The No-Nonsense Comprehensive Compelling Case For Why Lawyers Need To Know About AI And The Law

AI and the law is a vital upcoming profitable opportunity for lawyers, law firms, and law students. The gauntlet had been thrown. You see, I was the invited keynote speaker at a major legal industry conference and my heralded topic was squarely in my wheelhouse, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the law (typically coined as AI & Law). Rather than being entirely heralded, maybe the more apt phrasing is to say that the topic was met with a mixture of excitement by some and outright eyebrow-raising skepticism by others. The assembled collection of several hundred law firm partners and associates murmured and questioned subtly whether anything about AI and the law especially needed to be known by them. AI was generally perceived as a pie-in-the-sky topic. On top of that contention, AI when combined with the law was equally or even further at the outreaches of what daily hard-working nose-to-the-grind lawyers would seem to be thinking about. I'm pleased to say that my remarks were well-taken and the response was quite positive, including that this was the first time many of them had ever heard a no-nonsense compelling and comprehensive case made for why lawyers ought to know about AI and the law. The discussion got those top-notch legal-minded gears going and the attendees had plenty to ruminate on. Let's see if the same can be said for those of you that might be interested or at least intrigued by the AI & Law topic. First, a vital facet to know is that AI & Law consists of two intertwined conceptions. I want to emphatically make clear-cut that these are both bona fide and rapidly expanding ways in which AI and the law are being combined. Many attorneys are only familiar with one or the other of the two perspectives, or oftentimes not familiar with either of the two. Depending upon your lawyering preferences, it is perfectly fine to concentrate on one of the two and not particularly focus on the other. By and large, lawyers that seem less inclined toward having an interest in technology are bound to keep their eye on the law as applied to AI, wherein you don't necessarily need to get your hands into the tech per se. Those lawyers that seem to relish the high-tech infusion into the legal realm are more apt to gravitate toward the realm of AI as applied to the law. You are welcome to embrace both aspects and do so with your head held high. I'll first herein do some meaty unpacking on the law as applied to AI. When referring to the law as applied to AI, you should immediately be thinking about the emerging litany of new laws seeking to govern the advent of AI systems. Laws are springing up like wildfire. International laws are coming forth about AI & Law, federal laws too, state laws also, and local laws aplenty, see my ongoing coverage at the link here and the link here, just to name a few.