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Tag: future of law

  • The New Legal Skillset in an AI-Enabled Profession

    Introduction

    If AI becomes part of ordinary legal workflow, then the question is no longer whether lawyers should care. The real question is what capabilities become more valuable in an AI-enabled profession.

    Snowflake’s research found that organizations are seeing real return from AI but are still constrained by data readiness, governance, and operational integration. I explored that broader business picture in my DataJD article, which is worth reading alongside this legal version because lawyers increasingly operate inside the same enterprise technology realities as everyone else. Read the DataJD article here.

    Key Excerpts

    • 92% of early adopters report positive ROI.
    • 60% say their organizations need greater investment in data infrastructure and monitoring software.
    • Only 7% say more than half of their unstructured data is AI-ready.

    Three Takeaways for Lawyers

    1. AI literacy is becoming practical literacy

    Lawyers do not need to become engineers. But they may need to understand what a tool is doing, what it is not doing, and where the risk points are. That includes prompting, verification, source checking, and knowing when not to trust an answer.

    2. Workflow thinking will matter more

    One of the least discussed changes in the profession is workflow design. Lawyers who can identify bottlenecks, delegate the right layer of work to AI, and preserve quality control may become much more effective.

    3. Governance awareness may become a competitive asset

    The firms and legal departments that understand AI policy, confidentiality controls, approval structures, and data boundaries will probably adopt faster and more safely. That is consistent with the broader lesson in the DataJD Snowflake analysis: trusted infrastructure is not optional.

    Three Questions for the Future

    • Should AI literacy become part of continuing legal education?
    • Will firms start hiring for legal workflow and legal ops capability more aggressively?
    • Which lawyers will be best positioned to advise clients on AI governance itself?

    Closing Thought

    The legal profession is unlikely to become less human. But it may become more layered: AI for speed, humans for judgment, and governance for trust. Lawyers who develop across all three layers may be the ones who benefit most.

  • Will AI Replace Lawyers? A More Realistic Answer

    Introduction

    The phrase “AI will replace lawyers” is catchy, but it is too blunt to be useful. Professions do not usually vanish all at once. Instead, pieces of the workflow change, client expectations shift, pricing structures move, and new skills become more valuable.

    Snowflake’s research supports that more nuanced view. In the broader market, organizations are reporting both job losses and job creation from AI, with a net positive tilt overall. I broke that down in my related DataJD article, which is a helpful starting point for legal readers who want the business context before applying it to law practice. Read the DataJD article here.

    Key Excerpts

    • 77% report AI-driven job creation.
    • 46% report AI-driven job loss.
    • Among those seeing both, 69% say the net effect is positive.

    Three Takeaways for Lawyers

    1. AI can replace tasks without replacing the profession

    Many legal tasks are modular: summarize this, sort that, compare versions, extract key terms, find similar clauses, build an issues list. AI can assist with many of these tasks. But clients do not hire lawyers just for output generation. They hire judgment, accountability, persuasion, and trust.

    2. The middle of the workflow is most vulnerable

    Routine but skilled work may be where the biggest changes happen. The first draft, the first summary, the first pass at research, the first triage of a document set: these are all zones where AI may compress labor.

    3. Lawyers who supervise AI may outperform lawyers who ignore it

    This is the more useful dividing line. The profession may increasingly separate into lawyers who know how to direct, verify, and constrain AI tools, and lawyers who do not. The DataJD Snowflake write-up makes this clear in business terms: value comes from operational use plus governance, not from vague experimentation.

    Three Questions for the Future

    • How will billing models evolve if AI reduces time spent on routine work?
    • Will clients expect AI efficiency discounts?
    • How should law schools prepare students for AI-assisted practice?

    Closing Thought

    AI may replace some of what lawyers do, but that is not the same as replacing lawyers. The deeper shift is that legal value may move further toward judgment, trust, and strategic application.

  • Interesting Article: Is AI the Beginning of the End for Billable Hours?

    Interesting Article: Is AI the Beginning of the End for Billable Hours?

    We came across an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal that touches on a question many lawyers—and clients—are quietly asking:

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