I get it. Lawyers and our clients are bombarded with information on how AI is going to change the world with equal doses of the ethical implications and potential traps for lawyers. Why would anyone change what they know is safe and works for them? Obviously, no one should apply technology just for technology’s sake or to keep up with new technology. But the opportunities must be considered as well as the risk. The right first question to ask is: “Would AI platforms have a positive impact on my firm’s workflow and the quality of our work?” Then ask: “If so, how can we use it safely?”

Do not be discouraged by the morass of information and misinformation about AI. AI legal-related products and services keep getting better and more user friendly, and their power for efficiency and effectiveness in performing tasks in the legal field is undeniable. Clients increasingly expect their lawyers to understand and safely apply beneficial AI products to their work. The benefits of AI merit the time invested to reexamine workflow to see if AI platforms are a good fit.

The new technology is worth the effort.

I am days short of my 77^th birthday, and I have been a lawyer and judge for longer than many of my newest colleagues in the Bar have been on the earth. My law firms were large, medium, and small over the years, and I have been an associate, partner, managing partner and owner of law firms. For the past twenty years I have taught lawyers and judges about trial practice, procedure, and technology. There were many technology advances during my legal career, but none came close to being exquisitely applicable to improving lawyer workflow, efficiency, and output quality in all phases of practice… until now.

I regularly communicate and work with really smart folks in eDiscovery and legal technology fields who help lawyers and judges with technology. I recently listened to a presentation by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez about AI at the University of Florida Law School eDiscovery Conference. Judge Rodriguez gave a keynote talk discussing specific benefits of AI for lawyers and clients, including small to medium sized firms, and challenged the audience to learn and apply the beneficial technology despite the challenges. The experts understand the practical benefits of AI and the facility of the emerging generative AI tools for a myriad of legal tasks. New tools powered by AI are the real deal, and generative AI using Large Language Models make the platforms more seamlessly accessible and useful to lawyers and staff.

The most compelling reason to pivot to AI assistance is the ever-increasing complexity of law practice of all stripes and specialties in light of burgeoning data and expectations of clients who are already swimming in an AI pool. AI assistance will be needed, for example, for eDiscovery as the scope and amount of evidence and data exponentially increases. Expectations are rising for due diligence and precision in focus on key issues and potential pitfalls in mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions, family law, contracts, and labor and employment law. Lawyers will need all the help they can get to keep up.

It is understandably difficult for many lawyers, especially those on limited budgets, to pull the trigger and invest the time and resources to transition to AI. But lawyers have the intellect and ability to take the needed steps to use AI to improve their workflow, be they incremental or macro. To make the transition as safe and frictionless as possible it takes critical analysis of your processes and workflow (firm and individual), and an understanding of the current tools, both of which are readily attainable and worth the time. Tailor the AI tools and power to your specific needs and workflow at a pace that you can tolerate.

What are the right questions to ask?

Lawyers are not necessarily experts in business administration, which makes running your own firm challenging. I can personally attest to that. To better understand overcoming hurdles to the adoption of AI products, I turned to a smart businessman with practical experience in helping lawyers with improving workflow, Shawn Arnold of CodexTen. Shawn and I spent some quality hours on Teams discussing how lawyers can transition to AI tools to improve workflow so I could understand the process better. The discussions were so productive, Shawn and I were motivated to discuss these issues for a program on EDRM’s website, called Rise of the Machines: TRANSITIONING TO AI POWERED WORKFLOW IN THE PRACTICE OF LAW. Here are some of the questions Shawn and I address:

1. What are the most relevant capabilities of new AI products and applications that can benefit lawyer efficiency and effectiveness?

In order to do a cost-benefit analysis that benefits a particular lawyer or law firm, one must understand the true capabilities of the myriad of tools and services that are available. AI can save time on routine tasks like document formatting, data analysis, and proofreading. Using AI shortens human time, freeing the lawyer up for more complicated executive functions. For example, AI tools can streamline contract review processes by automatically flagging errors or inconsistencies within documents. This saves time spent reviewing contracts or depositions line-by-line for relevance, mistakes, or inconsistencies. What sets LLM’s and generative AI apart is the ease of use and the ability of the product to enhance the user’s analytic ability, recall, and organization.

The list of functions that may apply to a given firm is long and is subject to the lawyers’ specialties and the staffing available. Tools are available for legal writing, document drafting, document and timeline management, data analysis, eDiscovery functions, data and legal research and analysis, expert witness management and analysis, and much more. Additionally, AI tools can shorten time for office administration, firm promotion, and routine to complex tasks on the business end of the firm.

Knowing how AI functions, good and bad, allows lawyers and firms to use the tools within the workflow rather than changing the workflow to fit the tools. Lawyers do not need to give up what they have learned works for them in order to use AI. Instead, the AI can help with the efficiency and economy by identifying the choke points and challenges in the workflow and applying technology to them.

2. How should lawyers integrate AI into their workflows? Can firms implement AI in phases rather than all at once?

The goal is to overcome short term discomfort and investment by learning and using technology for long term gain. Use a cost-benefit analysis that balances long term benefits with near-term ones. Look for a return on investment. It may not be instantaneous. Set long term goals. To do this you need to understand what workflow works best in your practice and what are the tools that can enhance that workflow. If necessary, take a step by step approach to proof the process and the tools. Again, this takes critical self-analysis.

Look for tasks that are causing the most consumption of time by overqualified humans in the firm and assign them to machines with the requisite AI capability supervised or monitored by humans. For example, a $400 an hour lawyer should not be summarizing documents if another qualified option is available at lower cost. Even excellent paralegals have a limited amount of time to spend on such tasks. Generative AI (with proper use and human supervision) can perform such tasks faster and, in cases involving voluminous material, often better than an associate or paralegal. Plus the AI is available instantaneously 24-7 without interrupting other tasks and will return results in minutes instead of hours or days.

Firms of all sizes are already using AI writing assistance to help draft contracts more efficiently freeing hours previously spent drafting from scratch. AI tools can provide analysis and recommendations as a copilot or assistant to ensure thoroughness and consistency across myriad data and documents. Trial lawyers use AI discovery platforms in eDiscovery, case management, and to quickly sort, analyze, and cull relevant documents and testimony for production of witness examination and creation of timelines and striking exhibits. This reduces the paralegal and lawyer time previously required for trial prep. Imagine the benefit of having instantaneous summaries and analysis of real time trial testimony and admitted evidence for the purpose of preparing closing argument. Things I did manually as a trial lawyer and judge can now be reliably produced by AI.

Project management and firm administrative tasks can be enhanced and improved by use of AI platforms. The complicated business of law practice, client relations, billing, firm promotion are all targets for workflow improvement using AI. Advantages of consistency, recall, and data management can lighten the stress and time commitment on these important tasks, freeing lawyer time for executive functions, working on client matters, or free time to recharge.

At a minimum, try using generative products to see whether the technology works for you. Learn the product well enough to get valid responses and avoid known risks of Large Language Models, so you can safely kick the tires. However, tasks like summarizing depositions or communications employ just the tip of the iceberg of AI capabilities. Ultimately aim for use of analytical and organizational skills of AI platforms and apply them to complement and improve your performance and others in the firm.

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Some of the other questions I have for Shawn that I hope to get to in our discussion on March 5 are as follows:

3. What is a reasonable ultimate goal in transition to AI powered workflow? What are realistic roadmaps and benchmarks lawyers should set to measure the success of an AI implementation and make sure it delivers value?

4. How can programs and applications be developed or located that accommodate diverse needs and preferences of lawyers and paralegals within a firm? How customizable are AI platforms to meet the diverse needs of different firms and practice areas? What options do firms have to tailor AI solutions to their existing workflows vs. needing to overhaul processes?

5. How can small to medium firms or even solo practitioners get in the game? For small firms concerned about costs, what are ways they can pilot AI solutions in a budget-friendly way? How can small firms realize the benefits of AI without large financial investments up front? What pricing or business models support that?

Join me and Shawn Arnold on March 5, 2024, and bring your own questions to the table. The future of law practice is unfolding before us, and the advantages of transitioning to new technologies are real. Overcoming reluctance over AI is a laudable goal in light of competitive advantages, client expectations, and the constant need to improve workflow. Fear of the unknown is understandable, but all it takes is to shine a light on workflow issues and then take them on, just as lawyers have done with every other problem they have faced in the past. Then the remaining question will be how to best spend the time freed up by having AI assistance reducing the workload.

Judge Artigliere (ret.) gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Shawn Arnold of CodexTen for his help with this article.