This is why I tell law firms: You need to recalibrate your business models to increase efficiency and enhance productivity, and you need to focus on high-level human relationships of trusted advice and stalwart advocacy, because someone solved the A2J problem -- but you're not going to like it. //
What would happen to lawyers' fees if 100 million new lawyers were licensed overnight? How about one billion? Yes, demand would skyrocket, but much of that demand would be met by the same tech that created it. What happens to human lawyers when they're suddenly outnumbered 100-1 by machine lawyers?
That's why AI is such a potential blessing for the public and burden for lawyers. It's a new and affordable supply of legal solutions, still in its infancy today, but growing up fast. Within a few years, anyone with an internet connection will have access to basic legal services, including advice.
This is the dirty secret behind the legal profession's nominal support for access to justice: Lawyers are happy to support A2J as long as they maintain or grow their income. It doesn't work like that. Accessibility includes affordability, which comes from lower prices, which lawyers do not want.
The more obvious interpretation is: "We want lawyers' services to be less costly, so that more people can afford them." That's how it works in most other walks of life. The government doesn't give people money so that they can afford a car. They expect the automobile market to be competitive.
Interrogating the legal profession's policy on #A2J is interesting. Lawyers say: "We want more people to be able to afford our services." What they mean is: "We want people to have more money to afford us." That's the whole idea behind legal aid: the state gives people enough money to hire lawyers.
Terrific longread on a question that will soon become more pressing: Should you go in-house as a new lawyer? Reframed better: Should law departments hire brand new lawyers? I say, absolutely. Bypass all the bad habits and attitudes they'll pick up in law firms. www.law360.com/pulse/modern...
The fundamental change AI will bring about to the law firm business model this decade will be to shift the source of leverage from lawyers to technology. Law firms will fight this, up until they realize that the profit margins on an associate are a fraction of the potential margins on tech.
It’s a significant concern for me as well. I wrote about it a couple of months back, and how we might try to address it: jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/new-ways-t...
Generative AI is going to wreck the traditional methods by which new lawyers learn the ropes. What can we do? Forecast lawyers' future roles and reverse-engineer their development.
I actually quantified this after reviewing over 7m time entries as part of @goclio.bsky.social#LegalTrendsReportwww.clio.com/guides/ai-le...