Washington Lawyer - November 2018 - 27

to gain deeper insights into confidential client data, and ambitious hackers
could threaten a company's trade secrets.

takes to complete a task but rather by the outcomes from human-machine
collaborations and data-supported AI applications.

"Right now, it's hard to see AI applications being broadly adopted below
a certain level of law firm because of the cost of investment," Kennedy says.
"Once you get cloud-based AI tools, where you can plug in as you need
them, then it could be very valuable for lawyers whatever size of the firm."

"When you get right down to it, AI as a stand-alone is just a footnote in a
larger discussion about the legal business," Cohen says. "I would not want to
suggest, as some people have, that AI is going to replace lawyers. It won't. It
will definitely take away certain jobs that I would argue lawyers shouldn't
have been doing in the first place. Ultimately, it's going to change the way
lawyers are utilized and employed."

But even with AI's current limitations, experts say the future of the technology could be even more profound. Artificial general intelligence (AGI),
an advanced version of AI that is in development, could replicate the
human "gut instinct" and not just thinking. With that skill, AGI might truly
have the potential to create a "robot lawyer," one with the ability to imitate
human decision making and reasoning in the broadest sense of the word.

In that sense, AI and other machine-learning platforms become vital
members of the legal team, led by lawyers, of course, but energized by the
knowledge that comes from cutting-edge AI and machine-learning
applications.

A COLLABORATIVE FUTURE
Coming generations of lawyers will have matured in an era where the
internet, smartphones, and AI are ubiquitous in daily life. These lawyers will
not only have different expectations for their firms, but they will also have
different ideas about how to deliver services to their digital-native clients.
With AI and other tools, the future of the law firm is one where tedious
work is shifted to machines and the creative and strategic work rests with
lawyers. Law firms likely will no longer measure their work by how long it

Sarah Kellogg is a regular contributor to Washington Lawyer.

Illustrations, Media Bakery/Ikon Images/Lee Woodgate; John Fernandez, Dentons; Dennis Kennedy,
Practice Panther; Mark Cohen, Legal Mosaic

D.C. BAR ANNUAL JUDICIAL EVALUATIONS
Dear Colleague:
We urge you to participate in the annual anonymous and confidential evaluation of
selected judges serving on the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Superior Court of the
District of Columbia. Your voice truly matters in this process.
Completed evaluations are an important tool for the Chief Judges and the D.C.
Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure to use in maintaining and improving
the administration of justice in the District of Columbia.
You should participate if:
■ You had a case pending before one or more of the judges scheduled for
evaluation (see: http://www.dcbar.org/judicial-evaluations.cfm);
and
■ Your case was pending during the 24-month evaluation period from July 1, 2016
to June 30, 2018
Eligible participants should receive an invitation in late November from Research USA,
an independent research organization administering the survey. If you do not receive
the invitation and are eligible to participate, please request a link to the survey directly
from Research USA at dcbarjudicialevaluation@researchusainc.com.
Thank you for your participation.
Christopher A. Glaser, Chair,
D.C. Bar Judicial Evaluation Committee

NOVEMBER 2018

WASHINGTON LAWYER 27

http://www.dcbar.org/judicial-evaluations.cfm http://www.dcbar.org http://www.dcbar.org

Washington Lawyer - November 2018

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