Lawyers also note that AI is unable to take into account all the nuances, existing laws, and the complete history of cases, which can mislead clients. One lawyer stated, “This discrepancy leads to distrust in our words.”
Recent events have also demonstrated the potential impact of AI on the legal field. Shares of companies providing legal software, such as LegalZoom and Thomson Reuters, plummeted after the announcement of a new product from Anthropic, a company focused on AI development.
Elliot Rush, a law professor and economist at ETH Zurich, believes that the market's reaction to this event was excessive. According to him, the new product from Anthropic may be useful for document analysis, but it does not replace tools like Westlaw or LexisNexis, as it is not integrated with databases of case law and legislation: “At this moment, there is no product that can instantly replace many legal programs.”
However, one of the main challenges lawyers face is that AI significantly increases productivity. This poses a threat to hourly billing, as technology can reduce the time spent on tasks. The recommendations from the American Bar Association on artificial intelligence emphasize that lawyers will not be able to bill for time that exceeds the actual costs of performing the work.
It is now important to understand that radical changes in the legal field will not happen overnight. Experts are confident that the implementation of new technologies will take time. “There will be loud statements about capabilities, but many of them will turn out to be empty promises,” claims J. H. “Rip” Verkerke, a law professor at the University of Virginia. “Many companies have already realized this.”
