Machines are newly proficient at legal work. What’s left for the lawyers? Some semi-serious reflections.
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Most Lawyers Are Good for Something
In popular imagination, attorneys have often been regarded as good-for-nothings. A bunch of parasites and ne’er-do-wells.
We lawyers, of course, know better. Some of us are actually good! Good for clients, good for society. But how much longer will we remain good for anything?
Artificial intelligence now unmistakably shows itself capable of doing lawyerly things. Won’t clients just turn to inexpensive machine substitutes? What are lawyers still good for?
Being a Good Lawyer in an AI Age
There seems to be no limit to the efficacy of artificial intelligence. (Unlike that of natural stupidity.)
Homo sapiens is experiencing a twilight of human exceptionalism. Our creations are out-creating us. Lawyers, among others, may need new vocations.
One thing we can be sure of is that there is little we can be sure of.
Shrinkage: Treacherous Times for the Legal Profession
The prospect of excellent legal assistance becoming “too cheap to meter” may delight some and horrify others. (I explored this in The End of a Legal Ice Age.)
These times are more treacherous for law firms than many of their leaders seem to recognize. Dark clouds line the horizon. That extends to the challenge of developing new professionals, both at firms and in law schools. Our machinery of lawyer formation is sputtering.
There are, of course, distinctive contributions human lawyers still claim. Responsibility, perspective, accountability, wisdom, vision, trust. We bring connections and inside knowledge. Soft skills for interacting human-to-human are newly championed. We can also climb up the ladder to architect knowledge systems and orchestrate our new workers. But the list is getting shorter, fast.
At least for now we may have the edge in terms of experiences and emotions. (See Feeling Left Out.) While I’ve been inclined to believe that true “judgment” still mostly remains the province of the carbon-based, now I’m not so sure.
Frenemies in the Technosphere
AI can surely help guide us through this troublesome period, right?
Will machines decide, Marie Kondo-like, that the planet is overstaffed with humans and eliminate those of us who don’t spark joy? Undeterred by pesky human rules and regulations, they may choose to survive without us.
Perhaps lawyers will be on the front lines of a Butlerian jihad (look it up; I had to) or negotiate an arms treaty based on mutually assured destruction. But any kill switch will likely be made inaccessible long before the Day of Judgment.
On the other hand, what if machines started acting philanthropically? They might show us how to curb our billionaire overlords and distribute abundance more fairly. Maybe they will realize how corrosive, cruel and counterproductive extreme disparities in wealth are and start doing something about them. Will we see a new anti-oligarchical Rule of Law, announced and enforced by benevolent, law-abiding superintelligence? Plutocrats may want to reconsider being accelerationists.
AI as a new branch of government will need checks and balances. Lawyers could help design those.
You Good?
All of us are good for something. One ongoing job is to figure out what that is. We need to get beyond nostalgia and reassuring stories.
Some humans are good at doing good and expecting little in return. Maybe that’s a good part of what we’re still good for. Helping each other lead meaningful and healthy lives, spreading legal wellness. Both secular humanists and those who believe they are graced with immortal souls can embrace that agenda. As the famed physicist Richard Feynman reminded us (speaking about nanotechnology), “There’s plenty of room at the bottom.”
What’s your own value-add?
So What Are Lawyers Still Good For? Bottom Line
Not long ago, lawyers practiced with little more tech than books, telephones and typewriters. Now we all possess extraordinary new powers to do good work.
Non sub homine sed sub Deo et lege
“Not under man, but under God and the law”
is inscribed on Langdell Hall at Harvard Law School. The relentless onslaught of mechanical intelligence could either obliterate or deepen that sentiment.
If we teach our mind-children well, machine brilliance may shine enough light to usher in unprecedented levels of prosperity and justice. Wouldn’t that be something?
Image © iStockPhoto.com.
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