Lawyers shouldn’t fear AI (Artificial Intelligence), as it “is taking the administrative work off their plate, giving them time and energy to focus on more strategic questions”.
The claim comes from an intriguing new article on Futurism.com, a website set up to cover “the breakthrough technologies and scientific discoveries that will shape humanity’s future”.
In its survey of the state of play when it comes to AI and the legal sector (albeit with a US bias), the site finds much evidence of enthusiastic adoption of the technology by the legal profession.
Many companies seem to be working under the slogan of “democratising legal service” by making access to legal advice without paying lawyer fees.
As a result, the number of legal software companies is booming – the article points out that between 2011 and 2016 global legal tech companies raised $739m in aggregate funding – while AngelList records the number of listed legal tech companies as 15 in 2009 compared to 1,164 today.
The piece argues that this isn’t necessarily bad news for legal professionals, assisting them and freeing them up for other value-add work.
And it could eventually lead to whole new classes of job role – like legal developers, database managers and data analysts, as well as firms starting to employ more graduates with exposure to AI and software at undergraduate level, noting that, “Lawyers of the future will do very different work compared to previous generations, and therefore will need to go through a different education.”
The bulk of the piece, though centres on a case study of a legal AI firm, LawGeex, which helps companies with automatic contract review.
The software offers a way for corporate law departments to quickly check contracts for errors, using algorithms that in about an hour comes back with a judgement on which clauses don’t meet common legal standards.
The report also details any vital clauses that could be missing, and where existing clauses might require revision, says Futurism, adding that, “Users have reported they are saving about 80% of the time they normally use on contract review and get deals closed three times faster” – not to mention that they are also saving 90% of the typical cost of external advice.
Hence the company’s boast: “Our goal for the next couple of years is to automate the entire legal world.”
Boast – or prediction?
