Our View of AI

2025-05-30

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming to the law; it’s already here, quietly revolutionizing how we research, draft, and analyze. But amid the hype and fear-mongering, we believe it’s time for a clear-eyed view of what AI really means for lawyers and the practice of law.

At its core, our perspective is simple: AI is not here to replace lawyers, but to make exceptional lawyers even more exceptional. It’s the most powerful professional assistant we’ve ever had, and like any great assistant, its value lies not in doing your job for you, but in amplifying your capabilities and freeing you to focus on what matters most.

The Assistant, Not the Attorney

When we talk about AI as an assistant, we mean something fundamentally different from the dystopian narratives that dominate headlines. We’re not describing a future where algorithms make legal decisions or where software replaces human judgment. Instead, we envision AI as the ultimate research associate, the tireless document reviewer, the pattern-recognition specialist who never gets tired, never misses a deadline, and never overlooks a critical detail.

Think about the best legal assistant you’ve ever worked with. They anticipated your needs, organized information intuitively, and handled routine tasks so efficiently that you barely noticed the work being done. They made you more productive not by thinking for you, but by clearing the cognitive clutter that often bogs down legal work. AI has the potential to be that assistant, scaled up exponentially.

This distinction matters because it shapes how we integrate AI into legal practice. When we view AI as an assistant rather than a replacement, we focus on augmentation rather than automation. We ask not “What can AI do instead of lawyers?” but “How can AI help lawyers do what they do best, better?”

The Power of Augmentation

The legal profession has always been about synthesizing vast amounts of information, identifying patterns, and applying reasoned judgment to complex problems. These core competencies aren’t going anywhere. What’s changing is our capacity to handle the increasingly complex information landscape that modern legal practice demands.

Consider legal research. A skilled attorney knows not just how to find relevant cases, but how to understand their significance, distinguish them from current facts, and weave them into persuasive arguments. AI can revolutionize the “finding” part, scanning through thousands of cases in seconds, identifying subtle connections across jurisdictions, and surfacing relevant precedents that might take hours to discover manually. But the analysis, the strategic thinking, the crafting of arguments? That remains distinctly human work, now informed by more comprehensive research than ever before.

The same principle applies across legal practice areas. In contract review, AI can flag unusual clauses, identify missing provisions, and ensure consistency across documents. But understanding the business implications of those clauses, negotiating the terms, and advising clients on acceptable risk levels requires the judgment, experience, and strategic thinking that define excellent legal counsel.

In litigation, AI can analyze discovery documents at unprecedented speed, identifying key communications and potential smoking guns. It can even help predict case outcomes based on historical data and judge tendencies. But developing litigation strategy, conducting depositions, and arguing before a jury require the human skills of persuasion, empathy, and real-time adaptation that no algorithm can replicate.

Efficiency That Elevates Practice

One of the most compelling aspects of AI as a professional assistant is its potential to eliminate the drudgery that often consumes legal practice. How many hours do lawyers spend on tasks that, while necessary, don’t require the full depth of their legal training? Document formatting, citation checking, routine correspondence, and basic research are essential but not where legal expertise adds the most value.

AI can handle much of this routine work, but the benefit isn’t just time savings; it’s cognitive liberation. When lawyers aren’t bogged down by administrative tasks, they can focus on the strategic, creative, and interpersonal aspects of legal work. They can spend more time understanding their clients’ businesses, developing innovative legal strategies, and building relationships that create lasting value.

This shift has profound implications for job satisfaction and career development. Junior lawyers can engage with more substantive work earlier in their careers, while senior attorneys can focus on the high-level strategic thinking that justifies their expertise and experience. The result is a profession that’s more fulfilling at every level and more valuable to clients.

As AI handles more routine tasks, the legal profession will naturally evolve toward skills that complement rather than compete with artificial intelligence. This doesn’t mean lawyers need to become technologists, but it does mean the most successful legal professionals will be those who understand how to work effectively with AI tools.

The lawyers who thrive in the next decade will be those who can ask the right questions of AI systems, critically evaluate AI-generated insights, and synthesize AI-assisted research into compelling legal strategies. They’ll understand the limitations of AI tools and know when human judgment is irreplaceable. Most importantly, they’ll use AI to enhance their core legal skills rather than replace them.

This evolution will also emphasize skills that are uniquely human: emotional intelligence in client relationships, creative problem-solving in complex legal matters, and the ability to communicate complex legal concepts clearly and persuasively. These skills become more valuable, not less, in an AI-augmented legal environment.

Addressing the Challenges

We’d be naive to suggest that AI integration into legal practice is without challenges. Accuracy concerns are legitimate. AI systems can make mistakes, and in legal practice, mistakes can have serious consequences. The key is building systems and workflows that leverage AI’s strengths while maintaining appropriate human oversight.

This means treating AI-generated work as a first draft, not a final product. It means developing protocols for verifying AI research and maintaining accountability for all work product. Most importantly, it means maintaining the professional judgment to know when to rely on AI assistance and when to dig deeper with human analysis.

Ethical considerations are equally important. The legal profession has strict duties regarding confidentiality, competence, and avoiding conflicts of interest. AI systems must be designed and deployed in ways that support, rather than undermine, these professional obligations. This is particularly crucial when it comes to data security and client confidentiality, areas where the legal profession’s standards are rightfully stringent.

There’s also the question of transparency and explainability. Clients have a right to understand how their legal matters are being handled, and lawyers have a duty to provide competent representation. This means using AI tools that can explain their reasoning and maintaining clear documentation of how AI assistance was used in any given matter.

The Long View: 10 Years and Beyond

Looking ahead, we see AI becoming as integral to legal practice as legal databases are today. Just as no modern lawyer would consider practicing without access to Westlaw or LexisNexis, future lawyers won’t imagine practicing without AI assistance.

But this integration will be gradual and thoughtful. The legal profession’s conservative nature, often criticized but ultimately protective of important values, will ensure that AI adoption happens in ways that preserve the integrity of legal practice. We’ll see AI tools become more sophisticated and more specialized, but always within frameworks that maintain human accountability and professional standards.

In the coming decade, we anticipate AI will become particularly powerful in areas requiring pattern recognition and data synthesis. Complex commercial transactions, large-scale litigation, and regulatory compliance will be transformed by AI’s ability to process and analyze vast amounts of information quickly and accurately.

We also expect to see AI enable new forms of legal service delivery. Predictive analytics might help lawyers provide more accurate cost estimates and timeline projections. AI-powered document assembly could make certain legal services more accessible to smaller businesses and individuals. Real-time legal research during negotiations or trials could give lawyers unprecedented access to relevant precedents and strategic insights.

The Human Element Remains Central

Throughout all of these changes, the fundamental nature of legal practice will remain human-centered. Law is ultimately about human relationships, human conflicts, and human values. It requires judgment, empathy, and the ability to navigate complex social and ethical terrain. These capabilities are not just beyond current AI, they’re beyond the concept of artificial intelligence as we understand it.

The most successful law firms of the future will be those that embrace AI as a powerful tool while recognizing that their ultimate value lies in their human capabilities. They’ll use AI to become more efficient, more thorough, and more effective, but they’ll never lose sight of the fact that clients hire lawyers, not algorithms.

Conclusion

Our view of AI in the legal profession is fundamentally optimistic. We see a future where artificial intelligence makes lawyers more capable, more efficient, and more valuable to their clients. We see junior lawyers engaging with more sophisticated work and senior lawyers focusing on the strategic and creative aspects of legal practice that make the profession rewarding.

This future isn’t automatic. It requires thoughtful implementation, appropriate safeguards, and a commitment to maintaining the professional standards that make the legal system trustworthy. But with the right approach, AI can be the most powerful assistant the legal profession has ever had.

The question isn’t whether AI will transform legal practice; it already is. The question is whether we’ll harness that transformation to make the legal profession better, more effective, and more valuable to the clients and communities we serve. We believe the answer is unequivocally yes, and we’re committed to helping make that future a reality.