Or, maybe they’re already here.
In just my relatively short career, I have seen the rapid adoption of technology impact the practice of law. Some of the technological advances have enhanced connectivity and productivity, like the proliferation of Blackberrys (remember those?) followed by smartphones that, on the one hand, unchained lawyers from their desks, but on the other hand, made everyone available at all hours.
Other technologies have directly impacted attorney jobs.
When I began my career at Biglaw, large litigation matters required small armies of junior associates to spend countless tedious, but relatively easy hours doing document review and document production.
In her memoir, Becoming, Michell Obama describes one of her experiences at Sidley & Austin doing document review on an antitrust case:
I spent a good chunk of that August toiling in a rented conference room at a hotel in Washington D.C….but managed to see very little of the city, because my life was wholly dedicated to sitting in that room with several Sidley peers, opening file boxes…and reviewing the thousands of pages of documents inside…Ultimately, the chemical case was settled out of court, which meant that much of my document reviewing had been for nothing.
On the transactional side, doing due diligence once meant traveling to client and other remote sites to review boxes of physical documents inside windowless conference rooms. This type of work, manned by the junior associates, was a huge source of revenue for my old law firm and others.
As a reaction to these costs borne by clients, entrepreneurial lawyers formed staffing agencies and hired temporary attorneys to work as lower-cost alternatives to the law firm associates doing the document reviews. This had the effect of shifting large numbers of hours of routine work from law firms to the staffing firms, though most typically a law firm would still direct and oversee the work of the staffing firm attorneys. Some of my friends who started in law firms chose to join these staffing agencies – the jobs paid decently well and allowed them the freedom to pursue side gigs and interests.
Since then, there have been some significant advances in software tools that can now scan and search millions of documents more quickly and efficiently than a human ever could. I haven’t seen the software completely replace humans on document reviews, but what I have seen are human/machine partnerships where the software will do the first pass on the documents and identify perhaps the 10% of documents most relevant, with a human team then reviewing those flagged documents.
Everyone I know who worked at the document review staffing agencies have moved on, so I no longer have second-hand knowledge about what it’s like to work at those staffing agencies. I can only suspect that the use of software automation tools has and/or will lower the demand for humans (law firm or staffing agency) to do document review work, resulting in fewer hours of work and downward pressure on wages for document review attorneys, for whom according to ZipRecruiter, the average annual pay is $54,545.
Looking Forward
The advent of technology in law is only going to continue. Up until now, the legal profession has been one of the few industries to resist change. In other industries, like Finance, you have seen the rise of algorithmic trading, robo advisors and online banking. In manufacturing, robots have long been replacing human factory workers. Automation, machine learning and A/I are also transforming the medical and technology industries. One McKinsey study says that 15% of the global workforce (400 million workers) could be displaced by automation in the period between 2016 – 2030.
Law is a bit unique in that we have a professional guild in the form of the state bar to restrict others from practicing law. Many legislators who could pass laws to expand who (or what) can engage in legal practice are themselves fellow lawyers.
However, I do think that artificial intelligence and automation are going to increasingly impact and disrupt the legal profession. The lawyers who will be best able to adapt are the ones who keep their eyes open learning about the new technologies and looking for opportunities to embrace change. Others who are in the latter parts of their career may just hope to hang on before the big changes occur.
Opportunities
Just in the past 6 months, I have met with a couple vendors offering solutions to automate contract reviews and negotiations. The vendors have adopted A/I and machine learning to identify and review specific contract provisions, mark red flags and provide recommendations on edits based on previously-provided client playbooks. Neither solution was perfect, but the technology is impressive, and it’s not a stretch of the imagination to see this technology begin to erode the need for as many human lawyers and contract managers.
Now, imagine the applicability of A/I across the full spectrum of the legal field. Perhaps robots will be able to provide a form of self-service / smart advice for wills and trusts. Something like a TurboTax for your taxes, but with a higher level of customization and service. Or perhaps in the field of patent law, computers will be the ones doing the prior art searches. Pretty soon, spouses looking to divorce amicably will be able to do so online or via their phones. Uber and Lyft disrupted an industry as mundane as taxis but could pretty soon impact the entire automotive industry. There’s going to be tremendous opportunity for the creative lawyer who can use technology to disrupt law.
So, what can a lawyer do?
When it comes to the advance of technology in law, I’m excited. The opportunity to make the delivery of legal services to clients, to the public, more efficiently and accessible will be a major benefit to society, but it’s going to impact lawyers and their jobs – and for many, not always in a good way.
Routine work is ripe for automation and replacement, which, on the hand, will free up mental space for higher purpose thinking, but on the other hand, will pressure attorney jobs. Even highly-paid legal professionals may find the demand for their skills become obsolete.
And, not every lawyer is going to be able to retool by taking a coding bootcamp and becoming an app developer.
One way to keep on top of change is to keep informed about technology trends in the law. Keep abreast through CLE and discussions with other lawyers as to how others are using and adopting technology in their practices. Over the longer term, think about how your skills and whether you can specialize and provide something that is non-routine and non-repetitive.
The increasing rise of technology won’t be without its challenges, and there are going to be some challenges that are unique to the legal profession. How will the law keep up with change? Many states have ethical rules that say that only lawyers admitted to the bar can practice law in that state. Is a robot negotiating a contract using algorithms and a pre-determined checklist practicing law? Does a robot practice law under the supervision of a human lawyer? Will a robot owe any fiduciary duties? Can the guild of lawyers keep the robots out by legislation?
What do you think? Where do you see the opportunities and challenges? What can a lawyer do to embrace and optimize the use of technology in their practice?
