For the legal profession in the twenty-first century, AI will change the practice of law by automating parts of the lawyering process and lawyers will need to be able to use those new tools to enhance their professional offering, but also to supervise, question and interpret AI. AI will remove the need for human lawyers to undertake some steps in the lawyering process, whether that be litigation, transactions or advice, but AI will not replace lawyers wholesale.
At present, the overarching message about the growing use of AI in the law is that lawyers are still needed and not in immediate danger of replacement. That said, it is worth remembering that we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. In 2019 the American Bar Association reported that only 10 per cent of law firms were using AI. Nonetheless, legal practice has clearly been impacted with AI being adopted in a range of practice areas, as we have detailed in Part II of this book. In its report Developing Legal Talent, Deloitte observed that in the UK to date, ‘lower skilled jobs, such as legal secretary, have been lost while new high-skilled roles have been created to develop and manage new technologies’. This theme is likely to reflect future developments. Innovation is essential for lawyers ‘to adapt to changes in technology and to changes in client expectations to remain competitive’.
AI also brings exciting opportunities for lawyers. AI will remove routine or repetitive legal work and enable it to be undertaken more efficiently. The combination of machine learning and big data can provide insights that were not previously possible. Lawyers may be able to gain a deeper understanding of problems through new forms of analysis, which in turn can lead to novel solutions. In this way AI will augment lawyers’ capabilities. Expertise, meanwhile, can be directed towards work that requires uniquely human and professional skills such as judgement, creativity and empathy.
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Author(s): Michael Legg & Felicity Bell