For the first time since I have attended LegalWeek, it didn’t snow. (LegalWeek is the legal tech conference for Biglaw. The products are marketed toward a big law audience). While the lack of snow sounds inconsequential, just as the weather for this LegalWeek was different, we may be on the cusp of fundamental change in the legal industry.
There was lots of chatter and, well, hype about ChatGPT and generative AI. Tools that allow people to ask a question or for a task to be done and get a result. An AI tool that can write articles and memoranda for you.
And everyone seems to think generative AI is going to change the profession immediately. Many claim that the conversational ability of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools will make it so powerful that it will disrupt the legal industry.
Of course, it’s been claimed for years that this technology or that technology will change legal. That AI tools and automation will eliminate or reduce the amount of work needed to be done or being done by lawyers.
But each time this kind of sea change has been predicted, it doesn’t happen, at least on the scale that everyone thinks. And yes thing this time, it does feel different both because of the conversational ability and the potential power of the tools. So we will see.
The Logical Implications of AI Adoption by Legal
But it’s important to think of the logical implications that full scale adoption of many of these tools might have. The unintended consequences. I’m a big fan of technology, but we can’t ignore the consequences both as practicing lawyers and journalists.
The common refrain is that these tools will eliminate much of the scut work that lawyers, especially younger lawyers, have traditionally done. That these tools will