From Insight to Action: Jennifer Berrent Explains How Covenant is Using AI to Transform Legal Services
- Cosmonauts Team
- Nov 13
- 4 min read
AI is no longer just a tool for efficiency, it’s the driving force reshaping how legal expertise is delivered, particularly in the fast-moving world of private markets. Covenant recognized this shift early, building its model on the belief that technology can elevate legal services from reactive support to proactive intelligence.
In this conversation, Jennifer Berrent, Founding Partner of Covenant, shares how the firm is harnessing AI to enhance transparency, empower investors, and transform static legal data into dynamic insight.
From redefining client expectations to preparing for the future of dealmaking, Jen discusses what is shaping the next era of legal innovation. She’ll also join the ‘AI and M&A: The Tech-Driven Transformation of Transactions’ panel on Private Practice Day (Nov.19th), where she and fellow panellist will explore how AI is reshaping dealmaking and redefining strategic advantage in M&A.
What excites you most about the current innovation landscape with the way technology is advancing lately?
JB: What’s exciting right now is how technology, particularly AI, is transforming the legal industry, much like software reshaped other industries. Advances in AI models now allow for a combination of superior client experience and powerful delivery infrastructure that was previously not possible. For Covenant, we engage directly with clients as a law firm by integrating deep legal expertise with AI technology.
How is your firm approaching the integration of AI into legal workflows, and what practical use cases have proven the most valuable so far?
JB: At Covenant, we’re reimagining legal services in the private markets by building an AI-powered law firm from the ground up. AI is embedded across the client experience and operational infrastructure, creating a platform designed for private market investors who want to move faster and with greater insight. Our platform also builds a personalized database that captures verified data from legal documents. That means questions about your portfolio can be answered instantly, turning static legal documents into dynamic, searchable intelligence.
A few of our use cases demonstrate this transformation in action. For example, when an investment team wants to launch a co-investment program, Covenant’s platform can review hundreds of pages of documents and surface issues that would traditionally take weeks of billable hours to uncover. With our analytics dashboard, clients benchmark carry structures and identify outliers that signal potential overpayment or negotiation leverage.
We’re redefining what legal services can be: fast, data-driven, and built for scale by combining the precision of AI with the judgment of experienced lawyers.
How are client expectations changing around transparency, efficiency, and technology adoption, and how is your team responding?
JB: Client expectations have evolved rapidly where transparency, efficiency, and responsible technology adoption are now baseline requirements rather than differentiators. Just as cloud storage or paying online with a credit card faced skepticism, there are concerns about information security. At Covenant, we’ve addressed those concerns head-on with a market-leading approach to data protection. We maintain zero data retention agreements with the AI models we use, ensuring no client information is ever stored or reused. All data is anonymized before transmission, with a human-led process verifying that nothing identifiable is shared. Combined with our SOC II compliant infrastructure, this gives clients the confidence that they can benefit from cutting-edge AI without compromising security, confidentiality, or trust.
Looking ahead to the next 2-3 years, what do you see as the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge for legal innovation leaders?
JB: The biggest opportunity in the next few years lies in shifting the focus of legal innovation from internal efficiency to client-facing empowerment. Historically, technology in law has been designed to make firms more efficient but the real transformation will come when clients control how they get deals done and get answers fast. For the first time, legal data can exist in structured, usable form, and clients can leverage it directly to make faster, more informed decisions without relying on outside counsel to extract or interpret it. This change will redefine the relationship between firms and clients creating a new level of transparency, accessibility, and self-service insight that was previously unimaginable in the legal industry.
At Covenant, we see this as an inflection point: the ability for clients to own and operationalize their legal intelligence is a generational shift, similar to what spreadsheets did for finance or CRM systems did for sales. The opportunity is not just about automation, it’s about enabling decision-making at the speed of business, powered by trusted data and intelligent systems that continuously learn and adapt.
Covenant’s strategy confirms a crucial truth, AI isn't about replacing legal professionals; it’s about magnifying their expertise to create unprecedented value. Jennifer Berrent and her team are leading the charge, converting complex legal data into actionable intelligence that delivers clarity, speed, and a decisive strategic advantage.
Don't miss the next stage of this discussion. Join Jennifer and fellow legal innovation leaders on November 19th at Legal Innovators New York – Private Practice Day. Hosted at Latham & Watkins’ New York office, this is an opportunity for private practice and in-house professionals to network with 500+ industry leaders and secure the fresh, actionable strategies needed for 2026.
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