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How will AI affect the legal industry #Spring26?
Considering going into BigLaw, but I'm not sure if this particular area of law will be mostly made obsolete thanks to AI.
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Sydney’s Answer
Hi Nazlee,
This is a hot topic in the industry. AI is improving every day, but it can't replace the human touch in law practice. Law involves a lot of personal judgment and understanding, which only people can provide. While AI can help with editing and organizing emails, the core ideas and messages should come from attorneys. It's important to keep that human element.
AI has made the industry more efficient, turning tasks that used to take hours into just seconds. This gives attorneys more time for important work like research and analysis. So, AI is actually a great tool for the industry!
This is a hot topic in the industry. AI is improving every day, but it can't replace the human touch in law practice. Law involves a lot of personal judgment and understanding, which only people can provide. While AI can help with editing and organizing emails, the core ideas and messages should come from attorneys. It's important to keep that human element.
AI has made the industry more efficient, turning tasks that used to take hours into just seconds. This gives attorneys more time for important work like research and analysis. So, AI is actually a great tool for the industry!
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Amber’s Answer
Hi Nazlee,
"BigLaw" refers only to the largest law firms in terms of revenue and headcount both within the US and globally. BigLaw firms typically have a comprehensive offering of legal services and expertise in specific industries compared to smaller firms, so I think it would be fair to say that certain practice areas within BigLaw would be affected by AI, but BigLaw itself would not become obsolete as the result of AI. The reason is that there are things that AI just cannot do, like appearing in court on behalf of clients and rendering legal advice to clients, as these are considered "practice of law" and can only be done by licensed attorneys. Even practice areas that are "prone to being overtaken by AI" still require human input.
Ethics rules and state laws will need to be changed drastically before we need to worry about the legal profession becoming completely obsolete, but this is not to say that the legal profession is unaffected by AI. Like calculators and computers, AI is a tool that can greatly enhance our work product and help humans work a little more efficiently. For example, before AI, legal research used take hours and sometimes even days to complete. Now, with the right prompt, lawyers can very quickly find their answers (and in many cases, that there are simply no answers), so this frees up time for lawyers to focus their energy on other things to better serve their clients. This also means law firms may not need as many lawyers as they used to.
In my opinion--and people might disagree--you will probably benefit from embracing the technology and make it work for you. AI is only as good as the training data that feeds into it, so your ability to identify errors in the output and use the technology effectively will probably set you apart from other folks no matter which practice area you end up working in.
"BigLaw" refers only to the largest law firms in terms of revenue and headcount both within the US and globally. BigLaw firms typically have a comprehensive offering of legal services and expertise in specific industries compared to smaller firms, so I think it would be fair to say that certain practice areas within BigLaw would be affected by AI, but BigLaw itself would not become obsolete as the result of AI. The reason is that there are things that AI just cannot do, like appearing in court on behalf of clients and rendering legal advice to clients, as these are considered "practice of law" and can only be done by licensed attorneys. Even practice areas that are "prone to being overtaken by AI" still require human input.
Ethics rules and state laws will need to be changed drastically before we need to worry about the legal profession becoming completely obsolete, but this is not to say that the legal profession is unaffected by AI. Like calculators and computers, AI is a tool that can greatly enhance our work product and help humans work a little more efficiently. For example, before AI, legal research used take hours and sometimes even days to complete. Now, with the right prompt, lawyers can very quickly find their answers (and in many cases, that there are simply no answers), so this frees up time for lawyers to focus their energy on other things to better serve their clients. This also means law firms may not need as many lawyers as they used to.
In my opinion--and people might disagree--you will probably benefit from embracing the technology and make it work for you. AI is only as good as the training data that feeds into it, so your ability to identify errors in the output and use the technology effectively will probably set you apart from other folks no matter which practice area you end up working in.
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Stacey’s Answer
I agree with the previous comments. The practice is law is not going away because of AI. In fact, several state legislatures are considering/passing bills that prevent AI from being used to provide advice that should come from trained professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, doctors, etc. The idea is that a key piece of the work is based on human judgment rather than a tally of data points. AI can and certainly will increase in its usefulness to lawyers in helping us to do our work more efficiently.