How artificial intelligence is transforming the legal profession

When it comes to technology, the legal profession has a reputation for being conservative; but, not any longer. The environment evolving at a rapid pace. Westlaw and LexisNexis, the two companies that pioneered online legal research, have evolved into digital legal instruments. Artificial intelligence is changing the way lawyers practice law.

Artificial intelligence is bringing changes to the way lawyers think, conduct business, and connect with their clients. Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a legal tool. It is the next big hope for the legal profession to be transformed. Existing ideas can be pushed to bring about change. The potential for a paradigm shift in how legal work is done is what makes artificial intelligence stand out. AI, also known as cognitive computing, refers to computers learning how to perform jobs that were previously performed by people. The emphasis is on computers searching for data patterns, running tests to analyze the data, and calculating findings. NexLP, which stands for next generation language processing and is based in Chicago, is giving lawyers fresh ways of looking at data.

Law companies can use AI-based software to automate lower-level duties, allowing attorneys to focus on more complicated analysis and client contact. An attorney’s ability to investigate, advise, and assist their clients is dramatically enhanced by AI. Some multinational companies are already using AI-based solutions to improve their processes.

 

Here are some ways the Legal Profession is being changed by Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence complements the job of lawyers by automating time-consuming, repetitive activities. Legal professionals can use this technology to automate tasks. Humans are not the most reliable creatures, and we’re not particularly adept at digesting large volumes of data. Nonetheless, in the legal profession, the legal team is expected to be both rapid and precise without any room for compromises. That is why it is critical to invest in legal technology that makes lawyers’ tasks easier and more accurate.

 

Interdepartmental Communications Are Made Easier

Isolation from other departments is one of the issues that in-house counsel faces. This is not always on purpose, but when the law is misinterpreted, promises and actions are made that are not backed up by precedent. Departments do not want daily meetings addressing the legality of commitments made or business movements, nor do they want mini-lectures on legal theory. When your custom relationship management software, for example, contains indexed contracts, everyone is on board.

 

Better Processing of Data

If we consider how long a present legal team takes to conduct precedent research for a new contract, we can see that I n complex circumstances, sifting through mountains of data might take weeks, if not months. It is needed to account for many variations of the very same document, and the one responsible is very sure they’ve seen something similar before, but a simple boolean search yields nothing. Artificial Intelligence driven processing aids in the wrangling of such details, presenting large amounts of data as a picture or tale rather than a million disparate but possibly significant points.

 

Create Better Morale

As it is widely known, the legal profession is always under a lot of stress. Just over 20% of over 12,000 practicing lawyers tested positive for hazardous drinking patterns in a 2015 survey. Depression symptoms were reported by 28% of respondents, while anxiety symptoms were reported by 19%. The industry is naturally stressful and fraught with dispute. AI may be able to alleviate this load, particularly in smaller organizations where attorneys are responsible for the majority of the lengthy hours. Lawyers do not have to deal with repetitive, tedious, time-consuming duties because AI can:

• Identify legal language anomalies and alert lawyers/professionals to missing opportunities.
• Add focus to the issue in situations when enormous amounts of information must be handled, such as documents with dozens of texts and emails, a large database of contracts or past case rulings, or other unstructured and semi-structured information.
• Allow lawyers to focus on building arguments rather than connecting data points by assisting the data to tell a story. It is indeed possible that synthesizing and assembling will be faster.

 

Management of Contracts

Contract management is essential for attorneys who deal with significant volumes of contracts on a daily basis. Artificial intelligence allows organizations to arrange, monitor, and negotiate contracts quickly and efficiently. AI gathers data over time to assist lawyers in drawing conclusions, developing future contract tactics, and uncovering additional insight inside contractual terms. AI software gives lawyers greater confidence in contract discussions, which in result leads to better results for their clients.

Attorneys can also use AI to forecast how long it takes a counterparty to authorize a deal. The timeliness of contract acceptance has a big impact on a company’s entire strategy. From contract development to close, AI can give exceptional accuracy in estimations.

Prediction of Litigation

Attorneys make decisions based on their years of litigation expertise and knowledge of area judges and opposing counsel. Artificial intelligence raises the bar on prediction. Identical instances with similar information can be analyzed by AI, which can then provide a statistical study to reliably anticipate lawsuit outcomes. Attorneys can confidently offer advice to clients on how and whether to proceed with litigation using this tool.

Just to provide some context, over the course of a year, a London law practice examined data from more than 600 cases to estimate the feasibility of many personal injury lawsuits. In terms of forecasting the results of Supreme Court cases, artificial intelligence outperforms human specialists.

 

In Conclusion

The legal profession and practice of law are being transformed by artificial intelligence. Some fear that it will ultimately take the place of lawyers. Legal AI software, on the other hand, has the opposite impact. It has the ability to help lawyers rediscover their passion for their profession while also saving time and resources.

Lawyers can concentrate and more sophisticated operations of their profession by automating monotonous tasks. Long working hours spent examining paperwork may be a thing of the past for lawyers. They have more time to spend on clients and more energy to dedicate to developing argumentation and strategy development. The application of AI in the legal profession is a win for everyone involved.