AI in Legal Practice
Law is being transformed by AI—from legal research to contract review to access to justice. It's also raising new legal questions about AI itself.
GPT-4 Passed the Bar
GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile on the Uniform Bar Exam—better than most human test-takers. This sparked intense debate about AI in law.
Legal AI Applications
Legal Research
AI can search case law, find relevant precedents, and summarize legal documents in seconds.
- Westlaw, LexisNexis — Traditional providers adding AI
- Harvey — GPT-powered legal AI
- CoCounsel — AI legal assistant
Contract Review
- AI scans contracts for risky clauses
- Compares against standard terms
- Flags issues for human review
Document Generation
Drafting contracts, wills, and legal documents from templates and specific requirements.
E-Discovery
Reviewing massive document sets for relevant evidence in litigation.
Access to Justice
- AI can help people who can't afford lawyers
- DoNotPay and similar services for simple legal tasks
- Self-help legal tools powered by AI
Concerns
- Hallucinations — AI citing non-existent cases (this has happened in court!)
- Accountability — Who's responsible for AI legal advice?
- Bias — AI may perpetuate legal system biases
- Job displacement — Entry-level legal work most affected
- Unauthorized practice — AI giving "legal advice" without a license
AI as Legal Subject
Law is also grappling with how to regulate AI:
- AI liability and accountability
- AI and intellectual property (who owns AI-generated content?)
- Privacy and AI training data
- Antitrust concerns about AI dominance
Summary
- • AI is transforming legal research, contracts, and discovery
- • GPT-4 passed the bar exam in the 90th percentile
- • Concerns: hallucinations, accountability, job displacement
- • Law is also struggling to regulate AI itself