify and advise on risks. But they face compressed timelines, vast document volumes, and constant client pressure to close deals fast.”

“Whether you’re on the sell side preparing documents or on the buy side reviewing them, the reality is there’s too much to get through in the time available.”

M&A lawyers are walking a tightrope. They’re balancing what they can realistically review against pressure to move quickly and minimise risk.

This can mean tough choices during the diligence phase. Lawyers may decide to focus on the top 20% of contracts by value – or add a small random sample – hoping to surface anything that might raise concern.

“You’re constantly balancing giving strategic advice that captures all the risks with delivering a great commercial outcome for your client – all while the clock is ticking.”

“When you factor in sell-side strategies that intentionally ramp up urgency, the risk of missing something critical becomes even greater.”

From pain to gain: How AI transforms due diligence

Capable of handling both volume and velocity, AI changes the game. 

“Platforms like Legora eliminate the traditional due diligence trade-off between efficiency and accuracy. This allows lawyers to mitigate risk, reduce pressure, and deliver better outcomes - all without compromising quality.” 

Let’s walk through a few real-world examples to bring this to life.

1. Data room review

Heather has seen teams of trainees and junior associates burning the midnight oil in data rooms, poring over endless documents.

Onerous, repetitive, error-prone work – day after day, night after night.  

Legora changes this. By enabling tabular review at scale for key contract terms, it can quickly and accurately extract specific provisions from thousands of documents.

And it doesn’t stop there. The platform also enhances risk identification by flagging and categorising key risks. From here, trainees and junior associates are able to conduct the due diligence process and reporting in a fraction of the time it previously took, and Legora’s platform also allows the answer to be clearly traced back to the underlying documents and clauses which informed it. This hugely accelerates the review and checking process, especially when compared to recording outputs manually in, for example, MS Excel.

“Nobody goes to law school to read thousands of contracts and extract change-of-control clauses. Now, AI can do that instantly, while also telling you where to focus your attention.”

This is crucial, argues Heather, because more efficient allocation of resources frees up partner time to provide insightful, strategic advice for clients.

2. Making IRLs effortless

Information Request Lists (IRLs) have become a massive undertaking, typically containing 200–500 document requests spanning dozens of categories.

“Let’s be honest. Mapping and validating content manually is slow, repetitive and soul-sapping work,” says Heather. 

“That’s where Legora comes to the rescue. Because it understands concepts, not just keywords, it automatically maps documents to IRL categories, which allows lawyers to understand if there are any missing gaps in relation to information that has been or has not been provided on the Target. It frees lawyers from a time-consuming but lower-value part of due diligence and ensures nothing critical is missed.”

3. Drafting agreements without the grind

Hunting down old precedents or trawling inboxes for past clauses – all ‘dead time’ which it’s difficult to justify billing for.

Legora eliminates this by quickly surfacing past clauses lawyers have used in similar agreements.

But the real lightbulb moment comes when lawyers see Legora take a SPA mark-up, easily use it to produce an issues list for the client, and then draft more favourable positions in a matter of seconds. 

Heather describes this moment:

“There’s often a stunned silence in the room when Legora instantaneously performs complex tasks like suggesting nuanced edits to long and complex documents. To see it working in Word – the environment lawyers know best – only adds to the impact. That’s when they realise it’s truly a game changer.”

Enhancing the end-to-end process with Workflows

AI today is no longer just improving individual tasks – it’s reshaping entire M&A workflows. 

“We’ve arrived at the next big leap forward – Legora Workflows,” explains Heather. “This removes many of the traditional pain points of due diligence by orchestrating complex, multi-step processes from start to finish.” 

Workflows is an amalgamation of individual components of Legora, allowing you to combine multiple different actions into a chain, thereby automating a specific process in a transaction. 

These are carried out by a user designing a series of steps or prompts that will be executed one after another.

One example in a M&A due diligence context would be:

• Step 1: Create a tabular review of a large number of commercial contracts, extracting individual clauses such as parties, assignment or change of control clauses from each contract.

• Step 2: Run a subsequent prompt to identify any change of control clauses that present an early termination risk from the output of Step 1. 

• Step 3: Conclude with a prompt to draft a due diligence report based on findings in Step 2.

It gives lawyers full control over how they manage their M&A processes, down to prompt chaining, and receiving a formatted output.

And what used to require multiple teams, tools, and handoffs now happens inside one system.

Crucially – as Heather emphasises – every step has human oversight built in. The reviewer stays in control, validating progress and adjusting as needed.

The future of AI in dealmaking

Looking ahead, Heather believes AI will have a profound impact – not just on the M&A process itself, but on the entire ecosystem surrounding it.

“Dealmaking will be far more data-driven, as lawyers gain the ability to extract more insights from vast volumes of documents. 

“Deals will also move faster – firms using AI will act sooner and be in a position to close more quickly, creating new market dynamics and competitive pressures.”

Still, Heather is quick to emphasise that humans will remain at the heart of the deal. 

While AI can automate tasks and handle vast amounts of data, there is no substitute for years of experience and expertise. 

“AI cannot replicate the judgement and decision‑making that lawyers bring to the M&A process. For example, it can’t know exactly when to release information to create competitive tension or accelerate the process. 

“AI exists to augment, not replace lawyers. It frees them to focus on strategy, negotiation, and delivering the best commercial outcomes.”

Strengthening relationships, creating long-term strategic advantage

Clients increasingly demand efficiency, and for law firms, adopting AI is no longer optional – it’s table stakes

But the real opportunity lies beyond efficiency. Firms that embed AI at the core of their M&A processes can deliver sharper advice, deepen long-term client relationships, and position themselves for future high-value opportunities.

The window to act, however, is quickly closing. Heather concludes:

“The capability of the technology is evolving at lightning pace. What you see today is a notable shift from just 6 months ago, and this trajectory is not slowing down. 

Firms need to enable their teams to embrace this technology. The ones that will differentiate themselves are viewing legal practice with a technology-first mindset. Legora can help them on that journey, with tools to go further, faster.”