Can GenAI Speed Up the Legal Slow Lane?
When an airline passenger based outside India faced an issue during his travel, instead of hiring a lawyer, the man decided to use ChatGPT to draft a legal notice for the airline—and received thousands of dollars in compensation. So, while AI is raring to go, the legal community remains split on its role in the industry. “AI can only be adopted for non-crucial tasks in the legal landscape,” said Prasad Karhad, founder and director of Patent Attorney Worldwide, in an interview with AIM Media House. “Though it holds the scope of replacing the typist and beyond.” In an episode of the All-In podcast, David Sacks, former CEO of Yammer, reflected on the potential of large language models (LLMs) in revolutionising legal services. Early predictions were bold, with startups quickly emerging to disrupt the legal industry by leveraging AI. However, Sacks pointed out a crucial flaw—error rates. “When applying AI to any industry, one must consider the margin for error,” Sacks noted. “We know AI systems can make mistakes; they hallucinate. In legal services, even a small error can have huge consequences since this is an industry where accuracy is non-negotiable.” Sacks’ observation underscores a significant challenge: While AI has the potential to streamline legal processes, the stakes are too high for errors. Legal professionals, therefore, have been hesitant to fully embrace AI technologies. Lawyers to be Blamed? In another podcast, Jake Heller, co-founder and CEO of Casetext, shared his frustrations with outdated legal technology. Recalling his time as a lawyer, he described how inefficient tech hampered his work. “In 2012, if I wanted to find movie times or locate a vegetarian-friendly restaurant, I could do it instantly on my iPhone,” Heller said. “But if I needed to find a critical piece of evidence to exonerate a client, I’d be stuck sifting through piles of documents, working until 5 am for days.” Heller’s experience vividly captures the harsh reality many lawyers face, struggling to navigate archaic systems, drowning in paperwork and relying on clunky, outdated research tools. The inefficiencies in legal workflows became a major pain point for him—a problem he set out to solve. Even Indian lawyers are not open to adopting tech. Sandeep Hegde, an advocate at Platinum Legal, said, “About 99% of law firms don’t use CRMs or case management systems. Most lawyers still rely on diaries or simple Excel sheets to track cases.” In an exclusive conversation with AIM, Hegde explained that the legal industry’s aversion to change is deeply rooted in tradition. “As lawyers, we’re bound by precedent, by old laws that dictate how things should be done. There’s a mindset that if something worked before, it will continue to work, so why change?” For now, while AI can enhance certain aspects of legal work, full-scale disruption remains out of reach. Trouble in Legal Tech To better understand the tech adoption in the Indian legal system, AIM spoke to startups in the industry. Himanshu Gupta, founder & CEO at Lawyered, explained, “My goal is to reduce the cost of legal assistance to as low as one rupee per minute, similar to how talk time was once charged for speaking with a lawyer. I want to make this affordable service available to the rural population in their local languages. The aim is not to profit from native AI, but to extend basic legal aid to every corner of the country.” He plans to introduce revenue-generating services, such as documentation drafting and other tangible legal solutions, which will be rolled out alongside AI-driven resolutions. But are lawyers ready to embrace this shift? A lawyer told AIM that she wouldn’t be willing to work for such low fees. Also, when it comes to contributing to tech development, the legal community seems hesitant. Inspired by platforms like Stack Overflow and Wikipedia and believing that improving the technology and the content lawyers used would lead to success, Heller and his team launched a user-generated content (UGC) model, encouraging lawyers to annotate case law. However, it failed. “Lawyers bill by the hour, and their time is extremely valuable,” Heller explained. “They didn’t have the time to contribute to a UGC platform. We realised we had to pivot.” The solution came through AI. Heller’s team began leveraging machine learning and natural language processing—what we now refer to as AI—to automate key aspects of legal research. Instead of relying on UGC, AI could identify the patterns and citations within case law that were essential to lawyers. Though their early efforts brought incremental improvements, Heller noted that it wasn’t until the launch of CoCounsel that they achieved something truly transformative. CoCounsel applied advanced AI to flag cases, streamline research, and improve legal workflows. However, some lawyers were still resistant to change. “Many successful lawyers were making millions annually. Why would they want to disrupt their way of working, even if the tech could make them more efficient?” Heller said. Lawyers Can’t Market Themselves Well, the lawyers couldn’t be faulted for not agreeing to the price and tech terms. The Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India (BCI) specifically prohibits advocates from soliciting work or advertising their services in any manner. So, how will the clients know which lawyer to reach out to for which case? Lawyered has conceptualised this issue and developed a product called LOTS (Lawyer on the Spot), which is India’s first on-road legal assistance platform. “With LOTS, we provide immediate on-call legal assistance for situations that can be resolved over the phone, such as when drivers face unjust penalties or unlawful charges.” He further mentioned that they’ve established a network of 70,000 lawyers, covering every 50 kilometres along the highways, so that in cases of accidents, theft, or auto robbery if a vehicle owner needs a lawyer on-site, they can mobilise legal help within two working hours. LOTS addresses these incidents by offering comprehensive legal solutions, from immediate assistance to court representation, if necessary. Over time, this platform has evolved into a flagship product for Lawyered, setting a new standard in on-road legal support across India. Another major issue with legal tech is that it’s often designed by techies for legal professionals. Advocate Nagalakshmi S from Platinum Legal, Bengaluru, pointed out that many legal software demand anywhere between INR 50,000 to INR 2,50,000 when asked for a trial version. “When we inquire about a demo, the first question they ask is whether we can afford it,” Nagalakshmi said. “These tools are clearly built for corporate legal teams, not for law firms tackling cases in court. They’re designed for a corporate framework, not to solve real-world courtroom challenges.” What’s Next? During the inauguration of the National Judicial Museum and Archive in Delhi, former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud interacted with an AI lawyer and asked, “Is the death penalty constitutional in India?” To this, the AI lawyer, in the form of a spectacled man wearing an advocate’s bow tie and coat, answered, “Yes, the death penalty is constitutional in India. It is reserved for the rarest of rare cases as determined by the Supreme Court, where the crime is exceptionally heinous and warrants such a punishment.” Though it sounds interesting, as of now, most tech companies working in the legal sector are focused on research. Lexlegis.ai, an advanced LLM, is taking the lead in accelerating legal research in India. Speaking at Cypher 2024 – India’s biggest AI conference, hosted by AIM Media House, Saakar Yadav, founder and CMD at Lexlegis.AI, emphasised, “Legal research is not just about finding judgments; it’s about finding precise answers”. He highlighted the complexity of the country’s legislation quoting the Income Tax Act in India, which has undergone more amendments than any other law globally. And so, lawyers and citizens alike often face the challenge of sifting through countless documents, statutes, and circulars to answer even basic legal questions. “We’re solving that problem,” Yadav declared, explaining that people don’t want just a list of documents; they want direct, meaningful answers and Lexlegis.ai aims to provide that. AI’s impact is equally transformative in the realm of legal research and discovery. Algorithms have long been employed to sift through vast amounts of data in lawsuits, and now ML techniques are optimising this process even further. Services like CS Disco provide AI-driven solutions that assist law firms in identifying relevant documents while navigating the complexities of legal restrictions. Additionally, platforms such as Westlaw Edge have integrated advanced semantic search capabilities, enabling attorneys to delve deeper into legal texts with greater understanding and insight. Features like Quick Check can even flag potentially outdated case citations, ensuring attorneys remain well-informed in their arguments. However, India already has platforms like SCC Online, LiveLaw, and ECourts that are widely used by lawyers. With just a keyword, these tools can instantly pull up relevant case details. Also, they offer live updates on ongoing cases, providing information at a lawyer’s fingertips in real time. According to Hegde, legal and AI as a combination to be expected in the next 20-30 years and legal research as of now seems like a black hole. Source: LinkedIn Although Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath is ambitious, the reality may be far from what was expected. [Update: Quote by Advocate Nagalakshmi S from Platinum Legal, Bengaluru has been revised]
An Indian advocate observed that “99% of law firms don’t use case management systems; most lawyers still rely on diaries or simple Excel sheets to track cases”.
Saakar Yadav, founder and CMD at Lexlegis.AI, said, “Legal research is not just about finding judgments; it’s about finding precise answers”.
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["AI", "machine learning", "ML", "ChatGPT", "Aim", "RAG", "semantic search", "AWS", "R", "Go"]
Vidyashree is enthusiastic about investigative journalism. Now trying to explore how AI solves for all.