AI Disruptions Raise Questions On Legal Judgment's Value

Artificial intelligence could disrupt business as usual for law firms and legal departments, but a panel of experts on Monday showed there are varying differences of opinion on the importance of human judgment in legal matters.

During a session on the opening day of ALM's Legalweek Conference in New York City, a panel highlighted the potential impact of AI in the legal profession. Dan Ruderman, a strategic partnership director with LexisNexis Legal & Professional, moderated the panel.

Oz Benamram, the founder of SKILLS.law and a former BigLaw executive, predicted during the panel that half the work currently done by law firms and legal departments would be done by AI in about three years. When asked about the importance of human judgment in legal matters, Benamram said it's not important, arguing that clients favor fast results over judgment and that nothing attorneys do is sophisticated enough that it can't be replaced by AI.

"We are still going to need human judgment," Allen Waxman, of counsel at DLA Piper, said in a response during the panel. Waxman said AI can speed up processes, but the world will still need human judgment to distinguish work done by machines.

Generative AI tools can occasionally produce inaccurate results without human guidance, a phenomenon known as a hallucination.

"It all has to be grounded in some sense of accuracy and some confidence that we can give to clients," Waxman said.

Waxman said there is some legal work that is subject to automation and will be replaced with AI that has some human oversight. In other examples of work, Waxman said AI can enhance and augment — but not replace — humans in the loop. In these cases, Waxman said AI can expand the value proposition for clients.

Matthew Lung, senior director and deputy head of the legal business for North America for LexisNexis Legal & Professional, said during the panel that AI can speed up work to free up lawyers.

Amy Sellars, an attorney with Gunster, said AI has made legal knowledge more available to people outside the legal industry.

"There is a democratization happening," Sellars said. "That changes the equation a lot."

Inside the legal industry, Sellars said, AI is disrupting the traditional relationship between in-house teams and outside counsel. If AI is implemented correctly, Sellars said it could improve the relationship between both parties. Sellars expects that in-house teams, which have historically been under-resourced, could use AI to solve some legal tasks themselves without outside counsel.

As for law firms, Sellars said outside counsel have a responsibility to guide legal departments on their AI journeys.

The panel also discussed the impact of AI on the billable hour. Waxman said AI could give legal teams an opportunity to explore outcome-based pricing models. While firms are still measuring productivity by time, he said, they can work with clients to figure out new models.

--Editing by Drashti Mehta.

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