On 6 May 2025, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced that it had authorised Garfield.Law Ltd to provide regulated legal services in England and Wales—the first law firm in the jurisdiction to operate entirely through an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform. The authorisation marks a significant regulatory milestone, signalling the arrival of fully AI-powered legal service providers within the framework of professional legal oversight.
In response to this development, Dr Corsino San Miguel of the Law Society of Scotland published an article on 21 May 2025 examining the broader implications of Garfield’s approval for the legal profession. Writing in the Law Society of Scotland Journal, Dr San Miguel described Garfield.Law as a “redefinition of what it means to be a law firm in the age of AI,” highlighting its system architecture, which automates small debt claims under £10,000 while maintaining human oversight and regulatory compliance.
Garfield’s AI platform is designed to handle high-volume, low-value claims—traditionally unprofitable for law firms—by executing pre-action letters, filing claims, managing responses, preparing trial bundles, and assisting with settlements. Each action requires client approval, and the platform avoids typical AI pitfalls such as hallucinated case law by embedding domain-specific rules and relying on experienced legal supervision.
Dr San Miguel characterises Garfield as a case study in responsible innovation—designed to expand access to justice while preserving accountability. He notes that Scotland, and other jurisdictions yet to approve similar models, should view Garfield not only as a technological advancement but as a challenge to rethink legal service delivery models in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.