The Introduction of Legal Technology in the Legal Profession

Author's Note: The following is a rejected research paper written by me during my sophomore year of my undergrad. It is a paper assessing the potential impact on AI technology on the legal profession. It's original date is on February 11th, 2022, more than half a year earlier than ChatGPT's public release in November 2022, therefore the predictions made in this paper may or may not age well (But hopefully it's still fun to read). As the author of this paper, I have my right to publish this piece of text through my own personal blog, even if it's bad. 

According to professor E.A. Spieser of the University of Pennsylvania (1963), the concept of law and law professions are as old as civilization itself, as legal proceedings in ancient Mesopotamia were recorded in cuneiform tablets. Humanity’s technological progress has always intertwined with the way law is conducted as a profession, for example, the printing press in the middle ages allowed the practice of law to be accessible to the general population rather than a profession restricted to nobility, and when computers were introduced to law offices in the 1970s, lawyers are now able to perform tasks such as document filing and legal research more efficiently.

Legal Tech and the Impact on the Industry Structure

Technology has now played such an important role in the legal environment that a new sector has emerged: legal technologies or legal tech, a subset of information technology. These innovations have changed the profession so much in recent years that the law industry is undergoing changes in the industry structure (Kelly, 2021). Now, in addition to expertise in the practice of law, lawyers are now also expected to be well-versed in technology skills as well. In an 2021 article, Hofstra University’s director of Law and Technology John Tsiforas states that there are now two types of lawyers, characterized by their approach to the adoption of legal tech in the workplace, a “reactive” type in which lawyers learn the bare-minimum essentials that is only required and the “proactive” type, where lawyers go above and beyond and consider technology as an extension of their law practices, Tsiforas states that the latter is ideal as it shows that these lawyers are able to adapt to the transforming structure of the law profession (Hofstra University, 2021). Changes like these means that the lawyers of the next generation should be proficient in technology, ensuring that they are experts in information technologies as well as legal experts. 

Legal Tech and the Impact on the Legal Work Process

The process of operations and procedures for lawyers in a law firm have also been altered thanks to the introduction of legal tech in the work environment, lawyers can expect easier and safer access to legal documentations and research with blockchain technology, and digital archives. The rise of legal tech can also foster more collaboration among lawyers as well, which is a major change in the workplace culture, additionally, tools such as the internet of things, Data servers and predictive analytics means that work such as legal research, title processing and management, and gathering information much more quicker, efficient, while reducing the risk of errors (Signh, 2012). With tools such as video conferencing, lawyers can connect more easily regardless of physical location. Certain aspects of legal tech have gotten so advanced in the past few years that smaller cases can be solved by artificial intelligence systems, meaning that lawyers can fully dedicate themselves to bigger, more pressing cases. Created in 2015, DoNotPay is a chatbot that provides legal services to customers and acts as a “robot lawyer” or “lawbot” that is automated to perform tasks akin to that of an actual lawyer, such as documentation, legal research and legal consultation. In it’s seven years of operation, DoNotPay has contested over 250,000 parking ticket claims in metropolitan areas and successfully overturned around 160,000 of them, a success rate around 60%. Over the years, DoNotPay has expanded to immigration applications and low-stakes lawsuits, which means that lawyers can dedicate themselves to bigger cases that an automated system cannot handle (Moore, 2019). 

Legal Tech and Its Impact on Legal Products and Services

These advances in legal tech have also changed how legal products and services are offered to clients. With artificial intelligence, clients can have legal services accurately customized to their specific needs, with certain algorithms and data collection tools that inform lawyers and legal professionals to help know their clients better. According to a 2021 article from Thomson Reuters, the modernization of the legal profession can allow clients to be more active in the legal process, as well as increased transparency for clients when dealing with lawyers. Traditionally, much of the legal process is hidden to clients by offline sources, however, certain technologies such as smart contracts can allow clients to observe most of the process (Kelly, 2021). Moreover, advances in communication technology has also allowed clients to contact and hire lawyers remotely, mostly through video conferencing, and a safe and efficient method of transferring, signing and processing legal documents online. This has been particularly convenient during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, where legal cases have occurred where both the client and the lawyer have not met face-to-face. The ease of communication between clients and legal professionals means that the law industry will become more interconnected and global among the individual lawyers and law firms in the industry and the clients who wish to seek legal services, because these technologies removed geographic factors as an obstacle. 

The Future of Legal Tech Innovation

As for the future of Legal technologies and the role it plays in the legal profession, Not much can foreseen, however, a few predictions can be made based on the current state of the legal tech market. According to several statistics provided by the software company Appinventiv, $1.2 Billion in investments have been made in legal tech platforms, most of these would be used to develop innovations such as predictive analytics, smart contracts, and decision support tools (Signh, 2021). Although these are predictions for the near future of the law profession, a 2019 article written by journalist Neil Sahota of Forbes Magazine offers a more far-reaching prediction: that artificial intelligence will either replace lawyers or work alongside them. Sahota speculates that A.I. systems such as DoNotPay will become more advanced in that they are as capable as law professionals when working on legal cases (Sahota, 2019). 

While it may seem that technology is a relatively new concept in the legal environment, The law profession has always been at the forefront of technology. Just as how legal practitioners in Mesopotamia are scribes who pioneered the art of written text, the lawyers of today are slowly becoming digital experts bringing in the dawn of a new kind of innovation: Legal Technology.

Works Cited:

Kelly, A. (2021, August 12). Compelling Need: What legal tech should be on your radar? Thomson Reuters Institute. https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/compelling-need-what-legal-tech-should-be-your-radar-2021-08-12/

Maurice A. Deane School of Law. (2021, November 3). Legal Technology Skills Are Fundamental to Lawyers’ Success in 2021. Hofstra University. https://lawnews.hofstra.edu/2021/11/03/legal-technology-skills-are-fundamental-to-lawyers-success-in-2021/

Moore, T. (2019, March). The Upgraded Lawyer: Modern Technology and Its Impact on the

Legal Profession. University of the District of Columbia Law Review. https://digitalcommons.law.udc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=udclr

Sahota, N. (2019, February 9). Will A.I. Put Lawyers Out Of Business? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/09/will-a-i-put-lawyers-out-of-business/?sh=16cb805331f0

Singh, P. (2021, August 6). What’s the Role of Technology in the Legal Sector? Appinventiv. https://appinventiv.com/blog/technology-in-legal-sector/

Spieser, E.A. (1963, December 20). Cuneiform Law and the History of Civilization. American Philosophical Society. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/986110.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A0a728320af0437829f52f5e8d7a12d65&ab_segments=&origin=