Generative AI and the Small Law Firm, Part 3: First Steps for Firm Leaders

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In our persevering with sequence, we talk about what steps small legislation agency leaders can take to leverage new Gen AI instruments and processes and ship extra worth to shoppers extra shortly.

What Can a Small Regulation Agency Do, Proper Now, to Leverage Gen AI?

Let’s begin with what it doesn’t must do: It doesn’t want to rent information scientists or flip its attorneys into AI consultants. For smaller legislation companies, as for many companies throughout the spectrum, Gen AI applied sciences will more and more be embedded within the merchandise they use. If a agency deploys these merchandise successfully, it’s deploying AI.

Like all implementation of recent instruments and expertise, nevertheless, this does require some measure of technique and forethought. Even the smallest of companies want a time-bound strategic plan executed with testing and studying throughout the agency.

A part of that strategic planning course of will embody figuring out ache factors within the present method of doing issues. One space that could be low-hanging fruit for smaller companies is in advertising and marketing and enterprise improvement — easy weblog posts and web site creation will be facilitated extra simply with Gen AI, for instance — in addition to different areas the place administrative work takes an excessive amount of time and sources.

Our current examine, Chat GPT & Generative AI inside Regulation Companies, offers a highway map. Generally, the survey discovered that whereas legislation agency attorneys are usually open to utilizing Gen AI, there may be appreciable skepticism about leveraging AI in core authorized work.

Respondents felt barely higher, nevertheless, about utilizing Gen AI instruments, such because the public-facing Chat GPT, for non-legal work inside a legislation agency, equivalent to fundamental question-and-answer providers or different administrative duties. Virtually three-fourths (72%) of respondents mentioned they felt that Gen AI needs to be utilized to non-legal work inside a agency — a a lot increased share than those that mentioned they felt it needs to be utilized to authorized work throughout the agency, 21 share factors increased, in reality.

If a small legislation agency is on the lookout for locations to get began with Gen AI, there are some examples through which a strategic method can convey fast, but actual transformation to each the enterprise and follow of legislation throughout the agency.

Turning Administrative Duties Into Strategic Benefit

Environment friendly deployment of software program to boost the executive aspect of operating a legislation agency can shift the dialogue from effectivity to strategic benefit. Gen AI-based instruments can flip back-office duties into autos for added strategic perception, higher consumer relations and, finally, increased revenues.

Some key first steps that agency leaders might take embody:

Evaluation objectives, processes and instruments for consumer communications. Are the agency’s groups in a position to produce well timed, correct and fascinating consumer communications? Might its attorneys typically be higher communicators? Gen AI will considerably influence the effort and time required to generate first drafts of communications. Consider this as a chance to revisit the agency’s objectives and techniques for higher consumer communications and to leverage the experience that’s at the moment locked away in inner paperwork and work product.

Discover new methods to supply extra responsive consumer service. Gen AI is behind many merchandise (equivalent to chatbots) that provide organizations new methods to reply shortly to shoppers about their issues and billing and take away a few of the friction from routine consumer inquiries.

Assess markets and establish enterprise alternatives. AI additionally has change into important for transactional attorneys by enabling them to evaluate prevailing market phrases whereas advising shoppers. Those self same strategies can be utilized to know broader market tendencies and establish market alternatives by monitoring the path through which the market is shifting.

Accelerating and Enhancing the High quality of Authorized Work

As attorneys construct familiarity with Gen AI via its utility to administrative duties, and because the instruments proceed to evolve, the stage will probably be set for the applying of Gen AI past the enterprise of legislation and into the follow of legislation. Certainly, Gen AI has the potential to remodel the substantive authorized work on the coronary heart of a legislation agency’s worth to shoppers, with a variety of potential purposes and benefits, together with:

Authorized analysis. Sustain with the dramatic enhancements that Gen AI is bringing to authorized analysis instruments. AI has been embedded in authorized analysis instruments for years, however a brand new technology of AI capabilities will dramatically alter the analysis expertise for attorneys. Central to these modifications is the power to ask questions in conversational dialogue with analysis providers and arrive at synthesized solutions fairly than simply lists of related paperwork. Staying on high of the newest options of authorized analysis platforms will present a strategic benefit for small legislation companies in opposition to rivals of all sizes, permitting solo and smaller companies to meaningfully stage the enjoying discipline.

Drafting. Combine Gen AI instruments throughout the drafting course of and leverage a agency’s work product — Gen AI techniques can improve the method of drafting, however in addition they present a chance to extend the worth of a agency’s personal requirements and precedents. AI-based drafting instruments can robotically pull most popular doc language from exterior content material sources or a agency’s proprietary paperwork.

Doc evaluate. Make AI a part of a agency’s doc evaluate processes. AI has confirmed to be an efficient strategy to assist attorneys with first-pass evaluation of paperwork equivalent to contracts or leases. Gen AI options will make these processes extra like conversational dialogue with the paperwork and can spare attorneys from the extra routine components of the job to as a substitute free their time to deal with evaluation and consumer consultations.

Unleash higher service and productiveness. Leverage integrations amongst these instruments to realize higher high quality of service and productiveness. Gen AI will weave collectively the analysis, data administration, and drafting processes that at the moment are separate processes that require attorneys to shift out and in of various instruments. Companies can profit by inspecting and re-working their inner workflows to benefit from these shifts and by altering processes or altering who does what work.

Transferring Boldly Towards an AI Future

There is no such thing as a cause for small legislation companies to be intimidated by AI. None of those improvements are out of the attain of the everyday small agency, and these companies usually have the benefit of with the ability to redeploy sources and alter path extra shortly than their bigger counterparts. Being nimble requires self-discipline, nevertheless, and all legislation companies must take a strategic method.

As we mentioned earlier on this sequence, AI has already made many necessary impacts in how attorneys do their work. Gen AI will add necessary parts to the combo, not the least of which is added capability for attorneys and the potential to extend the looks of professionalism within the eyes of shoppers. This new technology of Gen AI instruments will draw upon information, expertise, and experience to supply high quality outcomes, and attorneys in small legislation companies are simply as properly positioned as their bigger legislation agency counterparts so as to add their very own distinctive area experience to that equation.

Bigger legislation companies which might be experimenting with Gen AI have usually spoken about how their first forays into this new world of AI tech will deal with inner duties, trying to experiment and iterate out of view of the consumer, whereas in search of to develop ranges of experience that may then be leveraged to the consumer’s benefit. Small legislation companies can undertake the very same course of, and in reality, could even beat their bigger rivals to significant outcomes because of their agility and already easier processes.

Nobody is aware of for certain what the way forward for Gen AI will appear to be. Nevertheless, for small legislation agency leaders who’re prepared to take daring however clever steps, a shiny future could come into focus shortly.

That is the third in a sequence of weblog posts about how small legislation companies can deal with the alternatives and pitfalls introduced by generative synthetic intelligence.

Learn half one of many “Generative AI and the Small Regulation Agency” sequence right here.