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By: Ronald J. Levine, HERRICK, FEINSTEIN LLP
This article provides guidance for the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into law firm management and performance. With AI, clients will be able to monitor and evaluate their counsel’s activities in new and much more advanced ways. Accordingly, it will be even more important for the client’s expectations to be well-defined, and for attorneys to utilize AI to make sure that they are meeting client expectations.
AI is quickly being integrated into clients’ operations. Industries, from financial to health to automotive, have been taking advantage of AI. Among the positive contributions of AI are the reduction of the risk of human error, the ability to identify patterns in a wide variety of tasks, and the ability to make better predictions.
Law firms, though, have been slow to embrace AI for many good reasons, including the need to protect client confidences and concerns with the reliability of the information provided by certain open research applications. There is considerable skepticism that a machine can think like a lawyer and apply the judgment of a seasoned attorney. In addition, for good reason, attorneys are also concerned with cybersecurity and violations of privacy.
There are many sound and cost-efficient AI applications that clients will expect to be included in the counsel’s repertoire. Indeed, clients may well be much further advanced in the use of AI applications and may penalize or even terminate outside counsel who are not playing in the same technological ballpark.
This is not a new development. Among many other innovations, during the past four decades the profession has had to move from hard-copy letters to emails, and from teams of lawyers conducting document reviews to the use of computerized reviews. E-discovery has developed into a huge business, and every lawyer has had to learn the ins and outs of dealing with data dumps. An outside counsel would be quickly terminated if it billed a client for 30 attorneys sitting in a room doing an initial review of these documents.
The AI applications that outside litigation counsel may be expected to have incorporated include:
For practical guidance on AI adoption pre-screening, AI driving compliance analysis with terms of engagement, clients' use of AI to monitor compliance with terms of engagement, follow this link to read the complete article.
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AI will remake legal practice. A great deal of the focus has been on the use of AI to perform advanced writing and research. Law firms will need to employ AI in those tasks in order to remain competitive in cost and their research capabilities.
Lawyers must also be prepared to adopt AI tools for much more than drafting and review of legal documents. AI must be integrated into the entire structure of the legal practice management. There has been a considerable amount of discussion that AI may replace lawyers. The better view is that while AI cannot replace the human element in the practice of law, if lawyers fail to embrace AI wholeheartedly, they may be replaced by competitors who can satisfy the rapidly increasing demands from clients that their outside firms take advantage of the power and efficiencies offered by AI.
Ronald J. Levine is an accomplished litigator with 35 years of experience advising consumer products companies in complex commercial litigation, with a focus on class actions and other multi-party litigation. He serves as counsel at Herrick, Feinstein LLP.
To find this article in Practical Guidance, follow this research path:
RESEARCH PATH: Civil Litigation > General Litigation > Practice Notes
For an overview of current practical guidance on generative AI, see
> GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) RESOURCE KIT
For guidance on how to perform various litigation tasks, see
> CIVIL LITIGATION FUNDAMENTALS RESOURCE KIT (FEDERAL)
For an explanation of methods litigators can use to develop new business, see
> BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR LITIGATORS
For advice on managing a litigation client’s expectations, see
> MANAGING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS IN LITIGATION
For a discussion of how to put together a presentation for a potential client, see
> LITIGATION BUSINESS PITCHES: FIVE TIPS
For information on dealing with difficult litigation clients, see
> TIPS ON DEALING WITH DIFFICULT LITIGATION CLIENTS
For an examination of the key issues that lawyers should consider when using ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence programs as tools in their practice, see
> LAWYERS AND ChatGPT: BEST PRACTICES