Biglaw, Technology

BakerHostetler Hires A.I. Lawyer, Ushers In The Legal Apocalypse

This robot is going to destroy our industry.

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Probably a picture of IBM's ROSS system.

Probably a picture of IBM’s ROSS system.

When Jeopardy superchampion Ken Jennings fell to IBM’s Watson, a chill fell over the ranks of white-collar professionals who saw the cold, merciless grip of technology tightening its grip around their hearts just as surely as the steam hammer did in John Henry. Lawyers in particular recognized that the slayer of the Jennings dragon wasn’t destined to stalk syndicated television, making Alex Trebek’s contestant chit-chat, almost improbably, more stilted and awkward. No, Watson was coming for our jobs.

As much as lawyers lionize themselves in the media — pointing to the tenacity of Jack McCoy, the soaring oratory of Jake Brigance, and… whatever the hell those How To Get Away With Murder morons are doing — deep down lawyers know that the bulk of the profession involves document review, rote agreement-drafting tasks, and data mining caselaw. We make human drones do this work now, why not shift some of the work to the electronic brain?

Back in 2014, we warned that this revolution would overtake law eventually, and now it has. As Steve Dykstra discussed yesterday, Watson has begat ROSS, the “Super Intelligent Attorney.” ROSS doesn’t actually stand for anything, but I guess IBM thought it would market a little better than “Darrowtron the Destroyer.”

And BakerHostetler has brought ROSS on board to work with their bankruptcy practice. So if ROSS takes the lead of Microsoft’s Tay system, expect a flood of racist, porn-filled petitions from the unsecured creditors’ committee.

There is nothing to be gained by resisting the march of technological progress. ROSS will assuredly help lawyers better serve their clients, but cannot fully replace — for now, at least — the job of an experienced attorney to parse the data ROSS compiles.

The danger ROSS poses to the legal profession is in disrupting the continuing education of lawyers. From the perspective of the partner (and, by extension, the client), a young lawyer billing 15 hours to collect and analyze caselaw across multiple jurisdictions to forge a comprehensive memo on a discrete question makes little sense when ROSS over there can do it in a matter of seconds. And serving clients is the whole point of this job and if ROSS can help lawyers do that better, it’s going to become a necessary cog in the legal machine. But all that mental drudgery is what transforms that young lawyer into the future top-billing legal eagle. When ROSS provides short-term convenience, how will lawyers get that practical education? We know it’s unlikely to come from law schools without massive overhaul, and law firms are so fanatical about denying practical experience to associates they’ll ignore court orders.

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Perhaps, in time, the legal profession will find a way to mentor young lawyers into future leaders without the hazing of performing their own legal research. Or maybe the “singularity” will arrive and old lawyers will just never die. But whatever happens, this is the legal industry apocalypse. The “Cravath System” might be a bit of a pyramid scheme, but it makes a lot of sense if your approach to legal training involves taking a lot of promising recruits and using the unpleasant yet necessary work of lawyering to hone the best of the best into the partners who will take the reins down the road. If ROSS eliminates the need for all or substantially all of those pups, the law firm as an institution needs to rebuild itself from scratch.

And law firms aren’t really good at changing course with the urgency this development might require. Maybe Watson can become a consultant and tell them what to do.

Earlier: The View From Up North: Computer App Billed As ‘New Super Intelligent Attorney’
The View From Up North: Will ROSS App Make Life Better For Lawyers?
IBM’s Watson Continues Its Job Killing Evolution
What If Law Schools Were Really Serious About ‘Practice Ready’ Grads?
Proof That Law Firms Don’t Really Care About Associate Development

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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