AI Reshaping the Scottish Legal Ecosystem
Image courtesy of Iñaki del Olmo.
What impact has AI already had on the Scottish legal system? How will new tools and technologies affect legal practitioners?
Redrawing the Past's Blueprint
For those of us immersed in the tech landscape of the early 2000s, one moment stands indelibly engraved in our memories: John Antioco, then CEO of Blockbuster, declined a golden opportunity to acquire an embryonic startup called Netflix for a mere $50 million. Dismissing its potential, Antioco confidently remarked, "the dot-com hysteria is completely overblown”. In a dramatic turn of corporate fortunes, while Blockbuster sought bankruptcy protection in 2010, Netflix's valuation has since soared, approaching a staggering $200 billion today.
Last August, Thomson Reuters - the company behind the legal database Westlaw - completed acquisition of Casetext, a provider of technology for legal professionals, for a purchase price of $650 million. Casetext, had been granted early access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 allowing it to develop solutions with the new technology and refine use cases for legal professionals. Its key product is CoCounsel, an AI legal assistant launched in March 2023, which uses Natural Language Processes (NLP) to deliver legal research memos, document reviews, witness testimony preparation, and contract analysis in minutes. Only time will truly tell whether this move by Thomson Reuters will be heralded as prescient or deemed a miscalculation. Nevertheless, it is rather intuitive to draw parallels between this acquisition and the oversight by Blockbuster's John Antioco in the early 2000s.
Scotland's Legal Landscape in the Age of AI
The legal profession in Scotland, like many others worldwide, is currently navigating through a transformative era, largely driven by the arrival of AI. As I discussed in my recent paper, "Navigating the AI Frontier", AI in law is not a novel concept. However, it has been the unexpected surge of generative AI that has unleashed a seismic shift within the legal ecosystem, generating fascination and scepticism in equal measure. Spearheading this change are AI for legal assistants like CoCounsel, Harvey AI, Lexis+ AI, Westlaw Precision, and Vincent AI which leverage natural language processing, machine learning, and data analytics to convert into intelligent legal search engines equipped with chatbot interfaces, capable of providing plausible responses to a multitude of legal prompts.
From CAD to Courtrooms
While lawyers should stay in the driver’s seat, the above new capabilities undoubtedly opens up avenues for lawyers to spend less time on mundane tasks. However, the role of extractive and generative AI transcends being merely a shortcut to the answer; it serves as a potent instrument in enriching the quality of outcomes, fostering a deeper understanding and anticipation of client needs, and thereby enhancing the comprehensiveness and sophistication of the responses generated.
Just as the arrival of computer technologies revolutionised the architecture industry in the 1970s, AI and law are now undergoing a similar transition. Much like CAD software opened up avenues for intricate designs and complex geometries in architecture, AI in the legal sector promises not only more efficient use of time, but also the potential to fundamentally rethink and enhance solutions to complex legal queries and client needs.
Quite ironically, in the early days there were only a handful of specialists proficient in digital architectural design while most accomplished architects excelled in creating detailed hand drawings. Now the tables seem to have turned. Simplified versions of these software tools are now enabling architects to create designs that transcend their imagination, producing highly realistic models. What used to be the pride of architects, hand-drawn designs, are now merely attractive exhibits in museums.
AI's Role in the Ethical Evolution of Law
This sudden tech emergence has catapulted the legal ecosystem into uncharted territory. But simultaneously, it casts a spotlight on a series of profound ethical dilemmas. As the industry steers through this intricate terrain, a paramount objective emerges: to forge a symbiotic relationship between AI's innovative prowess and the principles of justice and ethical practice. The goal is to sculpt a future where technology serves not as a replacement but as an enhancement to human expertise, facilitating a richer, more nuanced approach to the pursuit of justice. A period where the potential of generative AI to transform legal practices is also being weighed against the equally significant concerns about ethics and the preservation of the human element in legal processes.
As the industry navigates this complex landscape, the mission to harmonise the groundbreaking efficiencies offered by AI with the established principles of justice and ethical practice takes centre stage, shaping a future where technology and humanity merge in the pursuit of fairness, access to justice and professional ethics.
Author Biography
Dr Corsino San Miguel PhD, LLB in Scots law and graduate in Spanish law, co-founded and led European Telecom Company before entering academia. He is now a member of the AI Research Group and the Public Sector AI Task Force at the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.
Read his latest paper, Navigating the AI Frontier.
The views expressed in this blog post are personal.
