Luddites & the Law: Steps to Include Artificial Intelligence in Your Practice
http://bit.ly/2oid8S0
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has a bright side and a Luddite Lawyer side. i
On the bright side, it promises to lower legal fees, to improve risk management, to
shorten legal processes (thus speeding deployment/liquidation of capital), and more.
On the dark side, the Luddite Lawyer lumps AI with other technology, and points to a
study of the UK legal market by Deloitte, which projects over 100,000 legal jobs will be
automated in the next twenty years (in the UK). ii
If you're interested in understanding AI, then Peter Krakaur's piece iii is your next Sunday
afternoon read. His piece is an incredibly detailed overview of AI.
It is a top-10 legal tech read for 2017.
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AI is a "hot" topic within the legal community. iv It is discussed in numerous legal
publications (online; hard copy; whatever), at legal education events, and in meetings of
lawyers. For example, last month I discussed the use of AI with the in-house lawyer
members of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys v; and earlier this month, at the
annual meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel, we watched a short TED
Talk (video) on AI. vi
If you follow thought-leaders in their musings on “how” technology will impact our legal
practice, vii then the message in the TED Talk video is a familiar message:
•
High volume or routine legal tasks: AI will impact those tasks
•
Novel situations (requiring crafted legal advice): we will continue to handle (not
AI)
Examples of legal tasks handled by AI included M&A due diligence, lease reviews and
contract reviews. Legal AI vendors showcase these tools on their websites; for a quick
peak, go to the websites of Ravn, viii Kira, ix and eBrevia. x
There is nothing magical about AI. AI does not allow you to simply "turn it on, click your
heels" - and avoid the mind-numbing, page clicking process of slogging through due
diligence and document reviews. AI simply is "augmented" intelligence in that machine
learning still requires human curation.
Additionally, current AI tools are limited in number. Expanding AI tools to new content
areas is not easy: substantial work needs to be done (in training AI) before it is useful
for the “new” content set.
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All of this merely states the obvious: we are in the early years of AI. Clearly there are
numerous “high volume” legal tasks, where AI will be utilized. We know it will be useful;
and we know it will expand across the legal practice.
Krakaur gives 5 practical tips to help us prepare for changes in our practice as AI takes
on routine and repetitive work:
1. Step up: drive your practice to big picture and insights, which can be difficult for
computers to craft.
2. Step aside: drive your practice to areas requiring skills like empathy, humor,
creativity and thinking outside the box.
3. Step in: drive your practice into the gap between technology and people, in
order to connect businesses with technology (and the decisions tech tools make).
4. Step narrowly: drive your practice to narrow, discrete areas that do not have
the scale to be automated. Key factor: the area in fact is small, small, small.
(You are one of a select few jewelers at the bench [with strong barriers to entry
by others], with clients who are passionate and totally loyal to your craft.)
5. Step forward: drive your practice by developing (with technology experts) new
systems and technologies.
In 2014, I stepped away from big-law to focus on #5. It was an economically painful, but
totally enlightening experience.
It is now 2017. Finally, I have a path. It is a path where I combine my experience and
content knowledge as a lawyer, and frame it with the Krakaur matrix:
•
Helping in-house legal departments integrate their work, and the work of their
primary vendor (outside counsel), into their Company’s technology strategy (#3)
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•
Continuing the long, winding road of software development (#5)
Take the first step by reading Krakaur’s piece.
Then, take the next step.
Up, aside, in, narrowly, or forward.
Keith Mullen is with the Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton law firm in Dallas,
Texas. You may reach him at [email protected], or on Linkedin
at http://bit.ly/LinkedinKHM
i
Luddites were a group of people who resisted technology in the early 1800s by smashing textile machines to halt
the march of progress. (http://www.luddites200.org.uk/theLuddites.html) For a modern, lawyer view, read “3 Signs
You (or Your Colleagues) Are Luddite Lawyers”: http://blogs.findlaw.com/technologist/2016/10/3-signs-you-oryour-colleagues-are-luddite-lawyers.html
ii
https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/audit/articles/developing-legal-talent.html; for a summary of the report, go
to https://www.legaltechnology.com/latest-news/deloitte-insight-100000-legal-roles-to-be-automated/. Note: there
are projected gains in the form of new types of jobs at law firms.
iii
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-am-ai-luddite-why-you-should-one-too-peter-krakaur
iv
For example, the Legal Talk Network has numerous podcasts on AI:
https://www.google.com/search?q=legal+talk+network+artificial+intelligence&oq=legal+talk+network+artificial+in
telligence&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l3.8639j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 . From the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/technology/lawyers-artificial-intelligence.html?_r=0
v
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qzzr43iu7dzxw1d/2017%20AMCA%20Corporate%20Counsel%20Tech%20Impacts%
2020170324-2.pdf?dl=0
vi
https://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_goldbloom_the_jobs_we_ll_lose_to_machines_and_the_ones_we_won_t ;
this question was the elephant in the room at the ALIC meeting: “with a show of raised hands, raise your hand if
your Company is working on the use of AI tools by the legal department. . . or by your outside counsel . . . or by
anybody – even your teenager?”
vii
See footnote iii
viii
https://www.ravn.co.uk/products/applied-cognitive-engine/
ix
https://kirasystems.com/how-it-works
x
https://ebrevia.com/
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