Source: Thomson Reuters

Legal AI is rapidly transforming the practice of law, offering unprecedented efficiency and insights to law firms and corporate legal departments. In his guide "Legal AI: A beginner's guide," Richard Tromans, founder of TromansConsulting and Artificial Lawyer, provides a comprehensive overview of this burgeoning field. The adoption of AI in legal practice has accelerated since 2016, driven by client pressure for greater efficiency and fixed fees. As Tromans notes, "No firm wants to allow a rival to get so far ahead in terms of using new technology that they begin to have too great a competitive advantage." Legal AI primarily leverages natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to tackle tasks traditionally performed by human lawyers. These technologies enable AI systems to read and understand legal texts at great speed, providing lawyers with capabilities they previously lacked.

Tromans identifies three main branches of legal AI: contract review, legal data research, and intelligent interfaces. Contract review systems can analyze large volumes of legal documents at superhuman speeds, often with greater accuracy than human lawyers. "NLP is many times faster than human lawyers at reading contracts, while accuracy levels in matters such as due diligence is generally higher than that achieved by human lawyers," Tromans explains. These systems can be used for due diligence, lease review, compliance checks, and various other contract-related tasks. Legal data research tools use AI to conduct deep dives into case law and legal opinions, providing nuanced answers to complex legal queries. Within this category, predictive systems can analyze historical case data to forecast litigation outcomes and potential damages. As Tromans describes, these tools can examine "huge numbers of cases and all the publicly available court documents and rulings made by judges in the past up to the present day that are relevant to a case." Intelligent interfaces, including legal bots and triage services, guide clients through routine legal tasks and help direct them to appropriate resources, potentially transforming how law firms interact with clients.

The potential applications of legal AI are vast and continually expanding. From streamlining document review to predicting case outcomes, AI is poised to handle an increasing array of legal tasks. However, Tromans is careful to note that while AI can significantly enhance legal work, it doesn't eliminate the need for human lawyers. Instead, it may shift the focus of legal work, particularly for junior lawyers and paralegals. As the technology evolves, we can expect to see new innovations that combine different aspects of legal AI, potentially creating even more powerful tools for legal professionals. Tromans concludes with a forward-looking statement: "Eventually legal AI will become a key element of the legal sector that many thousands of people rely upon and use every day, just as many other technologies have done so before." This underscores the transformative potential of AI in law, suggesting that embracing these technologies will soon be essential for competitive law practices.

Read more: Thomson Reuters