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They consume a huge amount of content and packetize to train and graft well beyond their normal business hours. Junior lawyers have a lot in common with generative artificial intelligence. Then, for the former to face stagnation, the massacre and May have now frozen wages at £150,000, but more spending is being thrown at AI.
Expect your machines to continue to take charge of more workloads. Despite the image that continues to happen, lawyers have been developing their skills for almost a century. The clunky red UBIQ, the 1950s and 20 years later, allowed case law searches without relying on libraries.
Today, technology is surrounded by zipping documents, performing due diligence, summarizing cases, and even creating simple cases. It can handle issues such as communication and litigation. One of England’s newest law firms is using AI to prepare letters chasing “follow” debt for just £2.
It’s not all the grunt work either. Lex Machina from LexisNexis has nothing to do with this column, but it can help you predict the outcome of a litigation case based on the past actions of courts, lawyers and judges. A&O Shearman’s Antitrust AI Tool explains the jurisdiction that requires regulatory submissions and what information is needed before drafting the required requests for missing data.
In a few years, all of this might look quaint, laughing like a dictaphone. The AI booster packs constitutional gaps and confirms that it highlights potential legal actions. For example, consider a copyright violation or even acting as a judge a well-informed ambulance tracker warning you. The parties enter a complaint and the model spews the resolution.
For now, the case of junior lawyers remains. Finances are stacked. The hourly billing fees vary widely, but Magic Circle companies expect between £600 and £700. Applying the bottom edge to 1,500 billable hours will leave your pay several times and tilt it into your partner’s pot.
Today’s junior is also tomorrow’s senior. Succession planning relies on the intake of young blood. Argo generation reports still require human monitoring. It usually requires at least some modification. Panglosian’s view on AI also applies to the law. If it’s easier to launch the case, then more people will expand the pie.
However, humans have a more fundamental role. AI has tentacles in every field of business and society and requires a unique rulebook. It is a large-scale effort, such as ethics, intellectual property, privacy. There are still cases for budding legal big wigs.
louise.lucas@ft.com
