Recap: Liquid Legal Summit 2025 – "The Year of AI Agents"
- thisislegaldesign
- 22. Sept.
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
How can true transformation in law succeed? This guiding question ran like a red thread through the Liquid Legal Summit 2025, held in early July in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Under the theme “Stronger Together Through Transformation – The Year of AI Agents,” the summit brought together innovation leaders, thought leaders, and practitioners from legal departments, law firms, technology, academia, and the public sector.
This is Legal Design was prominently represented by Lina Keßler, co-founder and managing director of TiLD, and a member of the Management Board of the Liquid Legal Institute (LLI) – with two keynotes and new impulses for a more future-ready legal sector.
Launch Of the Legal Foresight Office
A central highlight of the summit was the introduction of the LLI Legal Foresight Office – a new strategic initiative for structured, long-term thinking in the legal field.
In a joint keynote with Kai Jacob and Dr. Felix von Held, Lina Keßler presented the vision behind this new endeavor:
Identifying technological, societal, and regulatory developments at an early stage
Systematically analyzing relevant trends
Translating foresight into actionable future scenarios for legal practice
The goal: to provide greater orientation and decision-making clarity in a rapidly evolving
environment – from the rise of AI in legal departments to new governance models for digital organizations.
The Legal Foresight Office will now be expanded as a cross-sectoral initiative – bringing together experts from law, tech, design, and business.
Keynote: 5 Myths of Legal Innovation(& AI)
In a second keynote, Lina Keßler and Astrid Kohlmeier explored five recurring assumptions that often shape legal innovation – but are rarely questioned.
Their talk, titled “5 Myths of Legal Innovation,” invited the audience to challenge familiar narratives and offered new perspectives on how innovation in law can be more effective, collaborative, and human-centered.
The five myths at a glance:
“Technology = Innovation”→ AI and Legal Tech only create impact when applied to clearly defined challenges. Tools alone don’t drive transformation.
“Innovation must be radically new”→ Incremental improvements – in collaboration, communication, or structure – are just as valuable as disruptive change.
“Lawyers aren’t creative”→ Legal Design shows: creativity is a capability – and yes, even legal professionals can learn and apply it.
“Mindset comes later”→ Without cultural readiness and leadership with vision, even the best tech remains ineffective.
“Innovation is for specialists only”→ True transformation requires collaboration across roles, disciplines, and hierarchies.
These impulses resonated widely – precisely because they were concrete, practical, and grounded in human experience.
WHY TILD WAS PART OF IT
At This is Legal Design, we see the Liquid Legal Summit as a valuable platform for real reflection, co-creation, and progress.
In our daily work with law firms, in-house teams, and public institutions, we see one thing clearly: Legal Innovation only works when technology, structure, and mindset align.
That’s why we actively contribute to the work of the Liquid Legal Institute – helping to:
shape new narratives for change
build spaces for strategic foresight
and co-develop methods that make innovation in law tangible, effective, and human-centered
WHAT LIES AHEAD
The conversations in Düsseldorf made one thing clear: The future of law is not predetermined and it is up to us to consciously design it – together.
With bold questions, interdisciplinary exchange, and the courage to rethink entrenched patterns, transformation becomes more than a buzzword.
We look forward to the next chapters and to connecting with everyone who wants to not just implement innovation, but make it better.