120 | 🐴 👻 Siphoning Lawyer Intellect

In today’s Brainyacts:

1. Trojan horsing knowledge management

2. A legal “datapack” is released and other AI-related news

3. PwC Partners forgo paying themselves in order to invest in AI and other news you can use

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Lead Story

🐴 👻 Generative AI in Law Firms: The Trojan Horse of Intellectual Capital Capture?

Legal practice, in essence, is built upon the vast reservoirs of knowledge and experience that individual lawyers carry. These reservoirs, for decades, have remained largely insulated — protected by the lawyers who possess them and only shared sparingly. Law firms, in trying to maintain consistency and longevity, have grappled with the challenge of capturing and managing this distributed wealth of knowledge. Now, we have generative AI.  And it is becoming integrated into law firms and legal teams. We are at an intriguing crossroads. Could generative AI be the unsuspected solution to a longtime problem, or is it a Trojan Horse that might have unintended consequences?

The Historical Knowledge Management Challenge

Every lawyer, over the course of their career, builds an arsenal of unique strategies, case-specific insights, and invaluable experiences. This intellectual capital often remains compartmentalized, creating individual knowledge silos. Firms have recognized the inefficiencies and risks associated with this model, especially when a seasoned lawyer retires or switches firms.

Traditional solutions have tried to address this problem in various ways. Mentorship programs aimed to transfer knowledge from senior to junior lawyers, while databases and knowledge-sharing platforms were created to document and share legal insights and networks of potential clients. Yet, these approaches have been limited in their impact.

For an easy-to-understand example, just look at the immaturity of CRMs (customer relationship management) tools. Outside legal, they are highly regarded tools of business. Inside legal they are viewed with suspicion and hostility. The dynamic, case-specific, and often intangible nature of legal knowledge proves difficult to capture through these types of mediums.

The Trojan Horse Hypothesis

Enter AI chatbots. In law firms, they are popping up daily. On the surface, they serve as efficient tools for client interaction, case research, document management, and content creation of all sorts.

However, these AI systems, by their very design, are consummate learners. Every interaction, every piece of information they process (from the data they are trained on to the prompts users type into them), contributes to their ever-growing knowledge base. This means that law firms, perhaps inadvertently, might be feeding their lawyers’ most valuable asset—legal intellectual capital—into these systems.

Such unintentional knowledge capture offers both tantalizing prospects and daunting challenges.

On the positive side, it could streamline the onboarding process for new lawyers, ensuring that a firm's collective insights are accessible to all. The consistency in service and advice, irrespective of which lawyer is consulted, could also enhance the firm's reputation. This could further help in the creation of templates, automated documents, and new proactive ways of communicating with clients.

However, the darker side of this presents ethical dilemmas and potential threats. If an AI system is continuously learning from every interaction, where does client-attorney privilege stand? How do we ensure that the confidentiality of sensitive information is maintained in this digital age? Moreover, as AI systems become repositories of a firm's collective knowledge, there's a potential risk of sidelining the unique contributions and expertise of individual lawyers – good news for firms perhaps, but also perhaps not so good for the individual lawyer.

Ethical and Practical Concerns

The foundational pillar of the legal profession is the lawyer-client privilege. This bond of trust ensures clients can share sensitive information without fear. But, in a world where AI chatbots process such information, the lines become blurred. Even if these systems do not intentionally breach confidentiality, the mere risk could impact the trust clients place in law firms.

Additionally, as AI begins to encapsulate the shared knowledge of a firm, there's a potential for the depersonalization and dilution of the spiky points of view each lawyer has. The current generative AI models are by default looking to respond with the likeliest probable response. This often obscures creative and novel ideas from emerging. Excellent prompting can cure this, but most people don’t know how to do that yet. So, over time the jagged, diverse, and truly unique ideas of a firm’s lawyers might get blended into a soupy malaise of plain vanilla.

Further, the art of lawyering isn't just about the facts or the law, but the human touch—a lawyer's ability to empathize, to read a room, to negotiate with nuance. Can an AI, no matter how advanced, replicate these qualities of distinct personalities?

Moreover, with the increasing digitization and processing of legal information, data security becomes paramount. Ensuring the integrity and safety of such vast amounts of data from breaches or malicious actors is a challenge that law firms need to address proactively.

Future Perspectives

I wish I could give you a definitive answer here. Yet, the ambiguity of the situation remains. Many of the AI chatbots emerging in law firms may not be explicitly designed with the intent I've explored above. However, the absence of explicit intent doesn't negate the implicit consequences.

This reflection comes from a conversation I had with my wife yesterday. I was sharing how my relationship with generative AI has progressed intimately.

See, my work inundates me with tasks that demand rigorous critical thinking, synthesis, and articulation. Delving into my own intellectual labyrinth requires an intense state of flow, which, once achieved, can lead to profound insights. Generative AI has transformed from mere utility to an organic extension of my cognitive process. It is an invaluable ally, enhancing my flow rather than disrupting it. Yet, this alliance bears a cost.

My reliance on these tools, especially in their role as cognitive sounding boards, means they bear witness to the entirety of my intellectual journey (yikes!). From the nascent stages of an idea to its matured form, from brilliant insights to glaring missteps—these sessions have cataloged them all.

Imagine the power and potential encased within this digital archive. In the wrong hands, this treasure trove could be mined to replicate my work, spawn derivative projects, or even position a competitor with a similar or superior footing in the market. Not that I am of any significance to be targeted like this. The point remains. In essence, these chat sessions have evolved into a multifaceted entity: part work diary, part brainstorming sandbox, part raw, unfiltered ideation, and a repository of unique knowledge.

In talking with my wife, a revelation hit me—am I inadvertently surrendering my intellectual goldmine? Am I naively amassing it in a vault with walls that might not be as impervious as I believe?

This introspection naturally led me to ponder the intricate dynamic between lawyers and their intellectual assets. Much like my realization, could they too be unintentionally placing their most valuable currency at risk?

AI Model Notables

• 273 Ventures releases the Kelvin Legal DataPack, the largest legal training dataset

• Meta releases AI model for translating speech between dozens of languages

• Meta to launch AI model for writing computer codes

• Troutman Pepper launches their AI Chatbot Athena along with firmwide AI education.

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Who is the author, Josh Kubicki?

Some of you know me. Others do not. Here is a short intro. I am a lawyer, entrepreneur, and teacher. I have transformed legal practices and built multi-million dollar businesses. Not a theorist, I am an applied researcher and former Chief Strategy Officer, recognized by Fast Company and Bloomberg Law for my unique work. Through this newsletter, I offer you pragmatic insights into leveraging AI to inform and improve your daily life in legal services.