\nTrent Cotney<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Adams and Reese LLP<\/p>\n
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\u201cNot to mention the fact that there’s a reputational hit, and your client obviously is not going to be happy with that either,\u201d Cotney said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nShapiro said that what keeps her up at night is the thought that her clients could be using AI on their own without discussing it with her. She fears that if someone at a construction firm doesn\u2019t want to pay to call an attorney on that legal issue, then that person may attempt to figure the problem out on their own.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think the risk to them is getting substantially worse, because I think consumer confidence in the output is increasing, despite the fact that I think the quality of the output is decreasing,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nFinding an edge<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nWith diligence and a careful eye, however, attorneys said there are ways AI can help legal professionals with their daily tasks.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n
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\nMichael Vardaro<\/p>\n
Permission granted by Zetlin & De Chiara<\/p>\n
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Vardaro, for example, said one of the benefits of AI was its ability to corral documents and seek out sections contained within them, a job that was left to associates years ago.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cNow, AI can kind of do that and give you kind of the hits in that project file within minutes, where that might have taken weeks, if not months, to do,\u201d Vardaro said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\nExperts also called out its ability to review contracts for specific provisions. Cotney, who refers to himself as an early adopter of the tech, will use it as a gut check, particularly when it comes to verifying references and citations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI do use AI for purposes of cross checking what I’ve done, identifying if there’s something else to think of that I haven’t thought of, or helping me fine tune certain things or compile certain things,\u201d Cotney said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nShapiro will sometimes use AI in her work as a research tool, but that\u2019s where it stops for her. It will help her find and identify resources and paths to explore that she wouldn\u2019t get in other ways.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThinking of it as a law clerk or a low level associate, a young attorney and reviewing it that way, I certainly think that there’s value there,\u201d Shapiro said.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAt the same time, attorneys said AI tools need to be prompted by people who already know the law, in order to flag if something that it produces is suspect.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n