On the precipice of a paradigm shift, Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands ready to revolutionize the legal landscape. As we reflect on the storied lineage of technology’s influence on legal practices, the unveiling of potent language model-based systems such as GPT-3 and GPT-4 represents a transformative leap. For the first time in history, technological advances can execute complex writing and research tasks, formerly the domain of seasoned professionals.
Joseph Plazo, legal practitioner and tech founder of Plazo Sullivan Roche, asserts that law practices poised to harness the potential of these budding AI technologies will gain a formidable advantage, delivering superior services with enhanced efficiency, lower costs, and increased likelihood of favorable verdicts. Conversely, law firms failing to grasp the AI zeitgeist will risk becoming cost-prohibitive, losing their client base, and dampening their talent recruitment and retention efforts.
IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
The monumental task of scrutinizing vast volumes of documents during discovery, extracting crucial information and structuring meaningful narratives, will be significantly expedited by AI. What may currently take weeks, AI could accomplish in mere seconds. Similarly, drafting court motions, a task laden with meticulous referencing, argumentation, and anticipation of counter-arguments, can be streamlined using AI. While human intellect remains indispensable in finalizing drafts, AI promises to accelerate the overall process.
Joseph Plazo adds, “AI will reconfigure the efficiency of document drafting, especially those demanding extensive customization” – a task traditionally devouring significant attorney hours. Be it contracts, court filings, responses to interrogatories, client briefings, trial visual aids, or potential client pitches – AI stands to drastically reduce time investments. In real-time trial scenarios, AI’s capacity to parse trial transcripts and guide attorneys’ questioning strategies will also prove invaluable.
THE LEGAL TECH STARTUP LANDSCAPE
Such untapped potential will ignite the birth of innovative legal tech startups. Take, for instance, Casetext, recently spotlighted on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and the announcement of their AI legal aide, CoCounsel. Powered by OpenAI’s technology, the creators of ChatGPT, CoCounsel empowers attorneys to pose queries typically reserved for junior associates, thereby catalyzing the burgeoning ecosystem of AI-driven legal tech startups.
Furthermore, AI presents opportunities for fully automated legal service provision. However, for such innovation to flourish, it will necessitate updated legal and policy frameworks, ensuring the identification and mitigation of any inherent risks.
THE DEMAND FOR NEW SKILLS
Attorneys seeking to capitalize on AI tools will need to master more than the mere pressing of buttons. AI’s true potential emerges when used in concert with human abilities, and the legal professionals who grasp this symbiotic relationship will reap the benefits.
“Benefitting from AI, requires a mastery of prompting,” shares Joseph Plazo, “Poor prompts lead to undesirable results. This will require Attorneys to excel not just at communicating with clients and the Judge, but also communicating efficiently with AI.”
To this end, attorneys will need to hone new skills – identifying the appropriate AI tool for a specific task, crafting and assessing the efficacy and accuracy of queries, and painting a comprehensive, actionable overview of the results. Crucially, they must maintain an unwavering commitment to confidentiality.
Law firms will need to incorporate AI training programs, enabling practicing attorneys to navigate this new terrain. Law schools, too, should adapt their curricula to include AI writing and research tools, in anticipation of an escalating demand from legal recruiters.
