The Legal Transformation Network (LTN) hosted a breakfast seminar today in collaboration with DLA Piper Sweden titled “Is Your Knowledge Safe in the Age of AI?”, featuring Maged Helmy, CEO of Newcode.ai. The session explored how law firms can protect their knowledge, intellectual property and competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Maged began by explaining how large language models (LLMs) actually function, and why their impressive abilities should not be mistaken for genuine reasoning. An LLM, he noted, does not think; it recognises patterns in its training data. Its “knowledge” is a direct reflection of the data it has been exposed to, and it cannot reason beyond that dataset. The focus, he argued, must therefore shift from the model itself to the data that powers it. High-quality, well-governed data will determine the effectiveness and reliability of any AI application in the legal domain.
The discussion then turned to how organisations can protect sensitive information and intellectual property in this new context. Maged stressed the importance of understanding the differences between file storage, databases, compute environments, vector databases and the LLM layer , each carrying distinct security implications. He highlighted strategies such as isolating databases and encrypting them with customer-owned keys (“Bring Your Own Key”, or BYOK) as ways to strengthen data control and compliance. Ultimately, securing the full “knowledge stack” is essential to minimise exposure and maintain client trust.
Maged also addressed several risks and technical challenges inherent in AI systems. He pointed out that LLMs are non-deterministic, meaning the same input can produce different outputs, which complicates testing, auditing and legal defensibility. Moreover, AI lowers the barrier for information retrieval, potentially increasing the risk of sensitive data exposure if safeguards are weak. Even built-in guardrails can be bypassed through reframed prompts, underlining the need for robust risk management.
Despite these challenges, Maged was clear that AI offers enormous opportunities for the legal sector. Firms that combine strong governance with innovation can leverage AI to improve search and knowledge management, enhance client interactions through automation, and make better, data-driven decisions. Competitive advantage, he concluded, will come not from buying tools, but from building adaptable infrastructures that integrate AI responsibly , balancing innovation with protection.
In the age of AI, safeguarding knowledge is not only a technical challenge but a key strategic priority.
Helena Hallgarn, VQ, Heikki Ilvessalo, Ilves, Hanna Canning, DLA Piper, Maged Helmy, Newcode.ai, Magnus Oskarsson, DLA Piper