Ian Lopez, Legaltech News
There’s a technology revolution
underway in law. This week's AI roundup explores, what does the future hold for
the lawyer?
What’s the deal with young people these days? Well, in
the context of lawyers, the young are leading the way with technology. A recent Reuters blog pegs the innovators’ age range between
generations Y (born
mid-70s to early 2000s) and Z
(the 90s
– 2000s), within which lie
the individuals that are transforming the future of legal services.
And nothing looks to
impact law more significantly in the coming decade than artificial intelligence
(AI). The real-world benefit of its application is “continuing to explode,”
Reuters’ Westlaw product management senior director Erik Lindberg said in the
blog. Using it, attorneys stand to “make more informed decisions and have more
confidence.”
However, not everyone is
on board with the change, and age for some can be an indicator of stance.
Veteran attorneys, Lindberg says, have up until now “been successful without
cognitive computing or artificial intelligence, so they may question, why
change?”
In fact, now may
actually be a great time to be a younger lawyer, especially if you grasp
technology. In a Legal
Cheek Q&A, Luke Scanlon, head of Pinsent Masons’
“fintech propositions,” said that for junior attorneys, “AI will mean more of a
focus on interesting work for lawyers and less time spent on mundane tasks.”
At the same time, this
could have considerable implications for the typical job description of the
lawyer. According to Scanlon, law students with “coding or data analysis skills
are going to be in high demand, because these are areas where the legal
profession has an opportunity to build on what it currently offers.”
In the same Q&A,
Pinset Masons’ director of knowledge and innovation delivery David Halliwell
suggested considering the “huge” amounts of data generated by organizations
everywhere, and how these groups will want to leverage their data behind
decisions. Therefore, he said, “I think we’ll see a lot more coming together of
the provision of legal advice and data analysis,” and that in hiring “certainly
I’d snap up the coders.”
Numbers indicate a
growing interest in technology as well. Citing a Fox Williams and Byfield
Consultancy research paper titled “Recruitment to Robots,” the Law
Society Gazette reported that 83 percent of 70 top 200 UK law firms
said technology has “the greatest potential to increase profitability.”
Author
Joanna Goodman wrote, “One respondent referred to ‘a technological arms race
between law firms, where it will be important to invest in the right
products’.”
In terms of AI, she
added, “AI is not just about machine-learning—there has to be human learning
too.”
And for those not
adopting technology at this point, it may only be a matter of time where their
presence in the legal world is a thing of the past. As Neota Logic managing
director in the Asia-Pacific region Julian Uebergang noted in Lawyers
Weekly, AI “builds
efficiency between the client and the firm,” and benefits are greater than the
negatives in its implementation.
“Artificial intelligence
has this connotation that robots are going to take over everybody's jobs. That
certainly isn't going to happen,” he continued. Speaking about a Lawyers’
Weekly forum at which he’s speaking, “I really want people to understand how
technology helps with innovation and efficiency, rather than taking over
people's roles.”
Part of getting
potential adapters beyond anxiety may lie in doing away with the buzzwords
surrounding AI in law. Another Lawyers
Weekly article discussed the view of Hive Legal’s Jodi Baker
that there isn’t enough being done to aid business and law firm leaders in
understanding how their industries are changing, and how they fit into a bigger
picture of inevitable technological disruption:
“The demands on
[lawyers] are so significant that even finding the head space to understand the
technologies available to them and then think about which ones are relevant,
and get to the point where they pick up the phone and buy a service, is
hard.”
It’s important to note
that not all of the legal world is falling behind in tech advancement. The
Global Legal Post points to Northern Ireland as a hotbed for legal
technology, where Ulster University has founded the Legal Innovation Centre,
bringing together computing and law students to work on legal informatics. The
university also has an Artificial Intelligence Research Group.
In New Zealand,
meanwhile, the law firm Chapman Tripp and Institute of Directors in New Zealand collaborated on a paper to highlight challenges and
opportunities presented by AI, reported CIO. Citing the report, it said:
“Just as the Industrial
Revolution reduced the demand for human labour in manufacturing and
agriculture, AI technologies have the potential to reduce the need for skilled
professionals in service fields that have been largely insulated from
disruption, such as finance, accounting, law and medicine.”
In the U.S., some
companies are making great strides in implementing AI to address some of the
day’s biggest challenges. For example, this week OutsideIQ announced its DDIQ solution, which automates anti-bribery compliance for
enterprises. Similarly, UK company RAVN Systems announced a partnership with
U.S. legal services provider Fireman & Co to bring to the North American
market an AI-powered search tool for enterprises. Law firms are dabbling with machine
learning technology as well, with Paul
Hastings announcing its building of a team of data scientists,
e-discovery professionals and mathematicians to create a tool for culling
through millions of documents.
And while ambivalence
still surrounds the changes and challenges rendered by AI in law, the industry
is starting to come around to the reality of today. As Forbes recently put it, “While this ‘rise of the machines’ in
the legal sector is a disruption viewed negatively by many in Big Law, others
around them are seizing the opportunity.”
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