Welcome to Straight Talk, our series where Wolters Kluwer’s Ken Crutchfield, Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets, and Jennifer McIver, Associate Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insights, discuss how generative AI (GenAI) is impacting legal professionals.
Here, Jennifer and Ken talk about the impact AI has on the next generation of legal associates.
We’ve often heard that AI isn’t going to replace a lawyer, but a lawyer who understands how to use AI will replace an attorney who does not. What does this mean for incoming associates? How will AI impact their roles and responsibilities?
Ken: Students entering the legal profession will be much more equipped to leverage AI as a tool to enhance their productivity. They’ll rely on AI to perform the type of deep research that used to take hours and spend that time doing something more valuable, including studying and reviewing that research. Attorneys who understand AI will save significant time, work smart, and unlock opportunities to demonstrate more value to their organizations, leading to substantial productivity gains.
I think back to when I was growing up learning math and people worried about students using calculators and not learning long division. We turned out OK. Of course, those students that had an aptitude for math and studied were able to leverage the calculator better than others.
I think it’s the same thing with AI. Attorneys still need basic legal skills, but they can let AI do much of the time-consuming manual work. Those that truly excel at the law will be powerful if they also master AI. Perhaps we’ll see a greater mix of paralegals and support staff working under the direction of attorneys.
The risk in all of this comes down to education and training. I’m not really sure what happens to the attorney who relies on AI tools without having the intellectual curiosity to grow their understanding of the law.
Jennifer: I remember constantly chasing my tail when I was an associate and legal administrator, having to figure things out on my own, find pleadings that may be helpful, start research and legal memoranda from scratch. That’s all going away. Incoming attorneys aren’t going to have to chase their tails anymore.
But like Ken said, there’s a flip side to that. Yes, I may have spent hours on research, but that persistence helped me gain confidence and a better understanding of the law. I knew what I was talking or writing about, because I had put in the work weeding out what was clearly not applicable.
So, I do have some concerns about overreliance on AI from that standpoint. Are we going to end up with overconfident associates because of their blind trust in technology, or will they be lacking confidence because they didn’t do the research? We have to be very careful to avoid either situation and make sure that all attorneys, new or otherwise, use AI as a tool, not as a total replacement for practicing law.
Talk a little more about the productivity benefits for new associates.
Ken: Well, to start, I share Jennifer’s concerns. Attorneys cannot just trust AI blindly, and they still need to remain curious and work to become better attorneys.
But the productivity benefits of AI are significant. Think of the time saved by simply putting a few context clues into a GenAI tool and having the AI create a really good starting draft in the attorney’s voice.
There’s been a very traditional model of junior associates doing the research and initial work. It may require some coaching from senior partners, but they’ve always done that in some fashion. This process will change. Attorneys will need to diligently cross-check not only the AI’s output but also use AI to corroborate their own work before passing it along for review.
Jennifer’s often said that smart attorneys ask AI to provide sources and help them understand where it got its recommendations. That’s important from an ethical, process-oriented, and educational perspective. Asking questions allows the lawyer to confirm that the work is accurate, but it also helps them learn and understand legal principles.
How will AI impact billable hours?
Jennifer: In many cases, associates are required to bill a crazy number of hours. When I practiced, the easiest way to get those hours was through tasks that are time-intensive and somewhat mundane, like document review and drafting discovery requests. Not only did these tasks help to accumulate billable hours, but they were good mental breaks now and again.
These are tasks where AI enhances productivity and saves time. So, young associates are not going to be able to rely on the time-intensive, mundane tasks to achieve higher billable hours; rather, they’re going to have to continually fill their billables with more mentally challenging and strategic work. It’s said that challenging and strategic work is more fulfilling, but when added to the pressure of the billable hour, I question whether this shift could cause more instances of attorney burnout.
One thing is certain, though. As AI enhances productivity and efficiency, it’s going to give associates a chance to contribute to their law firm or organization’s strategy. They’re going to do more strategic work and create impactful value earlier in their career.
