The Legal Escape (issue #6)

A round-up commentary of the leading real estate and company news in the UK and worldwide.

How is legal-technology shaping the law?

In just a few short years’ time, there is no doubt the legal workplace will be changed for the foreseeable future. AI is in its infancies but is growing at an alarming rate to the point of which the role of lawyers can be laced with a question mark. Machines are increasingly becoming more capable of handling the day to day tasks of a lawyer.

My hopeful plan by 2025 is to qualify as a commercial lawyer however it may not be farfetched to say perhaps most of the work I or a qualified lawyer would be doing could be replaced by AI. For instance, AI will be able to automate legal work even on the most mundane level of collating data; providing analysis and reports – it will be able to do all this more cost effectively, faster and completed perhaps to a humanly unattainable degree. This very notion means trainees will inevitably be responsible for less and less therefore the workplace for trainees may not be the learning experience most would hope for.

To be a successful lawyer within the next 5 to 10 years means you will have to become something rather non-negotiable: tech savvy. The legal workplace soon will be littered with a new breed of tech savvy lawyers. This will be commonplace. Without becoming or staying technologically sound, plentiful jobs will be eliminated. This harsh reality is exactly that - harsh. Either keep up with the Joneses or fall short to your job as a lawyer being replaced by another or perhaps (?) worse, AI.

Soon, the role of AI will be instrumental to the competitive field of law firms and business services. We will see an escalation in the mid-tier roster namely boutique firms who understand investment in legal technology is imperative to stay competitive and it’s no question the numbers in the mid-tier field will rise. Alternative Business Structures like the Big Four, unlike traditional law firms, have unparalleled amount of capital at their fingertips to inject into their legal technology sectors and become the market leaders. This is key especially during the infancies of AI. Traditionally, the use of ABS firms meant you are paying for all your needs under one roof – the continued investment and development of AI within these structures means clients may never need to go down the traditional law firm route for advice. It would be realistic to think these business structures will surpass traditional law firms in every respect and rule the legal industry. Law firms could suffer.

On the other hand, AI can be very beneficial for the legal workplace in time to come. Robots do not have brain power. Robots do not have thought. Robots do not have sympathy. Lawyers use emotions, creativity and judgment – things a robot cannot emulate. The growth of AI will likely contribute to jobs being created. AI needs management and development therefore legal engineers will be in demand; computer engineers will be required to set algorithms and, of course, lawyers have their place to review AI-produced work.

Certain sectors may flourish as a result of AI flaws. For instance, since new techniques in AI technology is legally patentable this will provide the need for IP lawyers to handle all the legalities. Insurance firms may blossom. AI leaves a plethora of grey areas. Who will be held liable if AI goes wrong? The absence of legislation makes liability obscure. Insurance firms will play a pivotal part in handling insurance claims due to any accidents or issues caused by AI. The use of AI in contracts has been godsend to modern and even old school lawyers. AI can guide you through a 10,000-page stack of documents and use predictive coding to pick up what you would as a lawyer. This saves time and potentially reduces risk. It also means lawyers have their place here as they need to make a final review of the AI’s findings.

These issues of dispute may also change the court system too. AI can easily be automated and calibrated using decision-trees to be used as online courts. Yes, you will be eliminating human emotion from the litigation process via human judgment – but the court system is one based on facts – AI could be the answer to an unbiased, unprejudicial judgement-making system. The role of judges could be possibly compromised in the near future.

We could also see a change in hierarchical structure as firms look to change working practices from full-time employment contracts to temporary contracts. There could be an influx of flexi-lawyers working firm to firm on a temporary basis because the demand for full-time work could fall since AI may fulfil client needs better.

In summary, we will most definitely see a paradigm shift in legal practices from the development and use of AI. It will still take some time for this to happen. Humans are still needed. Artificial Intelligence is not totally intelligent. Lawyers will have their place, but the question will be: to what extent?

Adeel Butt