Is Artificial Intelligence Ready to Revolutionize the Legal Profession?

By Natasha Darlington
Natasha Darlington is a fourth year student at the University of Warwick studying Law. 

From algorithms to analytics, smart contracts to artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that technology will transform the legal profession in the years to come. Junior lawyers are tasked with reading through contracts in an attempt to find unusuals or key clauses or conducting due diligence reports, but it would seem that the growing use of artificial intelligence has taken the legal world by storm. Today more and more firms are utilizing the digital technology as a way to satisfy growing client expectations.

These demands have shown a shift in parts of the “legal profession, often perceived as a technology laggard” [1], which could mean technology is having a profound effect on law firms’ staffing, pricing, and location. Already, many commercial law firms in the United States, United Kingdom, and Singapore are using artificial intelligence platforms to analyze contracts: allowing for cost reduction, less time spent performing low level work, and the opportunity for lawyers to carry out demanding work for clients including complex negotiations in mergers and acquisitions transactions. Having said that, there are some potential drawbacks to using artificial intelligence. Many law firms could realize that they will lose out to rivals if they do not adopt such technology, yet digital platforms may not be appropriate for their individual business models, which signifies some worries amongst legal professionals.

How does Artificial Intelligence works?
​A definition of artificial intelligence explains to us that “it emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans.” [2] This allows for the machine to learn, plan, recognize speech, and solve problems in a way similar to human processes, but with the added benefits of  cost reduction and time efficiency. Often artificial intelligence involves machine learning whereby the machine can function without any supervision to identify patterns in streams of inputs as well as having the function to analyze contracts according to the language of the individual country. This unsupervised nature of machine learning is extremely beneficial for the legal profession due to the multijurisdictional approach of many firms, and  the cross-border transactions that require attorneys to have knowledge of multiple languages and jurisdictions.

Current use in the Legal Profession
Given its benefits, artificial intelligence is quickly changing the way lawyers think, the way they are conducting business, and thus, interacting with clients. UK-headquartered artificial intelligence platform Luminance is used for due diligence, compliance and insurance contract management, and has amassed fifty customers including Singapore based law firm Wong Partnership and Spanish firm Uria Menendez. This shows the popular demand amongst legal professionals.  Many legal professionals believe that artificial intelligence can continue to adapt to individual needs and requirements. Jay Leib argued that “for years, lawyers have been stuck with antiquated tools, better tools are needed to truly understand data.” [3] Now, instead of searching through thousands of documents, technology is able to complete the tasks instead.

On the one hand, this technology is able to provide quick answers to client’s queries, but there are some potential disadvantages to the fast rising technology. According to a study conducted on the future of employment, it was estimated that “94% of paralegals could be replaced by machine learning systems.” [4] Although, one could argue that the impact is less likely to be so severe given that whilst algorithms are effective at processing data, they are  weaker in areas requiring emotional intelligence and human judgment. For example, complex areas of tax law require humans to negotiate deals and mediate disputes. Therefore, as Murray stated, this form of technology “changes the role of the lawyer,”[5] meaning that law students preparing for graduation ought to be aware of potentially working alongside larger amounts of data and automated systems compared to their older counterparts.

In addition, despite the fact that many individuals in the legal profession have opted to use some form of artificial intelligence, it still remains a relatively new phenomenon, and there are concerns that certain firms cannot use the platform as it is not appropriate for their businesses. Moreover, there are suspicions surrounding the term ‘artificial intelligence,’ as being no more than simply a buzzword.

What does this mean for the future?
It would seem that the future of artificial intelligence looks rather positive, due to the heightened use of technology by various law firms that aim  at reducing costs and satisfying their client’s expectations. However, the bigger issue is to consider how technology will transform aspects of the law, including dispute resolution. It is possible that a physical courtroom could be replaced by a virtual courtroom, and algorithms could replace judges. This would have an unprecedented impact on how law is carried out and how the traditional roles of lawyers are viewed. Insofar, artificial intelligence is something, which ought to be seriously considered by law graduates and lawyers alike.

On the one hand, whilst the popularity artificial intelligence is growing, it hasn’t reached the majority of law firms yet. In the next few years, it will inevitably reach more areas of the legal industry allowing us to fully assess the changes and long-term impacts technology could potentially have on all aspects of legal work. It may be a little difficult to speculate over the global impact in the future; however, it is certain that the growth of artificial intelligence will require a huge change in the way in which lawyers think and conduct their businesses.

[1]  “AI automation starts to transform legal profession.” Computer Weekly. Accessed January 31st, 2018.
http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/AI-automation-starts-to-transform-legal-profession
[2] “Definition of Artificial Intelligence. (AI)” Technopedia.
Accessed January 31st, 2018.
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/190/artificial-intelligence-ai
[3] “How artificial intelligence is transforming the legal profession.” ABA Journal.
Accessed February 1, 2018.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/how_artificial_intelligence_is_transforming_the_legal_profession
[4] “Ready for robot lawyers? How students can prepare for the future of law.” The Guardian. Accessed February 1, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jul/31/ready-for-robot-lawyers-how-students-can-prepare-for-the-future-of-law
[5] “Ready for robot lawyers? How students can prepare for the future of law.” The Guardian. Accessed February 1, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jul/31/ready-for-robot-lawyers-how-students-can-prepare-for-the-future-of-law
Photo Credit: Flickr User Phil Roeder

The opinions and views expressed through this publication are the opinions of the designated    authors and do not reflect the opinions or views of the Penn Undergraduate Law Journal, our staff, or our clients.