46 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
SEPTEMBER
/
OCTOBER 2018
FEATURE
AS IT TURNS OUT,
the ongoing debate about the extent to which emerging
legal technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), will make lawyers redun-
dant or at least reduce the profession to a small colony of high-level strategists,
misses the point.
e truth is that no one really cares — at least among business law clients, the
population that matters to the legal market. Business law clients, aer all, are
much like patients. When all is said and done, what they really want is a cost-effec-
tive solution that is as painless as possible with as little distraction and diversion as
their professional advisers can serve up. How the professionals serve this up mat-
ters little, so long as they respect appropriate standards.
e foundational question that does matter — regardless of the form in which
the law firm and the practice of law ultimately emerge — is about who will survive
and prosper in the new environment. For it is fraught with challenges, not the least
of which is the unstinting pace of the frantic legal tech evolution that drives what
is already a revolution in the practice as a whole.
e unfortunate part is that while clients are clearly the drivers of change, many
are planted firmly in the back seat. Interviews conducted by Legal Week Intelli-
gence and international law firm Bird & Bird, found that while general counsel
(GCs) recognize that an AI revolution has begun, they are not yet participants. As
reported in the November 2017 issue of Corporate Counsel magazine, the inter-
Firms are learning
to adapt and prosper
in the age of Artificial Intelligence
BY JULIUS MELNITZER
MEETING
THE AI
CHALLENGE
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
