AI and Legal

We are seeing a paradigm shift in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) across the board. It is no longer a question of IF artificial intelligence will impact humanity and industry. Instead, the question is HOW LONG will those that abstain from AI be able to compete with the rest?

A few years ago, the prevalent line of thinking was that AI would solve repetitive tasks, the so-called busywork. Nowadays, AI’s potential to aid knowledge workers (and, in our context, legal service professionals) is far more signi­ficant than many suspected just a short while ago.

How and where can AI assist lawyers and their organizations? Firstly, we need to remember that AI, as impressive as it may seem, is a tool that helps, the same way as a ­computer and other software does. It is technology, and technology alone does not solve or cause problems.

Many pundits and change management consultants have been putting the importance of understanding organizational processes in top spot. In other words, it would only make sense to apply technology once you know the areas of work you are aiming to improve. And it is only logical to do so in that sequence.

Despite all the similarities, every legal service business has its peculiarities. Thus, it would be futile and beyond the scope of this article to account for all differences; let’s see if there are some common points and areas of legal work where AI could be incredibly impactful.

Administrative tasks and algorithms

Repetitive and mundane tasks are inevitably a part of the day-to-day life of legal services providers, and many legal services teams include administrative workers. Nowadays, administrative workers have the potential to use AI to streamline a considerable chunk of their work. To name some:

• Writing assistance: You have likely encountered text completion suggestions just as you start to type in your text editor of choice. These completion models aim to boost the speed of our writing across the board, and it is clear how administrative workers benefit here, given how much they rely on writing;
• Data extraction: AI LLMs are especially good at grabbing and extracting the required data from large volumes of documents. And if you pair these with OCR, you would be able to optimize picking data even from ­images and document scans;
• Document classification: Imagine being on the receiving end of a massive stream of documents on an hourly basis. It is time-consuming and ineffective to sort bulks of documents manually; luckily, AI can provide much-needed assistance in a fraction of the time;
• Scheduling and to-dos: AI and LLMs in particular, can extract context from your daily communication (if you allow them access to your inbox, that is). The context of a message could suggest one or a few to-dos that you may want to add to your calendar or a task list.

Knowledge workers and Artificial Intelligence

Outside of legal services, AI has potential applications in various areas. It has its place in assisting doctors with medical diagnosis by analyzing large sets of patient data. When it comes to writing, it is pretty helpful with overcoming the syndrome of a blank page, and not only this. Proofreading and editing to a specific style are proven use cases, and I have already mentioned text completion ­models and their impact above. Software engineers can use AI assistants to set up a starting project structure, ­extract relevant documentation information, and supply other helpful suggestions. Seemingly, professionals from disparate fields will gain benefits, thanks to a proverbial helping (artificial) hand.

And what about legal services professionals?

How can AI help to produce legal services?

I have already touched upon day-to-day business’s mundane (yet necessary) side. However, legal services organizations center their activities around legal research, document drafting and reviewing, and overall risk assessment. How can AI assist with those?

• Document generation: Rule-based expert systems have been helping with inserting text paragraphs and/or clauses when certain conditions are met. However, LLMs are nowadays opening new ways of assisting lawyers as they react to more natural, conversational, and intuitive prompts;
• Legal research and trend spotting: LLMs can comb through vast sets of rules, precedents, documents, and general information to provide answers to your questions. ­Additionally, they could give you valuable insights into specific legal trends and paint a picture of how the ­interpretation of particular rules might have evolved;
• Contract review and suggestions: Some systems are pretty good at analyzing initial drafts, spotting pitfalls, and aiding with tips;
• Risks and probabilities: AI can weigh the chances of ­parties’ success with their claims and plot risks and ­obstacles along the way. Such analysis might benefit legal counsel in assessing their approach and strategy optimization.

Considerations when using AI  in legal services

As with any technology, AI doesn’t come free of risks. Considering lawyers’ duty to provide competent ­representation in particular, lawyers and legal services providers must be generally aware of what AI is, how it works, and the benefits and risks involved.

Lawyers might have an obligation to inform their clients that they intend to use AI in certain circumstances. In particular, if lawyers plan to analyze clients’ data this way, and where data sharing is concerned, they must obtain clients’ consent beforehand.

Lawyers are still accountable for all and any results of their legal work and, as a result, must stay on top of the work they delegate to AI. While lawyers would benefit from AI’s fast processing, they still need to ensure their methods and results align with professional standards. Lawyers must understand that AI isn’t magical or infallible and they must keep their finger on all the tools in their arsenal.

Our vantage point?

At STP, we believe human intellect and creativity will ­always play a key role, especially in critical areas such as the legal sector. While we are studying how AI shapes how people work, our current focus is on making lawyers’ lives easier with tools and use cases that plug into their natural workflow. We believe in simplifying the mundane so ­lawyers can focus and deliver value where it is most ­needed.