Navigating the AI Revolution: Opportunities and Ethical Considerations for Future Lawyers

What is Generative AI?

According to McKinsey, “Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. Recent breakthroughs in the field have the potential to drastically change the way we perform content creation.”

There is no question; GenAI is having a significant impact on all industries. It’s a technological gamechanger still in the making. But for our legal system, GenAI is predicted to have impacts that could turn some legal disputes from lawyer versus lawyer to a negotiation that is worked out between artificial intelligence: one law firm’s GenAI versus another’s GenAI. This could be what the future looks like for simple divorce proceedings or a fender bender, for instance.

However, a recent Reuters report had this to say about what lies ahead: “For now, use cases for GenAI in law firms are primarily internally focused. That will change rapidly in time. Over the next decade, GenAI stands to greatly transform legal work, affecting everyone from legal clerks to senior partners.”

GenAI: learning from its mistakes

According to a 2024 study done by Bloomberg Law, AI chatbots from OpenAI Inc, Google LLC, and Meta Platforms Inc, are prone to “hallucinations” when responding to legal questions. In fact, the study found that AI hallucinates at least 75% of the time when answering questions about a court ruling. 

Here’s an example:

In June of 2023, a lawyer filed a brief using the GenAI platform ChatGPT. It included citations to a series of legal cases that seemed to offer precedents that supported his client’s position.

But there was a problem. Six of those cases didn’t exist; they were hallucinations made up by ChatGPT. 

Nevertheless, legal experts believe that GenAI is constantly learning and improving and will one day change the legal profession in ways that will help lawyers and their clients. In addition, a positive aspect of the innovation is that it will someday help those with legal needs that are underserved, as the Bloomberg Law states that more than 90% of low-income Americans can’t afford to litigate. 

In fact, recent updates show that the industry is moving away from non-specialized AI to AI that is trained on legal matters specifically to ensure better accuracy. Many lawyers say that if you use a GenAI platform to write a memo about a legal question, you will get something approximating what a first-year law firm associate would be able to produce. 

 GenAI for the legal profession may sound promising, but the risks are worth noting:

• Most attorneys have little to no experience using generative AI tools
• Dangers exist ranging from false outputs, algorithm bias, and hallucinations
• There is the ongoing potential for IP theft, data leakage, and confidentiality concerns, any of which could trigger lawsuits
• Lawsuits are already emerging that derive from intellectual property violations, such as the use of public figures; their voices, and appearances (see Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI)

In spite of the risks, ethical issues, and the rapid changes that are affecting generative AI, it’s not going away. Like any technological change, this one is gaining ground. But Stanford law professor Daniel Ho cautions: “We should not take general purpose foundation models and naively deploy them and put them into all sorts of settings, as a number of lawyers seem to have done. Proceed with much more caution — where you really need lawyers, and people with some legal knowledge, to be able to assess the veracity of what an engine like this is giving you.”

How are law schools preparing for GenAI?

According to The National Jurist, law schools are still grappling with whether or not to accept AI-assisted essays. Some, like the University of Michigan Law School, banned the use of GenAI for admission essays. But the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at the University of Arizona allows prospective students to use AI tools in the name of inclusivity. For the most part, law schools are still working out how to use it practically and ethically. But Jack Newton, founder and CIO of Clio, a legal software provider summed it up this way:

“AI is the biggest innovation we’ve seen in a generation. It’s an advancement as significant as the invention of the transistor or the PC. Ultimately, this isn’t a matter of AI replacing lawyers anymore than spreadsheets replaced accountants. AI won’t make lawyers irrelevant. But those who embrace it will dominate over those who don’t.”

What are law firms looking for in today’s applicants?

According to Timothy Buckley of Howard & Howard, a business law firm headquartered in Chicago, “We look for an ability to write and dispute; communication is the key to any lawyer’s skillset. If you can’t communicate your knowledge, you’re ineffective as a lawyer. This extends beyond the written word to negotiating skills, such as arguing a case in court and mitigating C-suite issues. Lawyers must be effective communicators in both written and spoken words.”

Law firms look for people with a well-rounded background. This includes civic engagements such as volunteering and shadowing at a law firm or internships for law students called “summer associates.” None of these things come from generative AI.

Adds Buckley, “We want to know that students are tech savvy but not solely reliant on technology to communicate. One of the canons of ethics is to be technically proficient. Going forward, that will include familiarity with AI to review and analyze large volumes of documents that otherwise could take weeks to review manually; tools that can winnow downs 100,000 pages of documents to a manageable compilation. Then you need humans to review and check the relevance of the output.” 

With improvements to GenAI looming on the horizon, what’s in store for future law students? 

For high school students considering a future in law, a traditional law school education is essential. And that education can start as early as high school, with help from Prelum, Powered by Kaplan.

Students can prepare for law/govt with pre-college courses

Law and government courses for high school students can be found at many of the Prelum partner universities. For instance, Georgetown University’s Pre-College Online Program offers a course called Law: How To Think Like an Attorney. Ideal for high school students who yearn for a future in law, this course shares the disciplines of the legal profession: how to collect and analyze evidence, separate fact from opinion, and exercise the critical thinking and communication skills essential to a future in law.

You also may want to consider college prep law courses at Rice University, which includes Law: Shaping a Just and Equitable World. This fascinating course looks at how law shapes society; from the Civil Rights Movement to workers’ rights to intellectual property rights, and how these rights are assessed and protected.

Rice is also home to international relations programs for high school students. This renowned research university is where you’ll find Global Affairs: Exploring Political Systems, an online course that takes you on a journey through the various types of government systems that populate our world. Learn about the rise and fall of democracies, and consider the guardrails, often part of the legal systems, that are designed to protect human rights. Finally review the variety of careers associated with this field of study; everything from diplomatic service to journalism, public affairs consultancies, and even police.

Is Generative AI going to play a role in all of the above? No doubt. But, keep in mind, this is a language tool with significant limitations; particularly around veracity, ethics, and privacy. Law firms will need to leverage AI tools to their advantage while offering distinctly human capabilities that GenAI cannot replicate, such as the ability to build client relationships, advocate, empathize, understand a client’s special needs, provide judgment, and the ability to weigh all factors and advise on the best strategy for the client. Those skills are built in law school. 

Start your journey to a future in law today.