AT&T taps OpenAI to power its in-house legal team

What AT&T is actually building

LegalEdge launched with approximately 38 legal professionals. Before that, AT&T tested the idea with a smaller pilot team of 24-30 people. The group works as an internal practice group. It collaborates with outside counsel rather than replacing them outright, while deploying AI tools across its work.

The OpenAI partnership targets a specific problem: institutional memory

AT&T has more than a century of legal knowledge, and the plan is to make that history easier to search and use. The company says the integration should streamline routine legal work.

The law firm roster is about to get smaller

The most consequential detail concerns AT&T's outside counsel. General Counsel David McAtee said the company aims to cut its roster of national law firms from around 30 to 18-20 over the next two years.

Why corporate legal departments are watching

AT&T built the team first, piloting with 24-30 people and expanding to around 38. Only then did it layer in AI from a major developer. The company has already redirected thousands of hours of work in-house this year, before the OpenAI integration fully kicks in.

What this means for the legal industry

For outside law firms, AI adoption is becoming a factor in who gets work from AT&T. The company has said it will reward AI adopters while trimming its roster.

For OpenAI, the deal is a showcase in a high-stakes professional field. Legal work demands accuracy, confidentiality, and careful handling of sensitive information.