As individuals pursue careers in law with a passion to serve the public, the innovative integration of AI into the legal profession has the profound potential to improve access to justice, purpose-driven lawyering, and attorney well-being
The primary reason individuals choose a career in law is the aspiration to serve the public, according to a survey by the Association of American Law Schools, co-sponsored by the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. In fact, 44% of survey respondents said they wanted a law degree as a gateway into politics, government work, or some other form of public service. This motivation surpassed the desire to earn a high income or secure a position at prestigious law firms. Respondents also expressed a strong desire to help other people and advocate for social change.
Pursuing a career in law with a focus on public service inherently aligns with the desire to contribute positively to society. Indeed, public service law offers attorneys a profound sense of purpose and fulfillment, a key ingredient for the well-being of lawyers.
Yet first-year law students find out quickly that their prime reason for entering the legal profession can be drilled out of them by the realities of law school. One of these is known as the law warrior culture, a term describing the profession’s premium on working very long hours and showing a minimum of vulnerability. Another reality is the high cost of law school, which leaves students who entered the profession for altruistic reasons finding themselves having to postpone potential dream jobs and instead seek high-paying jobs to pay down their large student loan balances.
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Both of these factors contribute to the ongoing access to justice gap and the high cost of legal representation. Most low-income Americans do not get any or enough legal help for their civil legal problems, and the cost of legal help stands out as an important barrier, according to the Legal Services Corporation.
Indeed, this broken social contract between the legal profession and the public is something that could be improved by more widespread us of AI, says Libby Clark, Esq., a corporate legal strategist who works with founders and CEOs. Clark’s decade-long work and leadership on lawyer well-being gave her insight into how AI could significantly improve lawyer well-being by radically changing how we value legal services.
The question hinges on whether AI could both improve access to justice and attorney well-being; and Clark and Anastasia Boyko, Legal Futurist at Filevine, believe so.
Ways AI helps improve junior lawyer well-being
AI emerges as a transformative force by offering significant opportunities to enhance lawyer well-being, especially for junior lawyers, according to Boyko, who has used her law degree to push innovation in law firms, especially around issues of legal tech, in-house talent, and legal education. Her interests — which converge at the intersection of technology, the business of law, law students and legal careers, and professional well-being — have served as a focal point for her observations about AI and junior lawyers.
Specifically, Boyko highlights the potential of AI in streamlining low-level tasks, which often burden young attorneys. Freeing junior lawyers up from this allows them to focus on more meaningful work. “I like to think about [using AI] in terms of being able to minimize or streamline a lot of the rote low-level tasks that lawyers often find themselves doing, which I think are a huge drag on our well-being as attorneys,” she explains.
Boyko says she also sees AI as a way to nurture curiosity and proactive learning. For example, AI can provide context and resources to junior lawyers, which is something that senior lawyers too often lack the time to do because of their own billable hour demands.
Finally, AI can benefit junior lawyers during times when they feel uncertain and unsure of the direction to take. “AI can help you think through situations where you may not have answers,” she notes. “Being able to use AI… can really help to support well-being when you feel very lost and there’s a lot of pressure to find the answer quickly.”
Shifting to AI-driven value-based services
Clark advocates for the use of AI to help lawyers’ well-being in an industry that’s rapidly shifting from time-based to value-based metrics to better track performance.
“What does it mean to have value outside of your time output?” Clark asks. “I think our value is judgment, discernment, and experience — things that just are not measured by time.” Requiring a quota of billable hours as part of the law warrior culture is often a significant source of stress and burn-out for lawyers. Value-based billing instead offers lawyers the opportunity to be paid for their judgement, expertise, and experience as a source of value rather than by hourly billings.
And AI can enable this shift away from the traditional billable hour to a value-based model as well as an overall transition from a reactionary model to a proactive type of workflow in order to improve client service, Clark says, drawing a compelling analogy between initiative-taking lawyering and preventive healthcare. Just as preventive care can avert serious health issues, proactive legal advice can prevent costly legal problems, she says. “We no longer practice or incentivize proactive lawyering,” Clark adds. “We’re paid to be reactionary.”
This shift to value-based service allows legal professionals to reclaim a portion of their time and dedicate it to proactive lawyering. In this way, AI can become a thought partner in legal work, empowering lawyers to engage in deeper, more nuanced legal analysis and client service, Boyko explains. And as stated earlier, more proactive legal service is a top motivator for lawyers and source of well-being — both of which are key ingredients for lawyers to achieve their professional purpose.
AI planting the seeds for change
To foster positive well-being among lawyers, it is crucial for legal organization leaders to address the challenge of overcoming fear and resistance to change. AI has the opportunity to enable this paradigm shift by cultivating a culture of openness and continuous learning within the legal profession. And by encouraging curiosity and providing training on AI tools, organizations can help their lawyers become more comfortable with new technologies.
The integration of AI into legal workflows will transform attorney well-being and help avert the impact of several additional headwinds facing the profession, including the entrenched billable hour model, reaction-based lawyering, and the gap in access to justice.
In fact, some believe the question is not if AI will spur these changes, but when? The legal profession stands on the brink of a transformative era, Boyko and Clark say, and it’s one in which enhanced well-being, client service, and lawyers’ futures as well as the communities they serve all can thrive.
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