As technology evolves, so does its role in the legal world as well as its potential uses in law. A research report done by Goldman Sachs estimates that around 44% of legal work could be done by artificial intelligence (AI).
The most common image of a lawyer is likely an Atticus Finch-like figure, a calm, cool and calculated figure who spends their life fighting for what’s right in the courtroom. If this is truly what lawyers are, then how could AI be reducing jobs? A computer can’t argue in court in place of a person. However, according to the American Bar Association, out of 1.3 million lawyers in America, only about 0.52% of them practice as trial lawyers. Most lawyers aren’t the image we’ve conjured up in our minds from watching Suits but rather work desk jobs, reading contracts and negotiating with other lawyers. These jobs can entail some seemingly trivial tasks that could be made easier or even done completely by AI.
Karl Nicolas, a tax attorney in DC, said that AI was cheaper than hiring paralegals. A paralegal acts as a legal assistant, helping organize things for lawyers.
“20 years ago they used to just bring in kids right out of college to do all that kind of manual labor intensive work, and that got to be too expensive… AI can do these kinds of manual labor intensive tasks much faster and much cheaper.”
The elimination of these jobs is beneficial for a firm but it eliminates potential positions for a person just out of law school. These positions would have once been considered a necessary foot in the door for paralegals.
Stephanie Murray, a security defense lawyer, says that AI is a natural progression in the future of law. To not use it would be to refuse evolution and therefore stunt progress. “Don’t evolve, stay where you are… don’t use AI to replace more jobs, which you’re sympathetic to but at the same time that’s standing in the way of progress.”
Both voiced worries for the next generation of lawyers. “There is a concern…,” Murray said, “that you’re going to have a generation of lawyers who just don’t understand the basics… or know how to read a contract. It’s like if you were just given a calculator and never thought how to add, multiply, and subtract… You see what the total is but you don’t understand the math.” There is an increasing worry that as AI only advances, reliance on machines will become more of a pressing issue.
A time in which lawyers rely entirely on AI hasn’t come yet however this future is believed to be drawing nearer as AI rapidly advances. “It’s still imperfect, it still needs human intervention…,” Nicolas said when asked what the future of the legal world might look like with AI advancement, “but it will get better.” When it does, will there still be a need for lawyers at all?
Image source: IStock
Indresh Chandel