Newbery Advisory

Most AI advice tells you what tools to buy.
This is about what has to change to make the investment work.

I help HR and people leaders in professional services firms close the gap between AI investment and operating reality — the people, processes, and capability shifts that decide whether any of it pays off.

Book a 45-minute diagnostic
What I do

People, change, and talent — the decisions that matter most right now

I work with HR, talent, and leadership teams in professional services firms on the people and operating side of AI adoption — recruitment, capability, workforce planning, and the day-to-day behaviour changes that decide whether technology investment translates into different work.

Not technology selection. Not implementation. The organisational side that almost always determines whether the rest of it pays off.

Who I work with

Senior HR and talent leaders in law firms and professional services who need their function to be a genuine partner to the business — not a service centre running to stand still. Typically firms of 150–500 people, where partners are sceptical, teams are stretched, and the AI conversation has moved faster than the operating model behind it.

What I advise on

Three areas of advisory

01

People, talent, and workforce planning

AI is changing the shape of every role. Most firms haven't worked out what that means for how they hire, what capability they need, or what their people function should look like.

For HR and talent teams working out what the function needs to become — not just how it runs today. I work on recruitment models, capability gaps, and workforce planning through the lens of what AI is actually changing: which roles are shifting, what skills matter now, and how to build a function that's a genuine partner to the business rather than a service centre running to stand still.

02

Change, adoption, and ways of working

Most change fails not because the idea was wrong, but because people were too busy, too uncertain, or never clear on what they were supposed to do differently.

This is the piece that AI consultants miss entirely and HR generalists handle informally. I use a structured change management approach — built on Prosci's ADKAR methodology — to build genuine awareness and capability rather than relying on optimistic communications and a training session nobody had time to attend. If people aren't working differently six months after a tool was deployed, this is why.

03

AI readiness, governance, and risk

Many firms have AI tools in place and limited evidence of genuine change in how work gets done. Often the barrier isn't adoption — it's that the foundations weren't right before the tools went in.

I help HR, talent, and leadership teams work out what "AI-ready" actually means in practice: where the data is clean enough to be useful, where it isn't, which processes can be simplified and which need redesigning first, and what governance looks like before automated decisions are made about people. I also maintain a working view of EU AI Act (as it applies to automated tools in hiring, performance, and workforce decisions) obligations — relevant for any firm using AI in hiring, performance, or people decisions, where compliance deadlines are live.

How I work

Three ways to engage

Directly — no junior teams, no handoffs, no slide factories. The person you meet is the person who does the work.

Fixed-scope project

Defined outcomes, fixed fee

A defined piece of work — agreed scope, fixed fee, written deliverables. This might be the AI Adoption Diagnostic, a change management programme built around a specific AI deployment, an EU AI Act (as it applies to automated tools in hiring, performance, and workforce decisions) compliance review, or a recruitment model redesign. The scope is set clearly at the start. The output is something written you can act on.

Best for

Firms with a specific challenge to address and a brief they can articulate.

Ongoing advisory

Retained senior input

Retained senior input on people, change, and AI questions as they arise. Regular structured calls, preparation for leadership conversations, and an independent voice in decisions that are moving faster than the operating model behind them. You bring the context. I bring an external, candid read.

Best for

HR Directors who want an experienced, trusted sounding board without adding headcount.

Interim & fractional

Hands-on, senior-level

Senior, hands-on support for an agreed period — to lead a workstream, drive a change programme, or stabilise a function. Every engagement is delivered directly. No junior teams, no handoffs, no one being passed to a colleague after the first conversation.

Best for

Gaps in leadership capacity, a specific programme that needs driving, or a transition that needs senior cover.

The entry point

The AI Adoption Diagnostic

Not sure if a full diagnostic is the right starting point? An Executive AI Briefing — a 90-minute structured session for your leadership team covering AI trends, risks, and what’s actually changing in professional services — is often where this conversation begins. Book the discovery conversation and we can work out which makes most sense.

Most organisations know they’re behind on AI. Fewer know exactly where, or what should change first. The AI Adoption Diagnostic is a structured diagnostic for HR and talent leaders who want a clear, evidence-based answer to both questions — and a practical view of what to do about it.

It begins with a free discovery conversation — an approximately 60 minute structured call focused on where your organisation is on AI, what your people function looks like, and whether there’s a gap worth addressing. Within 48 hours of that conversation, you receive a written summary: what I heard, what stood out, and two or three options for moving forward. There is no obligation to go further.

If it makes sense to proceed, the full diagnostic runs a series of structured sessions — with your HR Director, your senior leadership, and relevant department heads — working through the 24 questions that determine genuine AI readiness across people, process, governance, and adoption. The output is a written report: current-state findings, a clear gap analysis, and a prioritised set of recommendations. Scoped to the size and structure of your organisation.

Initial conversation

Free. Approximately 60 minutes. Structured around your organisation's situation.

Written summary

Delivered within 48 hours. What I heard, the key gaps, and 2–3 options. No obligation.

Full diagnostic

Structured sessions with HR Director, leadership, and department leads as appropriate.

Output

Written report — 8–12 pages — with gap analysis and prioritised recommendations.

Book the discovery conversation

The research is consistent on one point: organisations are buying AI faster than they’re changing anything about how work actually gets done.

76%

of companies adopting AI have failed to capture meaningful value — deploying it on top of operating models that were never redesigned.

BCG, 2026

50%

of AI implementation challenges are human, not technical. User competence and behaviour account for the majority of difficulties; the technology itself accounts for just 16%.

Prosci, 2026

64%

of CEOs say their organisation is well positioned for AI. Only 25% have the prerequisites actually in place.

BCG

Portrait of Gareth Newbery
Who you’d be working with

Gareth Newbery — Founder, Newbery Advisory

I’m Gareth Newbery — founder of Newbery Advisory, a Prosci-certified change practitioner, and a senior HR and talent leader with over twenty years in professional services and global law.

Seven of those years were at Baker McKenzie, supporting people, culture, and talent across more than thirty EMEA offices and leading teams directly. Earlier roles spanned senior talent positions at Fragomen and across large listed organisations.

I’m based in Madrid and work with firms across the UK, Spain, and EMEA — directly, without junior teams or handoffs.

Newbery Advisory is new. The experience behind it isn’t.

Connect on LinkedIn ↗

Change management

Prosci ADKAR Certification

AI leadership

IE University — AI & Agentic Process Executive Programme (2026)

Workflow automation

n8n Automation — Active Training (2026)

AI governance

EU AI Act — Ongoing Professional Development

Selected work

What this looks like in practice

From senior in-house roles, not Newbery engagements — Newbery is new. But this is the work, and the way I approach it.

01

Senior in-house role · fast-growing professional services firm · EMEA

Building a recruitment function that held

There was no regional talent function — hiring happened office by office, expensively, leaning heavily on agencies. I built the EMEA recruitment capability from the ground up: the team, the systems, a direct-sourcing model, and the relationships with local office leads to make it work. When a new office opened in the UK, we hired forty people in two weeks — not luck, but infrastructure that was already in place. The harder part was the behavioural change — making direct sourcing the default instinct rather than the fallback.

Outcome

A firm with no regional talent capability had one — and direct sourcing became the default.

02

Senior in-house role · global law firm · EMEA

Changing how a law firm hires — and making it stick

Interviews were unstructured, decisions instinct-based, and partners often went straight to agencies, bypassing the process entirely. I built a vacancy sign-off process that made the informal route structurally impossible, and designed inclusive hiring training for managers and HR from scratch — then held the line when senior partners pushed back. Inclusive hiring doesn't happen because you run a training session. It happens when the process makes the less structured alternative difficult to take, and when people understand what they're changing — and why. That's the ADKAR model in practice: building awareness and capability before asking for behaviour change.

Outcome

Agency spend down by around £1m a year. The training is still in use; the process outlasted me.

03

Senior in-house role · global law firm · regional office

Going into a difficult room without making it worse

A regional office faced a cultural crisis after a serious issue at senior level. It didn't need a lecture or a tick-box exercise — it needed someone who could diagnose what was actually happening and help leadership change it. I went in, listened, and assessed, then delivered the behavioural work and the direct leadership conversations that followed. It extended to other offices.

Outcome

Leadership in both offices had a framework and a vocabulary they hadn't had before — and the conversation that had been avoided became one that could be had.

London skyline at sunset
London — one of the markets I work across
References

What people who’ve worked with me say

These come from senior leaders I’ve worked with — partners and directors across global law and professional services, including seven years at Baker McKenzie — over two decades in people, talent, and change.

“A trusted advisor, and someone we relied on implicitly. He could talk to anyone, regardless of position or title, and gave them a trusting environment — and calm when there were storms.”

Director, Baker McKenzie

“He combined rigorous, data-driven insight with empathy and practical delivery — a trusted advisor across all levels who influenced with integrity.”

EMEA Director, Baker McKenzie

“Effective and impactful with a hard challenge: increasing engagement across a large number of offices. He led with authenticity and intention.”

Partner, Baker McKenzie

“Calm under pressure, hard-working, and able to provide strategic advice but also get his hands dirty — with a rare quality of matching confidence and humility.”

Senior Manager, Recruiting, Latham & Watkins
Get in touch

A direct conversation, no pitch.

Forty-five minutes to talk through what’s actually going on in your firm — where AI is landing, where it isn’t, what your team is being asked to absorb, and whether there’s a practical way I can help.

Step 1

Discovery conversation

An approximately 60 minute structured conversation — no pitch, no slides. The goal is to understand where your organisation is on AI, what your people function looks like, and whether there's a gap worth addressing together. This conversation is free.

Step 2

Written summary

Within 48 hours of the call, you receive a short written note: what I heard, the key gaps as I see them, and two or three options for moving forward. This is a structured reflection, not a proposal. There is no obligation to proceed.

Step 3

Your decision

Simple, direct, no pressure. If the full diagnostic makes sense, we agree the scope and move forward. If not, you leave with a clearer picture than you arrived with. Either way, the conversation will have been worth having.

Madrid skyline at sunset
Madrid — where I’m based

Geography

UK · Spain · EMEA