By Frank Ready – Law.com, May 4, 2020
Excerpt: The biggest challenge facing developers of artificial intelligence-powered legal drafting software may not be the technical but the personal. While the accuracy rate of AI drafting tools that can help lawyers churn out documents such as pleadings, briefs or discovery requests and responses is steadily improving, getting those finished products to align with the varying standards of an array of law firms and attorneys may still be an ongoing process.
James Lee, CEO and co-founder of LegalMation, indicated that accuracy can be something of a roaming target, not just because of limitations in still-developing AI technology, but individual preferences or stylistic flourishes of attorneys. He believes the problem with AI in legal is that there are often clusters of possible right answers, rather than one clear choice.
“Lawyers consider themselves to be artists. I can put 10 lawyers in a room and tell them to draft something, and I will have 20 different versions of it. And it’s because lawyers like to put their stamp of uniqueness on a work product, their preferences,” Lee said.
Lee thinks that a “one-size-fits-all” product with limited customization likely covers more users and thus would be friendlier to the mass market. But for legal tech companies attempting to reach larger, more sophisticated entities, a higher degree of customization and integration may be required.
Frank Ready
Frank Ready is a reporter on the tech desk at ALM Media. He can be reached at fready@alm.com.