Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Technology

Back In The Race: NY to 190GB? Robots Will Need To Do More In Order To Replace Human Lawyers

Here are four tasks that robots will have to learn how to perform before they can replace human lawyers.

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resume girlLately there has been a lot of interest about how robots are taking over human jobs. There are estimates that robots will eliminate five million jobs by 2020. And as robotics technology improves, even white-collar jobs, including the work of lawyers, can be done by machines.

Some startup robotics companies are promoting their machines to business owners who are upset about major cities increasing their minimum wage and the federal government expanding the number of workers who are eligible for overtime pay. (The final overtime rules were released on May 18, 2016, but lawyers are still exempt from the overtime requirements.)

Robots, in theory, are an employer’s dream. Robots don’t get bored and spread gossip. They don’t complain about the lack of work-life balance. They don’t call in sick because they drank too much the night before. They don’t demand raises. Employers don’t have to pay robots’ health insurance, workers’ compensation, and one half of their payroll taxes (although they do have to pay occasional maintenance costs). They don’t file discrimination or harassment lawsuits. And they don’t vote for pro-labor union politicians.

When news broke that BakerHostetler “hired” ROSS for its bankruptcy practice, there were fears that this move would start a trend that would further diminish the need for new attorneys. For more information and discussion about ROSS, click here, here and here.

So while some people are calling for “NY to 190K,” others may be considering “NY to 190GB” instead.

But before we get robophobic, let’s look at what ROSS actually does. It does not practice law, although some have labeled it as an artificially intelligent attorney. According to the ROSS website:

So what can ROSS do?

  1. Provide you a highly relevant answer, not 1000s of results, to your question posed in natural language, not keywords.
  2. Monitor the law for changes that can positively/negatively affect your case, instead of flooding you with legal news.
  3. Learn the more you and other lawyers use it.
  4. Offer a simple, consistent experience across all your devices and form factors.

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ROSS – with its IBM Watson technology that learns, thinks, and writes like a human – is designed to help lawyers simplify their legal research. While this may decrease the need for a small number of lawyers and law clerks on research matters, law firms will still need associates to do other lawyerly tasks. At best, I think this ROSS will disrupt the current two-party ruling class known as Lexis and Westlaw (which will hopefully lead to lower prices).

Can robots eventually become lawyers and replace humans? What skills will robots need to have in order to be able to replace human lawyers? Here are a few things that Robo-Lawyer will need to know how to do before it has a chance of replacing a human lawyer:

Write briefs, motions, documents and letters. It’s great that ROSS can make legal research more efficient, but it is mostly useless unless the results can be written into paper. It will have to know how to write motions and other court documents. And it is not enough to be able to write the issue, the law, and how it applies to the present case. It will also have to write in a way that will meet court rules and a judge’s specific idiosyncracies. Also, it will have to learn how to draft custom contracts and documents for transactional work.

Investigate and find facts. As most practicing lawyers know, clients seldom disclose all of the facts. Sometimes they don’t know everything. Other times they do know but won’t tell us. And even when we think the client tells us everything, we have to investigate to verify it all. Investigating means going out to the field to check out the crime scene. It means talking to potential witnesses. While a lot of this work can be delegated to private investigators and the results can be inputted into a computer, the Robo-Lawyer will still have to know how to analyze evidence and determine whether it is relevant.

Go to court and to trial. While it is amusing to think about two robots arguing their clients’ case in a courtroom, I can only see this happening in an episode of The Jetsons.

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Interact with people. Finally, and most importantly, lawyers need to be able to connect with their clients, counsel them, and convince them to pay your fees. While robots with artificial intelligence are able to imitate human emotions and even have a personality, it is not the same as having a deep conversation with another human being. A robot can be of help in some ways. It can evaluate whether a case is worth pursuing after the initial consultation. Robots can usually answer phone calls and emails instantaneously and possibly answer minor questions. People usually turn to attorneys because they are scared, upset, or confused, especially when litigation is involved. In these situations, the potential client does not want to hear just an objective opinion about their case (especially if they are wrong). They want to talk to someone who will listen, calm them down, and provide hope. And right now, a robot cannot do that.

One day, we will live in a world where humans do not work at all. But in light of the above, it will be extremely difficult to replace a human lawyer with a robot. Artificial intelligence can research and organize results faster than a human. And it might be able to give a human answer to a legal question. But right now, a robot can’t negotiate with opposing counsel. It cannot write a contract, nor go to trial. Maybe one day, it can do all of these things and more. But until then, we humans won’t have to worry about the rise of the machines.

Earlier: BakerHostetler Hires A.I. Lawyer, Ushers In The Legal Apocalypse

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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