Yup, the computers are coming for law jobs and everyone already knows it. This is expected – even by the lawyers effected by this (potentially negative) change. Here’s the dirty secret… at large law firms (think middling bulge bracket and bloated white shoe firms), a substantial portion of “the work,” is really just recycling garbage and finding out of place commas in twenty-page documents. A priori, this is unhealthy for everyone, including, eventually, the law firm and lawyer.
Example: Confidentiality Agreements (NDAs) for years have been administered by lower level associates for the presumable gain of their clients. Highly tailored and negotiated NDAs are the cottage industry of technology and investment companies and their lawyers. These are the types of documents that can really be started-administered-completed by AI.
We will be writing more about the interface between the law and artificial intelligence over the next couple of months. Don’t kid yourself though… we are talking about marginal lawyer replacement over the next few years – 10% possible. After that, the replacement rate is likely to be less orderly.