Page 167 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (n)
P. 167
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 technologies
in a variety of ways, from supporting a quality control process to leveraging artificial intelligence
to perform predictive coding.
152
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 technologies
in a variety of ways, from supporting a quality control process to leveraging artificial intelligence
to perform predictive coding.
152
