The Old Rule

For "serious" diligence, the conventional wisdom was: hire a marquee firm, accept the slow turnaround and the six-to-seven figure invoice, and assume that's the price of quality. The unspoken truth? DHL wasn't just paying for diligence—they were funding legacy law's education about their business, knowledge the firm would leverage for the next client. Meanwhile, in-house legal remained sidelined as a cost center while legacy law rates climbed double-digits annually. 

The market's conclusion: complex diligence demands big-firm muscle, and if you trust AI, you’ll sacrifice quality.

The Ah-ha Moment

DHL ran a live M&A diligence on Eudia’s AI-Augmented M&A. In hours—not weeks—the product generated clause extractions, redline-ready issue flags, and executive-level summaries across 20+ contracts, with fully auditable outputs. An independent firm reviewed the package and found no accuracy gaps; the materials passed CFO/CEO review. What felt risky proved faster, clearer, and easier to govern—evidence that a lean in-house team could lead diligence without trading off quality.

“My perception was outside counsel does all the work and house counsel manages the work…" - Mark A. Smolik, Chief Legal Officer

The New Belief

Success is no longer measured in review hours; it’s measured in decision quality at deal speed. With AI-Augmented M&A, Legal operates as an always-on insight engine inside the business’s cadence—pushing structured terms and crisp issue lists, not page-count memos. Capacity is unlocked without headcount, and budget once earmarked for hourly review is redirected into repeatable capability DHL controls. That credibility compounds: when Legal shows up with trusted analysis on the executive timeline, the conversation moves to strategy and negotiation, not process.

The Future

With the model proven, DHL is extending the platform across its transactional portfolio—without growing headcount—and standardizing knowledge capture (positions, playbooks, precedent) so each deal improves the next. Externally, DHL is exploring a scaled delivery model with Eudia Counsel and Bradley, where fixed-fee, AI-augmented teams outperform billable-hour models on speed, quality, and predictability. The destination: precise budgeting, faster cycles, and a cleaner line from legal effort to business value.