All of the technology innovators in the legal sector are pushing artificial intelligence as the next big thing<\/a>.\u00a0 They\u2019re talkin\u2019 all about<\/a> the robot takeover<\/a>, and how, if solo and small firm lawyers don\u2019t adapt or get out of the way, it\u2019s curtains for them.\u00a0 Only, solo and small firm lawyers just don\u2019t give a shit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not taking sides here.\u00a0 I understand where solo and small firm lawyers are coming from; I consult with those folks regularly, and I know that they have to be head-down on work, and on top of managing the practice, to make it all come together.\u00a0 I also know that there are a lot of nifty things going on in terms of technology generally, and artificial intelligence specifically, in legal.\u00a0 Heck, my guy Ed Walters even teaches a robotics course at Georgetown<\/a>; the only other person to have done that was Elroy<\/a> Jetson,<\/em><\/strong> in the year 2274.<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m not taking sides.\u00a0 I\u2019m standing in the valley, looking up at either cliff-face, watching the shouting take place.\u00a0 From my vantage point, there are two commingled reasons for why the artificial intelligence revolution does not resonate as such with solo and small firm lawyers.<\/p>\n

The problem tracks back to communication and economics.<\/p>\n

In the first instance, solo and small firm lawyers are tired of being portrayed as Luddites<\/a>.\u00a0 They\u2019re also sick of, especially in this economy, being threatened with job loss<\/a>.\u00a0 How many hundreds (thousands?) of articles have been written with the tagline \u2018The End of Lawyers<\/a>\u2019?\u00a0 If the standard approach is always: \u2018You suck hard; and soon, you won\u2019t have a job because you suck so hard\u2019 — well, wouldn\u2019t you tune out the noise, too?\u00a0 The fact of the matter is that the real, creative work that attorneys do is not going be replaced anytime soon, nor should it be.\u00a0 (I mean, do you really <\/em>want to live in a society overrun with intelligent androids?\u00a0 If you said yes, you probably didn\u2019t watch the season finale of Westworld<\/a>.)\u00a0 The other<\/a> John Mayer<\/a> likes to talk about lawyers practicing \u2018at the top of their law licenses\u2019<\/a>.\u00a0 The truly creative work that lawyers do, the emotional intelligence they must exhibit in dealing with clients, those things are not going to be replicated by machines any time soon.\u00a0 Lawyers working in those spaces will continue to succeed; and, they will be delighted when services arise that can ease their research burden, for example<\/a>.\u00a0 Neither do lawyers fear technology.\u00a0 They\u2019re comfortable with the technology they have, sure; but, that\u2019s in large part because the concept of new technology (as it now exists) is fairly overwhelming to them.\u00a0 Hell, I do this for a living<\/em>, and I can\u2019t keep up.\u00a0 The truth is that law firm technology has advanced from the Model T to the 2017 Ford Mustang in about 10 years; and, if a law firm can\u2019t choose from more than 100 cloud-based law practice management tools<\/a>, when not even one existed a decade ago . . . well, what the fuck did you expect?\u00a0 Solo and small firm lawyers have been asked to seamlessly pull a Captain America<\/a>; and, then everyone is surprised when they can\u2019t.\u00a0 The new regulations respecting data protection<\/a> and technology competence<\/a> are not onerous; but, lawyers tend to believe they are, because they are trying to catch up at ludicrous speed<\/a>.\u00a0 Legislative and ethics authorities need to get better about addressing technology rules to laypersons; but, technology stalwarts need to figure out a way to more effectively translate their service offerings to the needs of solo and small firm attorneys, as those attorneys feel them.<\/p>\n

In a larger sense, though, this is a question of economics.\u00a0 As AI develops, someone needs to pay for the time and space developers need to refine their products.\u00a0 That\u2019s why a computer used to be larger than a small dinosaur<\/a> and a terabyte of data now costs, like, 30 cents.\u00a0 It makes sense that these services would be developed with the support of venture capital firms and large law firms.\u00a0 It\u2019s safe to ignore solo and small firm lawyers, when gathering a large-enough collective of them to support an artificial intelligence program would not be worth the time spent to unify it.<\/p>\n

The ultimate questions is whether and how AI becomes useful to solo and small firm lawyers, rather than if it can be used to squeeze them further out of the market.\u00a0 In the most perfect world<\/a> that can be imagined<\/a>, AI developed for large firms would, in fits and starts, begin to trickle down to solo and small firms, who would be able to access similar programs, at a more reasonable cost.\u00a0 But, if that hasn\u2019t happened with big data (and won\u2019t still, for a while<\/a>), what makes you think it\u2019s going to happen with artificial intelligence?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me started on driverless cars<\/a> . . .<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Liner Notes<\/em><\/p>\n

I blame the Moog synthesizer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Daily Nightly<\/a>\u2019 by The Monkees<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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