Navigating new tech

The legal industry is experiencing rapid change driven by technological advances. It is more important than ever for legal professionals to understand generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and how it can be incorporated into legal practice. GenAI tools provide a competitive edge, create efficiencies in service delivery, and have the potential to increase access to justice. Lawyers must consider their own business case and choose the GenAI tools that work for them.

To help lawyers gain the knowledge and skills they need to adapt to the future of legal practice, the Canadian Bar Association’s Legal Futures Subcommittee hosted the AI Technologies in Practice webinar series in June. The three sessions provide practical takeaways on AI-powered legal research and writing, as well as using predictive analytics in legal practice.

What follows are key insights and considerations gleaned from the series.

Setting the Context

While GenAI may be the current buzzword in legal practice, artificial intelligence has a deep history in the field of computer science. Alan Turing published his seminal paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” in 1950, introducing the world to the possibility that machines could think. Since then, computer science has been trying to design systems that can communicate and understand information with the ease and efficiency of the human mind.

The 1980s saw an AI boom that led to significant advances in research. With the advent of machine learning, the technology sector began using algorithms that can improve over time as they access and integrate data, leading to computer systems that can perform tasks without explicit instructions.

By the 2010s, the technology sector brought deep learning to market, giving users the ability to use GenAI tools to create text, images, audio, and video.

The Legal Tech Landscape

While some large firms have been using AI in their practice for more than a decade, the recent explosion of user-friendly, industry-specific GenAI tools is driving rapidly rising interest in the legal industry. Significant investment has been made in the development of tools purpose-built for the legal field, including document automation, e-discovery, legal research, and drafting. The introduction of prompt engineering allows lawyers to optimize the outputs of AI-powered legal tech while instructing the tool using natural language text.  

Understanding Your Business Case

Successful organizational change happens when lawyers understand the needs of their own businesses. Many GenAI tools can create efficiencies, but lawyers must be careful to choose the right tech to fit their needs.

To that end, the benefits of pilot programs cannot be understated. Law firms should have a small team test a GenAI tool before rolling it out to the entire organization. Include AI champions and skeptics in the mix to ensure balanced feedback. By testing in a focused, purposeful way, you can better understand what works for your business.

Avoiding Pitfalls

While pilots can help identify a particular tool's business benefits, firms must also take steps to understand the risks. It is prudent to have a technology lawyer review license terms and service contracts before adopting any GenAI or technology-driven tool. Law firms must also involve their technology leaders to ensure that all cybersecurity, client confidentiality, and privacy risks have been considered before adopting any new technology.

GenAI finds its strengths in time efficiency, responsiveness, scalability, and ability to streamline repeatable tasks. Its weaknesses include bias, data quality and training issues, privacy and confidentiality issues, equitable access, and other fairness considerations. Law firms can conduct a comprehensive risk analysis by identifying all benefits and risks.

Lawyers must also consider their professional obligations when considering whether to use GenAI. Rule 3.1 of the Model Code of Professional Conduct requires lawyers to be competent: They must “[have and apply] relevant knowledge, skills and attributes in a manner appropriate to each matter undertaken on behalf of a client and in the nature and terms of the lawyer’s engagement."

Technological competence is addressed in Rule 3.1-2.

In addition to the best practices that are emerging across Canada, lawyers should consider professional obligations set out by their law society.

Legal Industry Best Practices

Provincial law societies have published helpful guidance as part of their effort to address the professional implications of using AI in legal practice. Recent examples include the Law Society of Ontario’s white paper on licensee’s use of generative AI, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society’s 2023 guide, Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law, and the Law Society of British Columbia’s Guidance on Professional Responsibility and Generative AI.

The courts have also weighed in on the use of GenAI in proceedings. In December 2023, the Federal Court of Canada published a document outling interim principles and guidelines for its own use of artificial intelligence.

At the same time, it published a practice notice for parties and the profession on the use of AI, which included a requirement to declare when AI-generated content is used in court proceedings.

What’s Next: Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Practice

AI’s rise has spurred the legal industry into a transformative period. For those looking for further insight on the topic, the webinar series offers a timely discussion on the current legal tech landscape, as well as the benefits and risks of using AI in legal practice.

It is now available for purchase here.