AI and the law: Firms adopt new technologies, but some raise concerns of bias
AI is being widely adopted by most Australian law firms, while a small minority have raised concerns over potential bias or inaccuracies associated with the new technology.
Artificial intelligence is being widely adopted by most Australian law firms, with legal chatbots and virtual assistants already gaining traction in practices, but a small minority have raised concerns over putting matters of law into the hands of robots.
All 50 firms polled in The Australian’s Legal Partnerships Survey said they were grappling with how to incorporate AI into the day-to-day activities of lawyers.
Global firms Ashurst and Gilbert + Tobin have run large, cash-incentivised competitions for staff to come up with ideas to integrate AI. PwC and KPMG earlier this year bought expensive chatbots that lawyers can use to ask questions about dense legal matters.
Gadens chief executive Mark Pistilli said the firm was observing the rise of large language models (LLMs) similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with the intention to implement them to “expand lawyers’ service offerings”.
“LLMs specific to the legal industry will likely increase operational efficiency, reducing the turnaround time on client matters, as well as increasing the consistency and quality of advice,” Mr Pistilli said.
“Gadens also considers that products could be developed leveraging legal LLMs to better assist clients in the day-to-day management of their businesses. We see opportunities to leverage legal LLMs and other AI/machine learning technologies to expand lawyers’ service offerings and increase service output.”
Mr Pistilli said while AI would not replace the jobs of lawyers, it would “ensure that firms become more efficient at what they do, allowing lawyers to remove some of the administrative tasks from their roles and focus on what they do best – providing insights and value to clients in their respective areas of specialisation”.
Lander & Rogers has leveraged AI and machine learning to assist with due diligence, reviewing contracts, e-discovery and research, while Dentons will use the technology for contract generation, predictive analytics and virtual assistants.
“AI may accelerate the value lawyers can provide, such as complex legal advice, understanding clients’ businesses and offering solutions, and building client relationships,” Dentons CEO Doug Stipanicev said.
But Barry Nilsson CEO Graeme Walsh said the interest in AI was “unprecedented” and needed to be balanced against risks of inaccuracy, potential bias and privacy issues.
“It is incumbent upon us, as leaders in the legal industry, to ensure we have informed ourselves of the risks associated with the use of AI, consistent with our values and professional and ethical obligations,” he said.
“We have implemented an interim AI Policy to provide a clear statement on the use of AI at Barry Nilsson. While not precluded from use, the risks of inaccuracy, potential bias and privacy from AI are articulated.
“Staff are required to always use the legal knowledge resources, subscriptions, repositories, and precedents that the firm has invested in as the first choice for all legal and practical content.”
Keypoint Law CEO Warren Kalinko said any suggestion that AI would have a significant impact on the work of lawyers was “premature”. “While the use of AI is proving to have some impact in legal practice, and the wider market is acclimatising to its usage, it is undoubtable that the profession – and clients – still require a human touch,” he said.
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