August 4, 2023
AI & The Legal Profession: “Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls. . .”
A recent Wolters Kluwer/Above the Law survey of 275 legal professionals has some interesting conclusions about generative AI’s potential implications for the legal profession – including which lawyers and practice areas will be at the greatest risk of being rendered obsolete by AI in the coming years. Here are some of the key findings:
– 62% of respondents believe that effective use of generative AI will separate successful law firms from unsuccessful firms within the next five years.
– More than 80% of all respondents agree that generative AI will create transformative efficiencies for research and routine tasks.
– Respondents are less convinced that AI will transform high-level legal work: 31% agree that this will happen, while 50% disagree.
– More than two-thirds of respondents believe that document review lawyers and librarians or others involved in knowledge management and research are at risk of obsolescence because of generative AI.
When it comes to this final point, a Legal Dive article on the survey gets a little more specific on AI’s potential impact on law jobs:
Roughly 71% said generative AI could replace document review lawyers within the next decade, and 68% said they could see a similar impact on law librarians. Roughly 41% said paralegals could become obsolete in the next 10 years, with no other listed position cited by more than 26% of respondents.
Only 19% of survey respondents indicated that law firm associates were at risk of becoming obsolete, and only 2% said that law firm partners were likely to be replaced by generative AI. Some respondents weren’t as gloomy about AI’s impact on jobs as the overall numbers might suggest. The Legal Dive article cites one legal operations professional as saying that “[r]oles will evolve but not necessarily become obsolete” and quotes a law professor who said, in effect, that people who embrace the technology will do well, while those that can’t leverage AI will be at risk.
In terms of AI’s impact on specific practice areas, the survey found that corporate, trusts & estates, litigation, IP and tax are the areas most likely to be significantly affected by generative AI, while criminal/white collar law and environmental/energy law are expected to be affected the least.
– John Jenkins