[Australasian Law Management Journal,General Management,Strategy & Leadership,Technology] September 27, 2015

With artificial intelligence set to make serious inroads into the legal profession, Mark Andrews outlines five practical steps law firms can take to respond to the new world order.

In my first column for ALMJ, I am tackling the thought-provoking topic of artificial intelligence, robots and the law. Apologies to Shakespeare for the headline, but there is a philosophical starting point when exploring the impact of robots and AI on the legal profession. It is all too easy to see the threats, risks and problems, but it is important to start with opportunity in mind – so with that mindset, to bot we go.

AI and robots – what can we expect?

One has only to read the media and futurist commentary to appreciate both where we are at with AI and where the potential lies. We can see practical examples of AI, with companies such as Neota Logic (www.neotalogic.com/applications/advisory) building AI into a range of products. One such example is a US federal Family & Medical Leave Act application which provides human resource professionals with customised guidance on employee rights based on some 350 rules and 12 million fact patterns. I would encourage you to go to their site (www.dol.gov/whd/fmla) and try the demonstration. This is a very practical example of the role AI can play and it does not take too much imagination to see a large number of other potential applications.

One of the changes I expect to see over the next few years is in the ability of AI systems to recognise other potential applications. At the moment we rely on human intervention to identify new applications of AI and to then develop and deploy AI-based systems. I think we will see AI systems with even greater capability in pattern matching so that they can analyse related issues and contexts and effectively self-organise around new content domains and new problems. These systems may well still be bounded by parameters we set, but they will be far less bounded than they are today.

Some commentary about robotics and AI outlines a future of commoditised legal work whereby processes are decomposed into individual tasks that are then allocated out to a mixture of AI and people. There is something rather familiar in this commentary as it harks back to the impact the industrial revolution had on factory workers and suggests, in part, that AI will have a similar impact on knowledge workers. There is legitimacy to this view and value to be had in deconstructing legal processes to ensure they are being discharged in the most effective way possible with the most appropriate resources – whether AI or people.

There is a different possibility and that is one of a partnership between people and AI. One of the challenges for lawyers at the early stage of their profession is to ensure they are getting rich learning opportunities. Relying on senior lawyers worked well in the past, but with the market pressures and demands on senior lawyers’ time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide sufficient rich learning opportunities. AI could be a solution. The thought of AI as a coach is a fascinating one and goes to one of the problems I see with the decomposition approach. If you decompose things too far then it becomes difficult for people to grasp the overall context. The problem can be further exacerbated by the use of AI to complete certain aspects of the process, which may mean we have lawyers coming through firms who have never performed certain processes and tasks. AI as a coach could assist greatly in filling the gaps, providing a safe learning environment and reducing the burden on senior lawyer time.

AI’s potential in the professional development of lawyers cannot be underestimated. It could accelerate the rate of learning while reducing the cost and the reliance on human expertise. There is likely to be a certain democratisation of practical learning whereby lawyers can gain exposure to a wide range of learning opportunities without the same dependence on their firms and areas of practice. In much the same way that university students submit assignments via Turnitin to assess the level of plagiarism, junior lawyers might submit first drafts via a similar AI system that can assess things such as effectiveness, coverage of issues and compliance with firm styles. Change is, of course, a challenge and it would be wrong to imagine that the disruption AI and robots will bring will be without some negative impact. Following are some things we can do to prepare for the changes.

AI and robots – what to do?

There are five practical things we can do now so that we start to better position ourselves for what is coming. First, accept that AI and robots will have an impact on the practice of law. There is no escaping the fact that information-rich, precedent-based professions such as medicine and law are attractive targets for AI. It will not be long before AI can outperform humans in some aspects of medical and legal work. Some would argue that we are already at this point.

Second, ensure you are tuned in to the impact AI and robotics are having in different industries as this will help spark ideas. A possible starting spot is the book, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. This is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book and certainly offers some interesting applications for AI.

Third, make sure you have systematised as much of the valuable know-how in your firm as possible. This will include things such as precedents, legislation, drafting standards/approaches, clauses and training materials. This systematised know-how is the food for AI – without it any AI initiatives will struggle. While you may not know how AI can be useful, I suggest that putting the foundations in place is a key task.

Fourth, do not be afraid of process. Ensure you are analysing common legal processes to understand at a more granular level how work is currently performed and to identify areas of inefficiency, and areas that are most susceptible to change. Change may include different resources, automation, outsourcing or perhaps just streamlining. In doing this analysis, it is helpful to note the points in the process where there are significant learning opportunities and ensure that these opportunities are factored in to any decisions about outsourcing or using AI.

Finally, look for new ways to apply current technology. Dr Angus Harvey, co-founder of Future Crunch (www.futurecrunch.com.au), speaking at the recently held Chilli IQ Lawtech conference, stated that “the best thing a law firm can do right now is hire five really great coders. See what they can create”. He made this comment in the context of discussing potential disruptive forces and technologies such as block chain. His thinking is that law firms need to try to disrupt themselves from within rather than allow themselves to be disrupted.

Of course, not every firm is ready to hire a team of coders to try to disrupt things, but every firm should certainly be looking for new ways and areas to use their current technology. Something as simple as developing an app can start to encourage more creative thinking and can be a first step in being more AI ready. These five steps may seem somewhat pedestrian when contemplating the world of AI and robotics, but they are practical and achievable, and will help firms to be more ready for the future.

I have concentrated in this article on the impact AI and robots will have on the practice of law. Importantly, there are areas of practice that will arise as a result of innovations in AI and robotics. It may be new forms of contracts and currency, ethical issues created by AI, or the legal qualification and accreditation of AI systems. The future is certainly going to be an interesting one for anyone in the legal profession today.

Mark Andrews is director – projects, IT and knowledge at Baker & McKenzie. He has a varied background, including time in the public and private sectors, along with considerable professional services experience. He has held roles ranging from HR to management consulting and has previously been a guest lecturer as part of UTS’s Executive MBA program.

 

www.bakermckenzie.com