Riding the tide of a “Technological Rush”: 3 Survival Tips for Students and Legal Professionals.

Introduction

Whilst mankind is half-way through the Information Age, it is nearly inevitable for anyone who is involved in the legal industry to shy away from the infamous topic of “Law & Tech”. Quoting from Joanne Frears, a commercial, IP and technology law solicitor at Lionshead Law, AI can and should change the way law is done, and it’s time for us to “turn and face the strange”.

Building upon that, one of the common misconceptions stemming out from this topic would be “one day, lawyers will be replaced by technology”. To debunk this, Frank Levy, a labour economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology denied and explained that there are still an extent of lawyer’s tasks such as negotiating and appearing in court that are still beyond the reach of computerization.

Thus, instead of thinking it as an elephant in the room, law students and legal professionals should embrace it gracefully, treating it as an opportunity more than a threat.

In this article, readers will not be bombarded with information of the constantly evolving legal and tech industry, but 3 simple steps on how you can make the most out of all this “technological rush” and uncertainty:

1. Keep yourself updated with technology developments alongside its application and influence within the various area of law.

Currently, one of the common applications of technology in the legal market would be AI programmes that are primarily designed to increase work efficiency. The examples include “Contract Express”, a (fill in the blanks) type of automated contract drafting application , “Uhara AI”, which can be used to review existing contracts and check for any missing clauses, and time-recording software that are widely used by firms to log their billable hours and generate monthly invoices effectively.

Furthermore, predictive coding had also drastically altered the legal landscape due to its ability to review thousands of documents within seconds, and even rank their relevance on a case-by-case basis. Its existence had been legally accepted following Brown v BCA Trading and others [2016] EWHC 1464 (Ch), whereby it was allowed in an electronic disclosure process for the very first time in the United Kingdom.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, thus a constant follow up on how technology may or had affected the law, especially whatever area that you are especially passionate about will be utterly important.

2. Whilst being receptive to changes, stay cautious and sensitive ensuring appropriate and up-to-date regulations are in place.

This may sound complicated, but to put it simply by quoting Rachel Buchanan, a Solicitor and Senior Content Marketing Executive at LexisNexis - the discussion of legal and tech should be twofold, one being technology’s influence in the development of the rule of law, but another would be the proper acknowledgement and consideration of the legal framework it operates in. Technology and innovation could potentially be developing at a different pace compared to the relevant regulations, with the latter usually slower and less flexible.

Thus, it’s the responsibility of legal professions to be sensitive, adaptive and proactive to identify the loopholes that may exist in our current legal systems, as well as suggesting professional solutions. The recent implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the positive examples of how lawmakers and the legal profession reacted swiftly to ensure data privacy of EU nationals could be well-protected when the technological development and data collection had changed drastically for the past few decades.

3. Redefining the human touch in legal services. Identifying what makes us irreplaceable as human lawyers.

The emergence of an Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP) model in the legal sector is a remarkable example of how businesses cleverly combined their technological expertise and human touch to attract clients competitively. It’s about the ability to look through the lens of a client or user, identifying their individual needs and preferences. This is and will not be something that could be easily analysed by Artificial Intelligence but had to be done through personal connections and emotional intelligence. 

Just as how Jonathan Smithers, the 171st president of the Law Society had written in one of the Society’s articles - empathy, building trust with a client, moral and ethical responsibilities are some of the key factors that only human lawyers could possess. Thus, knowing your strengths before making full use of technology to your advantage; that would be a key mindset every student or legal professionals should hold dearly to in the future.

Moving Forward

Ben Allgrove, a partner at Baker McKenzie once being interviewed on his opinion about how technology will transform the legal sector in three to five years’ time, and his answer to that is a rather straightforward – “We don’t know”. When uncertainty is a norm these days, instead of being overly worried, we should remain humble, adaptive but at the same time confident in expressing our professional views. After all, just as how any software would require a programmer to set its algorithm, technology will always require the guidance and supervision from its lawyer counterparts.

Article taken from QUB Lawyers Without Border Student Division Newsletter, written by: Yi Kang Choo (Penultimate Year LLB Law Student at Queen’s University Belfast)