Is AI the end of lawyers?

AI isn’t going to replace lawyers. At least, not yet.

Fear of change is something we all have to contend with, and there is no doubt that AI will dramatically change the way lawyers and law firms operate. But AI is not a change to be feared, it’s a change to be embraced.

Law firms and LawTech

LawTech, and with it AI, isn’t new but the latest wave is so powerful and influential that firms can’t ignore it.

Law firms are usually slow and resistant to change. Waiting to see where the wind blows before making big decisions (I’ve worked at multiple firms where IT updates happened only because a product aged out).

This time around, leaders are recognising that if they don’t adapt they will be left behind - A&O Shearman’s own adoption of Harvey will have done more to progress the legal uptake of AI than any other factor.

What this adoption looks like varies. Some firms, such as K&E, Addleshaw Goddard, and Clifford Chance are creating their own proprietary systems, while others, such as A&O Shearman, are using legal focused AI built on the backbones of the major available products (in Harvey’s case OpenAI and Anthropic).

But while it varies, it is all leading to the same place - all of us using it.

AI’s impact on lawyers

The latest stage in the advancement of AI enables better lawyering, it doesn’t reduce workload.

Just as the advent of email and mobile phones allowed lawyers to “always be on”, this era of AI will affect lawyers in ways we don’t yet understand. 

I keep being told that junior lawyers will be wiped out. I disagree.

Savvy juniors use AI to present better work to their seniors. They use it for review and feedback, when seniors are too busy. They get it to build business plans, promotion pitches, and write articles. They use it to give them confidence to have a first go at something, where in the past they may have feared getting it wrong.

Yes, senior lawyers are able to do the same in reverse. Using AI as an additional associate. But the key word is “additional”, not replacement.

A good leader uses AI to supplement and expand their legal team. They use it to assist them with ironing out their weaknesses. That could be BD - helping it to identify events, cost trips, and maximise their time. It could be marketing - identifying topics for articles or it could simply be about managing their time and their inbox better.

All of this then allows them to give more to their clients.

AI and our clients

I love it when clients use AI.

Either it goes horribly wrong, and we can prove our value while showing the client how to use it better next time round.

Or we’re presented with something that helps us do a better job.

Drafting, even with AI, requires thought. Being presented with a first draft helps focus on the issue and can provide a better understanding of where support is needed. It can help clients understand the key issues better and reduce time wasted on the bits around the edges.

The way clients use AI varies, just as much as it does for the law firms and the lawyers.

Startups and scaleups, with no internal legal function, can use AI to identify and prioritise the key legal issues before going to a lawyer. This can lead to a better, rather than a reduced, legal spend and protects the business in the places that matter during the early stages.

Sole GC’s, with no wider legal team, can leverage AI to keep down their internal and external legal costs while giving them the confidence to support the underlying business on a wider range of matters.

Multinationals with large legal teams can use it to filter the work travelling from the wider business into such teams, and then onto external lawyers. Ensuring that the right issues get looked at, at the right time, by the right people.

In all these instances, it’s not necessarily about reducing the amount of legal work but improving the quality and value of it.

Looking forward

Although a lot of us won’t admit it, lawyers are insurance.

Just as you can build your own home, you can draft your own contracts.

We don’t (often) build our own home, because we recognise it will probably fall down. Likewise, we don’t draft our own contracts, because we want the contract to be ironclad. And, more importantly, if things don’t work out - the house falls down or the contract is challenged - we want someone we can go to for a fix.

AI helps us build a better house and draft a better contract but it doesn’t protect us if things go wrong.

What AI can give you is greater confidence.

Used correctly, AI can allow each of us to be a better version of ourselves - a better associate for our seniors, a better mentor to our juniors, and, fundamentally, a better advisor to our clients.