Abstract:
The practice of law has been largely shielded from technological
developments in the course of the past 50 years. While the ways
in which legal professionals process and share information have
evolved with new technologies — primarily with the emergence
of personal computers, email and the internet — these
technologies have not fundamentally transformed it. However, if
media reports are to be believed, advances in technology in
general — and the field known as "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) in
particular — are on lawyers' doorsteps, and the legal industry is
on the cusp of radical change. Fuelled by big data, increased
computing power and more effective algorithms, AI has the
potential to fundamentally transform the way in which legal work
is done, the way in which law firms conduct business, and the
way in which lawyers deal with clients. A number of technologies
that fall under the AI umbrella, such as machine learning, natural
language processing, deep learning and others, have already
brought about the automation of many tasks that were, until
recently, performed exclusively by humans because they
required human intelligence. AI systems can also be used to
perform many tasks that lawyers routinely perform, such as
contract analysis, case prediction and e-discovery. And,
according to proponents, these emerging technologies can do it
cheaper, faster and more efficiently. This contribution examines the notion that recent advances in technology will "disrupt" the
legal profession. It first describes the astonishing advances in
technological progress, especially the recent rise of AI. It then
considers the technologies and areas of legal practice most
susceptible to this disruption. It concludes by envisaging what AI
might mean for the legal profession, and how current
technological trends might, in a relatively short period of time,
transform the way in which legal services are delivered.
