Advocacy has always been a serious and respected profession. It is not limited to only law books and sections but is also a means of finding solutions to the most complex issues of society. But as time has progressed, the nature of advocacy has also changed. Where once lawyers used to sit in the library for hours reading case law and searching for old cases, today’s lawyer can access the biggest legal information in seconds with the help of computers and the Internet. Now technology has brought this profession to a new level, and the most important contribution in this is artificial intelligence, i.e., AI. Generative AI is becoming a tool for lawyers that can make their work easier, faster and more accurate.
Why is AI becoming an important part of the legal profession?
A large part of legal work is based on repetitive tasks such as research, drafting documents, interpreting sections and summarizing cases. These tasks take time and sometimes prove to be tedious. According to a Goldman Sachs report, about 44% of legal tasks are tasks that can be easily handled by AI. This does not mean that lawyers will become irrelevant, but it means that lawyers will have to adopt AI so that they can focus more on their true capabilities—such as reasoning, strategy, and human understanding. Lawyers who do not adopt AI may fall behind the competition, while lawyers who use AI will get even further ahead.
Harvey: A Specialized AI Platform for Lawyers
A prime example of generative AI is “Harvey.” It is a special platform based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 that is designed specifically for lawyers. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that more than 15,000 law firms around the world are on its waiting list. Big organizations like PwC are already using it. Harvey provides lawyers with the ability to create research memos, draft documents, answer complex legal questions, and summarize long documents.
If a lawyer needs a detailed analysis of a legal case, he can just type the instructions, and Harvey will give the output in seconds. This output can be made available in multiple languages, which also helps in multilingual cases. In this way, Harvey and other generative AI tools are playing a revolutionary role in changing the working style of lawyers.
Are lawyers’ jobs at risk?
The question is natural: when AI can do so many tasks, are lawyers’ jobs at risk? The truth is that the work of lawyers is not limited to just preparing documents or doing research. A lawyer is a human being who understands the client’s situation, connects emotionally with their problems, argues strategically in court and takes decisions in complex situations where data alone is not enough.
AI does not have empathy, ethics and understanding related to experience. It can generate text based on patterns, but the actual decision will always be made by a human. Therefore, AI will not replace lawyers but will assist them. Lawyers who fear that AI will reduce their role must understand that this technology will actually make them more efficient and effective.
Lawyers and AI: Comparison of Skills
The capabilities of lawyers and those of AI are different. AI can quickly do research, extract thousands of pages of summaries and edit documents. But building relationships with clients, showing sensitivity in negotiations, pleading in court, reasoning and devising strategies keeping in mind the socio-ethical context are things only humans can do.
From this point of view, AI should not be considered a competitor of lawyers but a partner. AI will handle routine work and lawyers will spend their time on more valuable tasks. This will be a kind of “human-technology collaboration.”
What new capabilities will the lawyer of the future need?
A successful lawyer in the future will be one who has technical understanding along with traditional legal knowledge. Some skills will become very important in the coming times:
- AI Awareness: Lawyers will need to know which AI tool is suitable for which task and how to use it correctly.
- Prompt Engineering: To get correct and accurate output from AI, one has to learn the art of asking clear and context-based questions.
- Data Literacy & Ethics: It will be the responsibility of lawyers to ensure privacy, transparency and fairness of data.
- Regulatory Awareness: New laws are being made on AI all over the world. Lawyers will have to stay updated with them.
- Critical Evaluation: The lawyer will have to review the output given by AI before considering it final.
Risks and responsibilities associated with AI
Although AI is extremely useful, it also carries many risks. For example, a lawyer in the US quoted six case laws from ChatGPT that did not actually exist. This was not the fault of AI but of the lawyer because he used the output without checking it. This teaches us that it is important to use AI with caution and discretion.
Apart from this, AI can also increase data bias. If the training data is biased, the output will also be the same. Issues like cyber security, privacy and intellectual property rights also come up. Therefore, lawyers have to take care of all these risks and take necessary security measures while adopting AI.
Opportunities for new lawyers and paralegals
Young lawyers and paralegals may initially feel that AI will reduce their work, but the reality is the opposite. AI will make their daily tedious tasks easier so that they can quickly try their hands on high-level strategy and complex cases. This will increase their experience and also speed up career progression. In the long run, this will prove beneficial for them.
Picture of the future: A confluence of technology and humans
Google CEO Sundar Pichai believes that in the coming ten years, the number of lawyers will increase rather than decrease. Because the needs of law are linked to the fundamental problems of society, and they will never end. The only difference will be that lawyers will be equipped with technology and work with more efficiency and effectiveness than ever before.
Conclusion
The legal profession is standing at a new turning point. In the times to come, a successful lawyer will be the one who will deeply understand not only law but also technology. AI awareness, prompt engineering, data ethics, knowledge of new rules and advocacy skills will define the lawyer of the future. AI is not a threat but an ally. It further strengthens the capabilities of lawyers and gives them the opportunity to focus on more valuable tasks.
The lawyer of the future will be the one who will move forward on the path of justice with a balance of technology and human values.
