Artificial Intelligence in Law: How AI Affects Legal Systems and Dispute Resolution, Part II

II 18 December 2023 As we noted in the previous part of this article, artificial intelligence (AI) is having an ever greater impact on how the justice system operates.

Over the past decade, the development of AI technology has also become a key factor in the transformation of legal services and law firms.

AI is now opening up new opportunities, but also new challenges, for practicing lawyers.

According to the LegalTech 2023 report published last year, only 5% of representatives of the Polish legal sector admitted that they use AI-based tools in their daily work.

Only just over 10% of the lawyers surveyed believe that AI is an important element in the development of the legal sector 1 .

In this part of the article we will consider where this skepticism comes from and what benefits AI can bring to the legal sector.

How can AI genuinely optimize a lawyer's work?

By 2023, artificial intelligence had found applications in many areas of law and in the everyday work of law firms.

In particular, AI-based tools are being used successfully to analyze documents and legislation and to research precedents.

Using appropriate algorithms, AI can flag key information and potential risks.

Artificial intelligence already serves as a tool for building lexicons and knowledge bases, which makes legal information easier to access.

AI technology can be used for speech recognition, which can make it easier to record conversations with clients and to create transcripts of them.

Artificial intelligence can also help analyze various scenarios and potential solutions during mediation and negotiation, as well as help monitor legislative amendments and provide lawyers with up-to-date information on new legal acts and case law.

Finally, AI can be used to automate routine tasks such as completing documents, managing deadlines, and generating letters or invoices.

Artificial intelligence can also assess legal risks or forecast the outcomes of potential disputes based on data analysis.

AI-based legal assistance tools have been used successfully for several years now in many countries around the world.

In the United States, one of the more popular programs for searching precedents is ROSS Intelligence 2 .

The American Lex Machina system, in turn, not only analyzes large data sets but also provides information about judges and lawyers and even forecasts the outcomes of court disputes 3 .

Among similar international systems, one can point to KIRA Systems, eBrevia, and Luminance 4 , which use artificial intelligence to analyze large volumes of legal documents such as contracts and enable lawyers to identify relevant information, potential risks, and inconsistencies.

The ContractPodAi and iManage RAVN 5 systems, in turn, use AI to manage contracts, helping to store and monitor contractual documents.

Many lawyers are not aware that AI algorithms can also be found in many core IT systems, such as the Office365 suite or the Google search engine.

Firms working on Google Workspace have recently been able to use a chatbot named "Bard" as well.

What risks does artificial intelligence bring to the legal sector?

The first risk to point out is, above all, insufficiently accurate operation of AI algorithms, which can result in erroneous decisions and thereby undermine clients' trust.

Another threat is the lack of transparency in how some AI systems operate, which makes it difficult to understand the decisions made by these technologies.

As AI is used more and more frequently in the legal sector, key questions about legal and ethical issues are also emerging.

Using legal systems that rely on AI algorithms raises concerns about the proper protection of personal data, the preservation of confidentiality (both corporate and professional), cybersecurity, and the protection of copyright.

Therefore, the use of AI by lawyers must go hand in hand with appropriate education on how to select AI-based legal systems, with the regulation and adoption of good practices for using these tools, and with adapting the existing codes of ethics and dignity of the legal professions to the risks posed by the digital environment.

One such set of regulations is the guidelines developed by the New Technologies Committee of the FBE, Fédération des Barreaux d'Europe, titled "European Lawyers in the Age of ChatGPT," one of whose co-authors was dotlaw partner and legal counsel Michał Skrzywanek.

The report sets out how European lawyers should make use of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence in a responsible manner and in line with the principles of the profession.

The guidelines are available on the website of the National Bar Council of Legal Advisers at this link .

Are there areas in which AI will never replace a lawyer?

In the context of the development of AI-based legal tools, concerns are arising about lawyers being marginalized or eliminated from the market entirely.

However, there are a number of tasks in which artificial intelligence will not be able to replace a lawyer.

It is already being pointed out that, because AI relies on a limited amount of data, artificial intelligence can generate answers containing errors.

Therefore, until it is fully perfected, AI-based tools will not be usable in cases with non-standard or complicated factual circumstances.

Artificial intelligence will also never replace client contact, as it is not even capable of feeling empathy.

It is also hard to imagine, at this point, AI replacing a lawyer's presence in the courtroom or in the assessment of evidence 6 .

Likewise, when it comes to strategic thinking and the complex structuring of legal transactions, there are certain aspects that will be difficult to replace with algorithms and machines.

Clients' unconventional ideas mean that lawyers often have to deal with new, atypical situations that require a creative approach, anticipating the potential consequences of various solutions and the legal risks involved.

This requires an understanding not only of the law but also of the business and social context.

AI, despite its advanced data analysis, may also struggle with structuring transactions, that is, selecting the optimal form of financing, which often depends on business negotiations.

The ability to understand a client's economic needs or the other party's intentions, and the ability to create favorable terms for the client, requires the right balance and experience, qualities that are difficult to program into AI algorithms.

The strength of artificial intelligence lies in rapid data analysis, access to unlimited knowledge, and process automation, but final decisions and legal actions require human engagement and accountability.

LegalTech 2023 Report, C.H.

Beck, p. 30, available for download: https://legalis.pl/legaltech-raport-2023/ , (accessed: 01.08.2023) M. Griffin , Meet Ross, the world's first AI lawyer , https://www.311institute.com/meet-ross-the-worlds-first-ai-lawyer/ , (accessed: 01.08.2023) M.

Steppka, Law Bots: How AI Is Reshaping the Legal Profession https://www.machina.ventures/blog/2022/law-bots-how-ai-is-reshaping-the-legal-profession , (accessed: 01.08.2023) L.

Moran, How legal teams are using Luminance for AI-powered automation, https://www.legaldive.com/news/luminance-ai-powered-automation-koch-deloitte-big-four/644242/ , (accessed: 01.08.2023) D.

Tannebaum, Manage RAVN and Cognia Law Partner Globally to Enable Organizations to Leverage AI for Business Advantage and Innovation, https://techround.co.uk/news/imanage-ravn-and-cognia-law-partner-globally-to-enable-organizations-to-leverage-ai-for-business-advantage-and-innovation/ (accessed: 01.08.2023) LegalTech 2023 Report , C.H.

Beck, p. 29, available for download: https://legalis.pl/legaltech-raport-2023/ , (accessed: 01.08.2023) Have a question?

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