Demystifying AI for Law Firms (and Their Clients)
The legal industry has seen numerous technological overhauls, most of which have been tolerated until lawyers became comfortable with, and ultimately appreciative of, their benefits.
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, for legal applications has had a different reception. For the first time in a long time, lawyers are approaching their tech and innovation teams to ask about what this technology can do for them.
These keen fee earners – at every career level, although unsurprisingly more younger lawyers – do not necessarily know what they're asking for. However, they know they must discuss AI to avoid being left behind.
Over the years, for a variety of reasons partly associated with the traditional law firm business model, lawyers have generally been relatively slow to comprehend the benefits of such tools, leading to some missed opportunities in technological advancement.
Sometimes, lawyers are disappointed to learn that a Large Language Model (LLM)-based generative AI tool isn't needed for their particular task and that a more basic process automation tool will do the job.
While this learning process can be hard, it means the industry is moving towards a deeper understanding of what AI is and what it can do.
For those tasked with transforming law firm technology stacks, many of whom have worked with earlier iterations of AI, the sudden interest sparked by the advent of generative AI also gives innovation leaders a chance to engage lawyers on more classical AI techniques.
These 'older' forms of AI, for example, using Python scripts – files that contain a short, closed set of instructions, i.e., lines of code, that perform a specific task – continue to offer a great deal of value for legal applications, particularly for improving process efficiency where specificity is required.
Change management and educating a new generation
One of the challenges law firms face is informing newly qualified lawyers that many of the tasks they used to perform on the first rung of their career ladder, such as note-taking and verification, can now be performed by AI.
This, and other areas where technology can do previously manual lawyer duties, poses tough questions for law firm leadership about how they approach change management and training.
Ultimately, it is about persuading lawyers at all levels that AI can enhance their work and getting them comfortable with how the technology works to do this. It also requires firms to be creative about how they train new lawyers entering the profession for whom the practice of law is changing very quickly.
Younger lawyers, in particular, have high expectations of technology and are helping their tech teams choose and refine the products in ways that perform to the desired level.
Generative AI has made the technology integration process easier, as its simple interfaces and prompt-based approaches have removed some of the need for extensive training and toolkits that used to be necessary to drive the adoption of new tools.
Nevertheless, it is still essential to ensure teams feel confident using any new tools they are given; often, firms bring in new technologies but don't invest time ensuring the intended users are taking advantage of them.
This may involve offering a choice of learning paths – something that the pandemic has helped with in diversifying what may have previously been fairly rigid approaches to training.
It is helpful for firms to bracket the challenges they want AI to solve into discrete workstreams – such as data extraction, budgeting or workflow – as this helps to drive understanding and acceptance of the solutions that tech teams are trying to implement.
Crucially, change management needs to take in firm-wide perspectives on AI, not just from practice areas but also from business functions, to ensure change is coordinated and that opportunities for efficiencies aren't missed.
Security and governance
For international law firms, AI adoption comes with the additional challenge of managing implementation across different jurisdictions.
This involves paying close attention to information security and ensuring any products firms develop or purchase comply with all relevant regulations about where data is held and sent and how it is shared.
Often, client questions about data security precede any interest in opportunities for deploying AI in their particular instruction, meaning firms need to have those answers ready to go and packaged in a way that can be easily consumed to give swift comfort.
In general, client comfort levels with using AI vary by use case, and at present, AI is mostly only deployed in proven areas where the benefits are clear and the risks are low and well-understood.
Because AI is still an emerging area, law firms have some work to do to reassure clients that their AI governance processes are sufficiently robust to guard against negative unintended consequences of its use and to deal with the different levels of regulation – some of which might be outdated – in different jurisdictions.
However firms approach AI, it is undeniable that the legal profession stands at a pivotal moment where technology integration presents challenges and opportunities.
For now, integration involves calculated risks, complex change management, an openness to learning new things and thinking differently, and the freedom to make mistakes safely and learn from them quickly.
Rowena Rix is Head of Innovation and AI for Dentons UK, Ireland, and the Middle East.
