The Complete Guide to AI for Lawyers: A Book Review

"It all starts with asking yourself: how can I get things done??

I consider myself as a practical technologist. Like many of my colleagues, I am a busy practicing lawyer, so I don't have time to spend a day learning something new. Nor do I have a dedicated tech consultant on staff to help me out. I learn tech on a need-to-know basis, often on the fly in informal groups or at conferences. Although, on a theoretical level, I am intrigued by AI and believe that it's important for lawyers to be cognizant of AI applications when they impact our clients. So, to make my tech selections, I apply a 10-minute rule. This means that if I can't figure out how to use a tech product in 10 minutes, I will probably not employ it in my practice.

And yes, it still starts with asking yourself: how can I get things done? That is in the future tense. Instead, we are too often focused on how we do things in the present, which is often based on the past."

Sounds familiar, right??The rapid advancement of AI has created new opportunities and challenges for us in #Legal & #Compliance.

Noah Waisberg and Dr. Alexander Hudek, a lawyer and a computer science Ph.D. who lead prominent legal AI business Kira Systems, have written an approachable and insightful book that will help you transform how your department or firm functions.??

In their "AI for Lawyers" they answer the following questions among others:

• How can I trust AI software?
• Will using AI impact my duty to keep client information confidential or lawyer-client privilege?
• Do I have to invest a lot of time in training AI to get value out of it?
• If AI makes lawyers way more efficient, will we need fewer lawyers?

In this book review, you will discover how AI can automate routine tasks, improve legal research, and amplify expertise. So, get ready to explore AI's potential benefits and ethical considerations in the legal profession, and learn how to use AI to achieve better results.

The Basics of AI

AI stands for artificial intelligence, which basically means computers that can think and make decisions like humans. AI has many different applications, from helping us find information on the internet to driving our cars. For example, in the legal industry, AI is used to help with tasks like finding meaningful information in legal documents and predicting the outcome of a case.

Think about it like this: imagine you have a lot of Legos and want to build a big tower. It would take a long time to sort through all the details and find the ones you need to make the tower. But with AI, the computer can help you sort through them much faster and find the ones you need. That's only one example of what AI is doing for lawyers too. And this is only the beginning of the story…

The authors look through Kira Systems, a technology that helps lawyers with their work. It works by reading a large number (4 000 000 in one of the examples) of documents, like contracts, and marking important information there. It does this by understanding the meaning of words, not just the words themselves, which is different from a simple search engine. Thus, this makes it easier for lawyers to do their job because they don't have to read through every single word in all of the papers. Instead, the system can do it for them. The more the system is used, the better it gets, and it may even become better at this job than some lawyers.

To teach a computer system like Kira Systems, you have to follow some steps:

1. Upload the base for the model's learning. This means you need to upload a lot (10-20-100-200) of different types of legal papers, like contracts and agreements.
2. Mark the important parts of the words and phrases that the computer should focus on. The model will learn it by making clouds of the relevant wordings (or, even better - meanings).
3. Pick a helper: Different helpers called machine learning algorithms can be used. You need to choose the best one for this job.
4. Teach the model: You will use the marked papers to teach the model how to find the important parts on its own. Note that the model will learn by trying and getting better each time.
5. Use it to help: When the model is ready, you can use it to automate your tasks. This will make the job easier and faster.

Upon scrutiny of documents, two distinct varieties of inaccuracies emerge: systemic and chance-based. The former can be traced to the counsel's inability, in broad terms, to maintain a proper perspective. That is, they are unaware of what specifically demands their attention, owing to a lack of experience or some other factor. These mistakes are commonly made by novice lawyers and less frequently by seasoned professionals. For instance, when a counsel fails to give due regard to the liability thresholds outlined in a contract, instead focusing overly on the comprehensiveness of coverage by guarantees. The latter category of errors stems from a confluence of factors, such as exhaustion, neglect, and so forth, that causes the counsel to overlook an aspect, despite being cognizant of its importance. According to the authors, the deployment of automated contract analysis enables a more expeditious identification of the latter category of errors and, as the system becomes more refined, the elimination of systemic mistakes.

Automatic analysis is also helpful for identifying primary conditions or provisions from the documents (i.e., contracts, conflict of interest statements, etc.) and relaying them to Document Lifecycle Management systems for further effective execution control. The hardest part of this process is reading hundreds of primary documents and extracting the exact key points. An AI model can accomplish this with minimal human intervention.

Practical Applications of AI in the Legal Industry

Now welcome to the heart of "AI for Lawyers"! In this section, we dive into the practical applications of AI in the legal industry outlined by the book.

One of the book's strengths is its focus on the practical applications of AI in the legal industry. The authors provide numerous examples and case studies illustrating how lawyers and law firms use AI to achieve better results and be more efficient. This makes the book a valuable resource for lawyers who want to understand how they can use AI to enhance their work.

Read this 2018 Daimler case study ("Project Future") as an example:

Picture this – you have been tasked with supporting the largest business reorganization project in years, the transformation of the company's two main operative business divisions into two legally independent entities by way of a hive-down. This means ensuring that all permits, authorizations, contracts, etc., required to conduct the respective businesses need to be validly transferred to the relevant new entity and/or amended or newly obtained. The framework conditions are demanding:

- Time frame: one year to signing

- Team: up to 10 full-time employees

- Documents to review: app. four million active legal documents, such as contracts, certificates, and permits

- By conservative procedure: mission impossible.

To do this project, the legal team needed to train the software to find the information and legal concepts they sought in German and verify if the English prebuilt modules were sufficient for their purposes. Such training requires a certain number of documents providing positive and negative samples. To ensure the best quality, the first-level review team manually checked app. 8 000 of the most important legal documents with the software's help. Through that system, potential issues were highlighted that helped to focus on the relevant provisions and to speed up the review. The software primarily analyzed all other documents. The flagged provisions were reviewed by a so-called first-level team, which also curtained related sections and a pre-agreed number of other papers for quality check purposes. The team was supervised by senior lawyers who made decisions in cases of doubt.

In addition, a second-level review team carried out quality checks throughout the whole volume of documents. Over the review period, trust in the capability of the software and the trained modules increased more and more, and consequently, the number of quality checks could be reduced.

Importantly, in the process, the Daimler team found meaningful information in contracts that never would have surfaced if only 20% of docs had been reviewed (or, more realistically, 5%, given the emergence of a larger document universe than initially expected). In the end, the review team was able to finish the challenging task with a far more thorough picture of all of the contracts held by the company than would have been possible without the help of AI. Mission accomplished.

Another highlight of the book is its discussion of AI's ethical and legal implications in the legal profession. The authors explore the potential risks and challenges associated with AI and guide how lawyers can ensure that they use AI in an ethical and responsible manner.

Trends and Future. Introducing a Shift in the Legal Landscape

In recent years, the legal industry has undergone a significant transformation, with a marked increase in the number of in-house lawyers and a corresponding decrease in the demand for external consultants and government lawyers. In addition, the trend towards cost-optimization and a greater reliance on technology is reshaping how legal services are delivered.

Here are some of the key trends driving change in the legal industry, as highlighted by the book:

• In-House Lawyers vs. External Consultants: A growing number of companies are opting to hire in-house experts rather than relying on external firms. This shift reduces costs and provides greater control and a more comprehensive understanding of a company's legal needs.
• Alternative Legal Service Providers: The rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) is another significant development in the legal industry. ALSPs offer various cost-effective and technology-driven services that are increasingly popular with companies looking to streamline their legal operations.

We also invite you to uncover the transformative impact of ALSPs on the legal industry and their role in delivering innovative solutions for legal compliance in this insightful article.?

• Cost Optimization Strategies: Companies are exploring a range of cost optimization strategies, including outsourcing processes to non-legal firms, transferring work from external lawyers to in-house, reducing budgets for external lawyers, and implementing non-hourly billing rates. Access the enlightening examination of the key methods for controlling legal spending here.?
• Legal Services and Accessibility: Despite the proliferation of technology and advanced solutions in the legal industry, legal services remain less accessible than other information services. For example, in the United States, 77% of citizens resolve their legal issues without lawyers. It is Google named as the major competitor for legal experts that might be supporting those issues. This creates a growing market for IT solutions that are more accessible and affordable, particularly for small businesses.
• Artificial Intelligence and Technology: Artificial Intelligence and other advanced technologies are disrupting the traditional legal consulting market by automating many legal processes and making services more accessible to a broader audience. These cutting-edge solutions are driving change in the legal industry and opening up new avenues for cost optimization and efficiency.

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Overall, "AI for Lawyers" is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of law and technology. Whether you are a lawyer, law student, or legal technology professional, this book will provide a comprehensive understanding of how AI is changing the legal landscape and what it means for the profession's future.

I highly recommend "AI for Lawyers" to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of AI on the legal profession and the opportunities it presents for lawyers and law firms.

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