Technology, Women's Issues

Robots Will Never Be As Creative As Lawyers

But if the legal profession remains as it is today, then male lawbots will likely be more valued than female lawbots.

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An old lady lawyer friend of mine chastised me for my comment in a recent column that, these days, I am discouraging women from going to law school and entering the profession.

Her point is that unless women are in the profession, things will not change. True, but things aren’t moving very fast now with women making up more than 50 percent of law school classes, but then, at some later time, ditching the profession for whatever else they may choose to do. Does anyone wonder why?

In support of my position is Elie Mystal’s latest rant. (Thank you, Elie.) No, my goal here is not to show him that I read what he writes, but to illustrate yet another reason why I discourage women from entering the profession. It seems that anatomy is still financial destiny in the legal world and that if you don’t have certain anatomical characteristics, your likelihood of making the big bucks bonus is 31 percent less. A woman general counsel just isn’t valued financially like her male counterparts. What does that say about the concept of “equal pay for equal work”? A sham, empty words, lip service, whatever.

As Elie points out, “[T]he report also reveals that at all levels, female in-house counsel are making far less than their male in-house counterparts. In other roles in the legal department, female in-house counsel made 8.2 percent less than male in-house attorneys in 2016.” Wow, isn’t it nice to be undervalued like that?

Many years ago at my first in-house job, I was told that I wasn’t making as much as a male colleague (who graduated in the “second quintile” of his class, whatever that meant, while I graduated in the top 10 percent of mine) because he had a family. I had a husband, soon-to-be laid off, and was dealing with rebuilding part of our property resulting from disastrous canyon flooding at the same time. Whatever. “Quint” had more value because he was a man. This was in the early 1980s. Should I have complained? What would have happened? Have things changed since then? You tell me.

So, why do I discourage women from entering law these days? If you’re not sure, then reread the links above, and then will you really have to ask?

On a more encouraging note, at least right now, I read an article that should give all of us hope that we won’t all be replaced by robots, at least in the next couple of years.

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Part of the rap on lawyers is that we seem to lack imagination and creativity, that we are completely linear thinkers, and as a result, we think that we don’t have a creative bone anywhere in our bodies.

The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report” lists the top 10 job skills required for workers to succeed by 2020. Here they are: one skill has gone from last to third.

What is it? Creativity.

Do we have it? I think we do, although it’s often buried under boilerplate work in contracts, discovery, and other often mind-numbing tasks that consume much of the daily grind.  I don’t think that anyone, except for a junior puppy, and maybe not even one of those, relishes propounding or responding to discovery or comparing redlined drafts at midnight. Those tasks are necessary, but definitely not the most creative.

Lawyers can be and are creative in a number of ways, but we just don’t see ourselves in those terms. Columnist Jeff Bennion agrees.  For example, prepping for trial is creative. You have to figure out how to tell a story in the best possible way, whether representing plaintiff or defendant, and how to create interest and empathy in your client’s case. Trial definitely requires creativity. You have to think on your feet, never knowing when that curve ball is coming, be it an objection you aren’t expecting, a witness who rolls on you (that never happens, right?), or impeachment evidence. You have to grab the jurors by the scruffs of their necks and keep them fascinated, wondering what is going to happen next. Your job as a trial lawyer is storyteller. They snooze, you lose.

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Transactional lawyers also can be creative when they think about the best way to structure a particular deal. It’s never one size fits all or it shouldn’t be.  A Lawyerist blog post has some suggestions.

You don’t have to tell me that it’s hard to turn off your inner critic and just let ideas flow, whether good or bad or somewhere in between. It’s our job to see the flaws in an argument, a document, and so to let that go can be very difficult, but letting go of the “we’ve always done it this way” can lead to creative problem solving. I see this in mediation, assuming that the parties and counsel are open-minded enough and that’s not necessarily a given.

When I was in-house at a financial institution, I often represented it in “workout” matters, e.g., “special assets,” “loan adjustments,” or whatever the terminology was. What was fun about that was advising the workout officer, who was usually much more risk tolerant than the rest of the company. The loan was already in the toilet, so what would be the best way to get repaid in full, take a haircut, or make some other arrangement? Those deals could be very creative.

Yes, automation is here, yes, so is artificial intelligence, but can you and would you even want to program creativity? We need to emphasize that part of a lawyer’s practice involves creative thinking. How would a robot handle a recalcitrant witness? Could a robot show empathy to a victim who has suffered a catastrophic injury? Are we headed for a dystopian legal world? Do we want to find out?

If robots are anatomically correct (according to various websites, they are), then we know which will be more valued.

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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