Track I
Firm Certification
Your firm, your Standard. The seven dimensions adapted to law firm practice, regulatory exposure, and the institutional duty to protect privileged information.
Apply for Firm Certification§ IV — Industry · Legal Two pathways Version 1.0
The Legal Industry Framework
The legal industry was the first sector for which Raydorf calibrated its Standard. We now run that Standard on two tracks. The first certifies law firms at the institutional level. The second, the Raydorf Certified Counsel attestation, certifies the individual lawyer — a personal credential, portable across roles, for in-house counsel building careers in an AI-native era.
§ I Two tracks
One Standard, two credentials
Law firms operate as institutions: governance, talent, infrastructure, client experience. In-house counsel operate as practitioners: a single career, often across several companies. Raydorf evaluates both — but the unit of assessment, and the credential awarded, differ accordingly.
Track II
Raydorf Certified Counsel
A personal credential for in-house counsel. Awarded to the lawyer, not the role — the way a driver's license belongs to the driver. Travels with you when you change companies.
Register interest — Counsel§ II Track I — Firms
What firm certification evaluates
The seven dimensions of the Standard, calibrated for law firm practice.
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Strategy & Leadership
Managing partner or executive committee accountability. AI strategy reviewed at partner level on a defined cadence. A named individual responsible for the firm's AI program.
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Governance, Risk & Compliance
Written AI policy aligned with applicable bar rules and the EU AI Act. Risk classification of AI use cases. Engagement letter language addressing AI involvement. Conflict and confidentiality controls extended to AI tools.
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Data & Knowledge Infrastructure
Matter-level sensitivity labeling. Retention discipline aligned with professional obligations. A queryable institutional knowledge base populated through a defined matter-close process.
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Workflow Redesign & Operations
Identified workflows where AI is the default first pass — typically due diligence, document review, contract analysis, legal research, and legislative monitoring. Documented before-and-after metrics.
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Talent & Operating Model
AI fluency across fee-earners and operational staff. A designated operator role. Hiring criteria that reflect AI-era competencies. Defined training cadence covering both capability and risk.
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Client Experience
Disclosure practice for AI involvement in client matters. Client-facing AI features where appropriate. Demonstrable service improvements attributable to AI maturity.
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Measurement & Accountability
Cycle-time, quality, and utilization metrics. Logged human oversight on AI-assisted work product. An audit trail sufficient to reconstruct AI involvement on any matter at any time.
§ III Track II — Counsel
What the Counsel attestation evaluates
Five capability dimensions, deliberately tighter than the firm Standard because the unit of evaluation is one practitioner, not an institution.
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Regulatory Literacy
Working knowledge of the EU AI Act, applicable bar and professional-conduct rules, and the intersections with privilege, confidentiality, and conflict-of-interest analysis. Able to spot when an AI use engages the high-risk regime.
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Tool Discernment & Vendor Diligence
Informed selection of AI tools across the in-house workload. Reads vendor terms with attention to training-data use, model-update cadence, and data-handling commitments. Comfortable declining a tool that fails diligence, however well-marketed.
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Prompt Discipline & Verified Output
Structured prompting. Reflexive source-checking. Hallucination-awareness as a working habit, not a slogan. Notes that would let an auditor reconstruct what AI did on any piece of work product.
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Workflow Redesign
Identifies which parts of the in-house workload — NDA triage, policy drafting, regulatory monitoring, contract review, M&A diligence — should be AI-default. Rebuilds the workflow rather than bolting AI onto the old one.
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Disclosure, Communication & Practice Measurement
Explains AI involvement to business stakeholders, the executive team, and outside counsel with calibrated confidence. Tracks own cycle time, quality, and where AI helped or hurt — treats personal practice as something to measure.
§ IV EU AI Act
EU AI Act considerations specific to legal practice
Most uses of AI in legal practice fall outside the EU AI Act's high-risk categories. However, certain uses — particularly those involving the assessment of natural persons in immigration, criminal, or employment contexts — may engage the high-risk regime. Both tracks include screening criteria to surface these uses: at the firm level under Track I, and as part of regulatory literacy under Track II. The EU AI Act Readiness Attestation remains a firm-level mark; counsel are tested on their ability to recognise and navigate it.