The Impact of Legal Tech and AI on the Legal Profession: A 20-Year Perspective (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: There's no question that legal tech and AI have had a drastic, huge impact on the legal profession. I've seen it throughout the past 20 years of being a lawyer. It started with things like predictive coding for reviewing documents, to development of legal Zoom, to development now of AI GBT. And its impact is astronomical. There are new platforms being formed virtually daily, in terms of document review, in terms of analysis of cases, in terms of predicting claims and sort of structuring complaints. So there's no question that the big firm model will be significantly impacted by legal tech and the future of its development. In many ways, the question of how it impacts the legal world is very parallel to the question of how it impacts all of humanity and all of jobs. What will be replaced? What will stay? But I strongly believe that there are aspects of the legal profession, especially what I do, which is essentially being a trial lawyer and dispute resolution specialist, that cannot be replaced by AI. Because there are aspects to what we do which have to do with the human side of things, which have to do with passion, which have to do with belief, which have to do with subjective factors, such as dealing with, I don't know, witnesses that have trepidations before appearing in court, or convincing a client that there are some tough decisions, but here are the pros and cons and this is how you can potentially make your life better again. Those aspects cannot be replaced by AI because AI is not a human being. And I think that being a lawyer, a really good lawyer, requires you being also an experienced, deep, compassionate person. And to the extent that you have those feelings, you have this ability to connect with people, to have personal relationships, not only with your clients, but with witnesses, with colleagues, with the court, to have credibility with the court, for example. Those things are very important and I think it will be a while, at least I hope it will be a while, before AI is able to replace human beings as far as that.