“Clients need an advocate, strategic thinking and compassion and only a legal professional can provide those human skills. We have to be careful the human doesn’t become the machine, just providing generic legal advice.”

While generative AI tools like ChatGPT are relatively new, the legal profession has used basic AI tools like expert systems for completing forms and answering legal questions for some time. Advanced machine learning is routinely used for technology-assisted document reviews.

“Some firms are at the forefront of innovation and developing use cases for combining gen AI with sophisticated banks of precedents and legal advice. Other firms are still at the testing stage. The comfort zone for a lot of lawyers is law-adjacent tasks, such as non-legal research, summarising documents and preparing presentations,” says Legg.

Ethical issues are paramount as the legal profession explores AI.

“Lawyers have obligations to act in clients’ best interests and to deliver legal services competently, diligently and promptly. Adopting AI is necessary because it improves the quality and efficiency of parts of the lawyer’s work,” says Legg.

Automating routine tasks using generative AI tools can help law firms reduce operational costs, making legal services more affordable and accessible.

“The growing expectations for law firms to provide faster, more efficient and cost-effective service is reflected in tenders requiring firms to show how teams are using generative AI to improve workflow processes,” says Keren Smith, chief knowledge officer at law firm, Holding Redlich.

Indeed, most clients assume law firms will adopt AI to make their practice more efficient.

“Some expect these time savings to translate directly to reduced fees, which ignores the cost to the firm of implementing the technology,” says Smith.

Concurrently, lawyers need to be concerned about confidentiality and security when they use AI. They can’t risk clients’ confidential information being shared with the public.

The Centre for the Future of the Legal Profession has a role to play making sure lawyers understand AI technology and how it intersects with their ethical obligations, says Legg.

“The AI tools lawyers use will change over time. All lawyers, regardless of their seniority or area of practice, need to know about AI because senior lawyers have to be able to supervise junior lawyers. Equally, you need to make sure staff are not breaching confidentiality obligations and they can use the tech competently,” says Legg.

The centre will offer seminars and other professional development opportunities for lawyers to learn about AI. Short courses are planned for the future that will cover what AI is, how it works, what it can be used for and legal and ethical obligations.

It’s an important resource given law firms face several challenges when adopting AI technologies. This includes identifying the right tools to use when the pace of development is so quick.

“We also need to manage resistance to change, with some lawyers sceptical about the reliability of AI tools,” says Fiona Lymant, head of knowledge at McCabes Lawyers.

“Integrating AI into existing workflows and learning how to use it effectively, such as prompting to get better outputs, is another developing area,” Lymant says.

Long term, AI will change how legal professionals work.

“It will create career opportunities around data, AI ethics and compliance and will hopefully enhance the legal profession by positively impacting mental health, workload and job satisfaction,” says Lymant.

AI could also make legal work more engaging and rewarding.

“We expect more early career exposure to interesting work, with traditional manual tasks like document reviews done by AI,” says Holding Redlich’s Smith.

“This means it will not be enough to be a technical legal expert. Commerciality and empathy will be fundamental to a successful career as these are what are needed to add value for the client.

“Eventually, AI will enhance the ability to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and recommend appropriate solutions.”

To learn more, please visit the University of NSW Centre for the Future of the Legal Profession.