Is the Legal Profession Still in Denial about Artificial Intelligence?

I recently attended the Westminster Legal Policy Forum, at which a question was asked form the floor about the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) becoming prevalent in the delivery of legal services.  The Panel’s response was somewhat hedged, suggesting that AI may play a part in the delivery of legal services, but by way of supplementing the skills of a lawyer.

I believe that the converse will be true and that AI will provide solutions in the majority of cases, leaving human interaction to occur only when required or desired by the client.  This is already happening, for example with www.roadtrafficrepresentation.com, where tailored legal advice is given and Counsel briefed automatically, without any human intervention.

Unless the exponential rate of advance of computing power[1] comes to an unexpected halt, the prevalence of AI will happen quite rapidly.

If anyone is in any doubt about the ability of algorithms to analyse free text and predict outcomes, I would recommend reading several papers published by Daniel Katz[2], Associate Professor of Law at Michigan State University, where he teaches computational law[3].

Our own teaching institutions might take a leaf out of Michigan’s e-book and look seriously at preparing the lawyers of tomorrow for the technological demands that their clients will impose.  Black letter law mixed with management training and soft skills are not enough.  Some law schools[4] have taken steps to embrace this, but they are in the minority.

If unfamiliar with the works of our own Professor Richard Susskind, then his book ‘End of Lawyers?’ is probably the most instructive on the subject.  The legal profession should brace itself for seismic change and failure to grasp this will remove the question mark from the title of Susskind’s book.

A degree of comfort was hinted at by one of the speakers at the Forum, who suggested that the younger generation, or ‘Generation Y’, entering law firms will bring the delivery of legal services into line with the rest of the modern world that we know domestically.

If, however, these bright young things reach positions of influence only after many years of service and incremental promotions, then their ideas will seem as antiquated to the generation that follows them as ours do to today’s newbies.

Firms should be drafting their youngest bright prospects into decision making rooms now and be prepared to be educated for the good of their survival.

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[1] See Ray Kurzwell, The Law of Accelerating Returns, 7 March 2001 - http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns

[2] https://s3.amazonaws.com/KatzCloud/daniel_martin_katz_CV.pdf

[3] http://computationallegalstudies.com/

[4] For example, University of Westminster and UCL.