top of page

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning are the game changers for the International Legal Industry


AI or Machine Learning is the game changing topic which is being commonly heralded as the next revolutionary step in the International Legal Industry. In general AI has been spreading its roots in different areas and industries with great proficiency, yet it was never heralded as a game changing opportunity and application for the learned profession. Actually making the computers learn, handle complex situations and jobs, replacing the mundane human work have been steadfastly being used in different domains. It has been proved that the accuracy and the speed with which AI or Machine Learning software like Ross Intelligence, Catalyst and Matlab could be utilized in the legal profession to streamline their work processing much faster and with greater accuracy. In this story we try to analyze the current applications of legal AI and suggest deep learning and machine learning techniques that can be applied in future to simplify the cumbersome legal tasks.

In general you might find the idea of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning being associated with Law very unlikely since both the fields appear to be poles apart. Well, the truth is far from it; today, Artificial Intelligence or AI is on the way to transforming the legal profession in various ways, helping Law firms manage their operations as well as augmenting and reducing many of the tasks that were previously relied upon humans to do, saving precious time and manpower that can be otherwise used for more productive tasks.

Artificial intelligence, on the base level, aims to develop and find ways to reduce manage and execute laborious tasks for different industries, automating many of the operations that would otherwise require human input. These solutions are found to greatly improve the speed as well as drastically reduce the errors, hence improving the accuracy.

Whenever a new technology is introduced to the world, every sector and industry are offered the possibility to adopt that to enhance their operations. One example is of computers and how they quickly grew in use, taking over many of the manual paperwork, and how they have become essential today in almost every office and profession. Law firms are no exception to that, where technology has always been in the forefront and has found its way into supporting the lawyers, paralegals, researchers and clients alike which are associated with the profession.

In this story, we will be looking at and discussing the different ways in which AI and machine learning are applied specifically in the legal profession for the streamlining of their operations and work processes. Let us start by briefly understanding what artificial intelligence and machine learning truly are.

The term Artificial Intelligence is meant to describe intelligence exhibited by machines that try to copy or mimic the human cognitive behaviour and action in certain ways, such as problem-solving and learning. This concept is widely being accepted and utilized to substitute those tasks that require human intelligence.

Machine learning denotes the phenomenon where computers are fed with data sets and are made to analyze different patterns from that data, learn from there and then use that learning to gain useful insights. Different algorithms are involved which aim to let the computer carry on the task without the need for human intervention.

  • What’s the impact on the Legal Profession?

There is no doubt that AI has already started impacting the legal sphere in ways you might have noticed as well (if you belong to the profession, that is). Research has shown that a lot of manual work required in Law firms has been substituted by artificially intelligent machines. Since the operations are greatly improved and streamlined, as per different studies, Law firms have no choice but to embrace this new wave of technology and accept AI and machine learning in their daily operations. Below, we describe some of the different applications that Law firms have found with AI. AI’s present capability meets a sizable need in the legal space by automating a number of high-volume, recurring tasks that otherwise take lawyers’ focus away from more meaningful work. Beyond this, the role of the lawyer is still vital to conducting quality legal work.

  • A thorough checking of the documents

A great part of any legal proceeding is the amount of documentation that needs to be skimmed through to find the relevant material, which requires a team of paralegals and hours and hours of precious time. Firms have adopted AI software that helps to analyze documents and flag the ones that are deemed as relevant.

  • Legal Research

Once the relevant documents are shortlisted and flagged, machine learning comes into work and uses the learned algorithm to find similar documents that can be of use, out of the millions of papers, proceedings, and dissents. This ensures that all the legal research is done very efficiently and in a comprehensive way, covering a whole lot more data. Natural language processing or NLP is also applied to further analyze the documents to aid the research.

  • Thorough background checks and diligence

This is a lot of hectic work, where legal professionals are required to perform exhaustive background checks and go to lengths to uncover information regarding their clients or on their behalf. These facts and data are then evaluated for better decision making and are used to support their cases and giving sound counsel to the clients. This tedious work is fast being replaced by artificially intelligent systems, which help perform most of the due diligence more efficiently and accurately.

  • Contract Management

Often, clients come for legal counseling to review contracts and to check and identify if any issue or risk is associated with that contract. Sometimes, contracts can be misleading and have a negative impact, and legal professionals assist their clients to avoid just that. AI can be used and is being used, to analyze such contracts in bulk and made to learn to identify such situations quickly with fewer human errors, avoiding any mishap.

  • Prediction of logical outcomes

Since computers and artificially intelligent systems have access to huge amounts of trial data and years of documentation, pattern recognition, and machine learning comes into play in the analysis of all that. These insights are then used to predict outcomes for similar cases as well as finding answers that could have otherwise taken days to arrive.

AI is a tool. Having a better tool doesn’t mean we’re going to have less people doing an ever increasing amount of work. Enabled by technology, lawyers are more productive, allowing more legal matters to be represented around the world.

AI continuously will be changing the legal profession, requiring lawyers to possess an increasing number of skills to make use of such technology to remain competitive in the market. This wave of technology will also require the creation of more data analytics jobs that can tap into legal and business datasets and generate actionable insights to improve the practice of law.

We are already seeing a rise of legal technology companies providing alternative legal services backed by AI and machine learning that are enhancing how lawyers practice law. Law firms will begin building their own engineering departments and product teams, too. Deep legal expertise is required to create technology that successfully operates in the legal space, and that knowledge resides in humans.

In turn (or in theory), AI enabling legal tech solutions will allow human lawyers to complete more work at a higher degree of accuracy, freeing up bandwidth to focus on different and/or more complex types of work that can create substantial value for their companies and clients.


AI will also be able to handle repetitive tasks of increasing complexity, especially in data extraction, which will require new systems to be built to extract value out of new kinds of data. Another factor to consider is that artificial intelligence will make legal assistance more affordable. With AI power, there will be greater AI responsibility; a human hand would still be still needed to be involved in the process. Case in point: AI isn’t going to give us the answer to questions requiring strong creative thinking or a value judgment.


Software will continue to ‘eat the world,’ and AI will help ensure the legal space achieves the same efficiencies that we have seen technology deliver to other industries. It would be exciting to see how technology will continue to transform the legal industry in the future.


To conclude, according to recent research, many and more of the legal roles will be automated and be replaced by artificially intelligent systems. The time is ripe, therefore, for Law firms to accept and embrace this new technology change or watch as others who do fly past. Already, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, hand in hand, are transforming the legal sector where organizations have come to realize that technology and innovation is the key to success. Already, these intelligent systems have showcased their superiority over humans, statistically speaking; numerous reports and studies will tell you just that. Especially for Contract management and legal research have shown a lot of promise.

Even though some would argue that manually reviewing documents can prove to be accurate and humans can compete with the threshold that is left by the machines, there is no doubt about the fact that AI systems are proven to be no match when it comes to speed. They get the work done in hours which would have otherwise taken a team of paralegals to perform in days!

 
 

Follow LexTalk World for more news and updated from International Legal Industry

 

25 views
bottom of page