Page 150 - Leaders in Legal Business - PDF - Final 2018
P. 150
Artificial Intelligence: Does It Play Well With Others in the Legal Industry?
To appreciate how rapidly the ground has shifted in the legal industry, consider the
question we raised in the first edition of this text just three years ago. We noted then, as we did
above, that LPOs (what we might now think of as first-generation ALSPs) were powered by
human labor; they leveraged the low cost of labor in remote locations to drive down the cost of
document review. It seems a quaint concern now, but it is understandable that many wondered at
the time whether the introduction of technology into the field of legal services would threaten the
existence of LPOs. In a passage that has stood up well, we addressed the concern as follows:
While some might argue that technological advances represent a competitive
challenge to LPO, nothing could be further from the truth. It is technology that led
to the advent of LPO, enabling offshore locations to interact with clients
thousands of miles away, and it is the LPO industry that has since continued
embracing and incorporating technology into virtually every element of its legal
services delivery offerings, including assisting and advising corporations and law
firms on the selection and implementation of enabling technologies. It is the LPO
industry that now pushes the envelope to redefine the art of possibility in the legal
field, providing expert consultants who can weave together advanced technologies
as an integral thread in overall legal process transformation.
In retrospect, we were correct to note that technology made LPOs — or first-generation
ALSPs — possible in the first place, and even more correct to emphasize that future ALSPs
would “continue embracing and incorporating technology” into legal services. This has proved
emphatically true. The leading ALSPs of today are almost exclusively thought of as companies
pioneering the utilization of enabling technologies, and correctly so.
In fact, the question being asked now is almost a complete reversal from the one we
discussed in the first edition. It is not whether technology will kill ALSPs, but whether ALSPs
powered by technology — specifically, artificial intelligence — will kill law firms. Again, our
answer is no.
It is indisputable, of course, that technology-assisted document review, legal research,
deal rooms, e-billing software, data analytics, knowledge management, and document assembly
have eliminated the need for firms to devote man hours to certain tasks. It’s also true that the
application of artificial intelligence is only making the tools of automation more powerful. But
the ways in which ALSPs are applying technology to various areas of legal practice are
illuminating, revealing that technology tools remain complements to human legal practice, not a
replacement for it.
Litigation
The days are gone in which huge teams of attorneys reviewed hundreds of thousands —
or millions — of unfiltered documents. And it is no longer relatively inexpensive, remote labor
that performs the task of document review. The leading ALSPs have long been proselytizers of
technology-assisted review (TAR) and have been constantly developing, testing, and refining
their workflows to deliver smarter and less costly review processes. ALSPs deploy these
136
To appreciate how rapidly the ground has shifted in the legal industry, consider the
question we raised in the first edition of this text just three years ago. We noted then, as we did
above, that LPOs (what we might now think of as first-generation ALSPs) were powered by
human labor; they leveraged the low cost of labor in remote locations to drive down the cost of
document review. It seems a quaint concern now, but it is understandable that many wondered at
the time whether the introduction of technology into the field of legal services would threaten the
existence of LPOs. In a passage that has stood up well, we addressed the concern as follows:
While some might argue that technological advances represent a competitive
challenge to LPO, nothing could be further from the truth. It is technology that led
to the advent of LPO, enabling offshore locations to interact with clients
thousands of miles away, and it is the LPO industry that has since continued
embracing and incorporating technology into virtually every element of its legal
services delivery offerings, including assisting and advising corporations and law
firms on the selection and implementation of enabling technologies. It is the LPO
industry that now pushes the envelope to redefine the art of possibility in the legal
field, providing expert consultants who can weave together advanced technologies
as an integral thread in overall legal process transformation.
In retrospect, we were correct to note that technology made LPOs — or first-generation
ALSPs — possible in the first place, and even more correct to emphasize that future ALSPs
would “continue embracing and incorporating technology” into legal services. This has proved
emphatically true. The leading ALSPs of today are almost exclusively thought of as companies
pioneering the utilization of enabling technologies, and correctly so.
In fact, the question being asked now is almost a complete reversal from the one we
discussed in the first edition. It is not whether technology will kill ALSPs, but whether ALSPs
powered by technology — specifically, artificial intelligence — will kill law firms. Again, our
answer is no.
It is indisputable, of course, that technology-assisted document review, legal research,
deal rooms, e-billing software, data analytics, knowledge management, and document assembly
have eliminated the need for firms to devote man hours to certain tasks. It’s also true that the
application of artificial intelligence is only making the tools of automation more powerful. But
the ways in which ALSPs are applying technology to various areas of legal practice are
illuminating, revealing that technology tools remain complements to human legal practice, not a
replacement for it.
Litigation
The days are gone in which huge teams of attorneys reviewed hundreds of thousands —
or millions — of unfiltered documents. And it is no longer relatively inexpensive, remote labor
that performs the task of document review. The leading ALSPs have long been proselytizers of
technology-assisted review (TAR) and have been constantly developing, testing, and refining
their workflows to deliver smarter and less costly review processes. ALSPs deploy these
136
