Embracing AI in Legal Practice

 I go to a legal conference every year to keep up with the latest in legal practice technology and to make sure I am doing everything I can do grow my business and serve my clients.

A great boss that I had many years ago told me to always spend money on educating myself throughout my career because I had to “keep my tools sharp,” as he said. It was great advice. He was a really good boss.

            So I travel annually to a great American city every year and I get a chance to experience a different part of our beautiful country while also honing my skills.

            When I started going to this conference ten years ago, the technology that was offered blew me away. I purchased an all-in-one SAAS (software as a service) platform to manage my entire practice from scheduling to billing to document retention and client management. At the time it was cutting edge. Since then it has continued to evolve and improve.

            Over the last four years or so, there has been an emphasis on using artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal practice. However, up until this year, the technology has not functioned well enough to provide a usable support to most lawyers. There are parts here and there that could be helpful, but overall, AI investment has not seemed fruitful.

            But things changed in 2024 and they are rapidly getting better with each month that passes.

            I remember hearing about a lawyer in New York who just last year used Chat GPT, a popular AI application  to write a legal brief to be presented in court. The brief turned out to be well written. However, all of the legal precedents cited in the brief were made up. AI had made up cases and case citations out of thin air.

            That lawyer was fined and disciplined by the judge to whom he presented the brief and he was humiliated publicly for using the technology.

            As a result of that case, plenty of lawyers have shied away or have been expressly discouraged by their bosses and clients from using AI. But in the more than a year that has passed since that incident occurred, legal AI has improved.

            I test drove AI software last week that was remarkable in its ability to synthesize thousands of pages of documents and testimony transcripts into usable data available at my fingertips. Work that would typically take me days to complete can now be accomplished in a few hours. The technology is amazing.

            But the fear among lawyers and other professionals where AI is making inroads is that the machines will make the people obsolete. I suppose that is possible. But right now, I see AI as a tool to support and make professionals better in the work that they do.

            By cutting down the time it takes me to perform certain tasks, and by ensuring that all of the information has been reviewed, I get an opportunity to present the best case that I can for my clients without suffering from the limitations that a limited capacity for synthesizing facts presents in an ordinary human brain. Now I can take the information that is given to me and use it to craft more insightful arguments and different theories of the case.

            I am excited about the prospects that AI presents. I think it will make our work better, not take our jobs away from us.