Scottish Legal Review: Winning ways to innovate

Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the conversation in 2024. Online and in person, on our phones and in our homes. It is a business story, with AI chip manufacturer Nvidia vying to be the world’s most valuable firm. And it is a cultural one, with generative AI a spectre worrying striking writers in Hollywood and creatives around the globe.

It has ethical implications and legal ramifications. And, what is more, AI is now an integral part of legal technology. The Work Trend Index Annual Report, co-authored by Microsoft and LinkedIn, concluded that 2024 was “the year AI at work gets real”. The researchers of the report estimate that three quarters of knowledge workers – including lawyers – use AI at work already. And 79 per cent of business leaders agreed their company needed to adopt AI to remain competitive.

But, how do professional services providers make the most of next-generation AI?

The Law Society of Scotland has published a guide to help Scots law practitioners navigate this burgeoning – and at times Wild West-esque – sector. Their Guide to Generative AI, produced in association with AI legal platform Wordsmith, focuses on potential risks posed by AI, including issues of reliability, confidentiality and security.

Stuart Munro, technology law and Practice Committee member, says: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to transform the way legal services are provided, so it’s important that solicitors are properly informed to decide whether it should be playing a role in their businesses.

“Generative AI can answer questions, complete tasks and otherwise support the work of solicitors more quickly than anything we’ve seen before. However, like any new system or technology, it does come with risks.

“There’s been widespread adoption of AI solutions by larger firms and it’s important that smaller businesses understand that this technology is also accessible to them. All users need to understand the specific benefits and the risks that must be managed.

“This is a rapidly changing area, with a growing number of products and solutions being specifically developed for the legal sector. We are keeping a close eye as AI evolves and will continue to update this guide to ensure it’s relevant.”

What are the practical uses of generative AI? Advancements in legal research are always welcomed by the profession. A core part of any lawyer’s role, research is an area ripe for co-pilot style AI tools. AI research tools, both third-party and in-house, give practitioners access to black-letter law and precedent faster than ever before.

In a similar vein, the review and analysis of vast quantities of documents is labour-intensive work which can be automated to speed up, for instance, corporate transactions. Software can pick out key clauses and flag risks quickly and, as AI is further trained in this environment, digesting vast swathes of information with greater and greater accuracy.

Contract management is an obvious and already workable solution AI tools can provide – drafting, reviewing, and managing the flow of large numbers of similar agreements. What this means for the development of trainees, however, who learn vital contract skills drafting such agreements, remains to be seen.

Bias detection is a growing field, not just in law but in other professional services. AI systems can, in theory, flag up biases in decision making. But biases also exist within large language models, particularly on a smaller scale.

And then there are chatbots – perhaps the most ubiquitous application of large language-model generative AI to date, and the application which clients have most likely encountered. A bespoke client-facing chatbot can offer firms, large or small, an introductory service online, potentially giving basic advice or signposting outside of hours and at a lower cost.

Wordsmith is an AI-powered legal assistant platform which recently announced it had raised £3.8 million of seed funding to deliver lawtech to a new generation of practitioners.

“AI is not about replacing professionals. It’s about making them better at their jobs,” explains Wordsmith CEO Ross McNairn. “Just as the word processor didn’t replace writers, but instead made them more productive, Wordsmith is ushering in a new era of AI-assisted professional services.”

The company’s software is designed to reduce the burden of “routine tasks”. This includes confirming policy details, contract analysis, and finance.

Mike Guthrie, partner at Burness Paull | Burness Paull

Revolution in real estate world

Mike Guthrie is a real estate lawyer and partner at Burness Paull who leads the firm’s Technology Committee.

He says: “The rapid evolution of technology has significantly influenced our commitment to investing in legal innovation.

“Our primary objective remains to deliver exceptional service to our clients, while equipping our colleagues with the necessary tools and resources to provide genuine value through their advice. Importantly, we strive to maintain the human interaction that is crucial for building strong client relationships.

“For several years, our Technology Committee has been at the forefront of monitoring developments in legal technology and innovation, ensuring that we stay ahead of the curve. [It] serves as a central hub within the firm, where suggestions and requirements for improvement are collated and discussed, ensuring a consistent and fair approach to decision making, and giving all of our colleagues a voice in our change journey.”

Burness Paull is working with Skillsburst to deliver in-house training on generative AI and the surrounding risks. A whole raft of modules are open for practitioners to delve into, but AI risk training is now mandatory for all staff.

In terms of innovation, the firm has adopted tech to create and manage documents including contracts with the aim of reducing the time solicitors spend creating first drafts and freeing up time to advise.

Guthrie, pictured below, explains that Burness Paull does not always choose third-party technology platforms, and has invested heavily in internal software. He adds: “This allows us to tailor our solution to our firm and the way that our people work. It also gives us flexibility to tweak and improve the product as our requirements change over time.

“Our size and the fact that we remain an independent Scottish law firm has ensured that we can be nimble in terms of decision making and we are not beholden to internal bureaucracy – we strive to take advantage of that in all parts of our business and having the ability to develop our own in-house solutions allows us to be nimble and move quickly with our technology solutions as well.

“After attending the Legal Geek conference in London last month, it is evident that there is still considerable excitement about the potential transformation that generative AI solutions could bring to the legal sector. We anticipate that this momentum will continue as new functionalities and better-performing models are released.

“If generative AI solutions end up being the best tools for the job, then we have all the expertise and experience required to ensure that we can create innovative workflows, which always reflect the need to ensure that provision of high-quality legal advice is the main priority.”

AI: ‘You do need to experiment’

Speaking at the Law Society of Scotland’s annual Legal Tech Conference in Edinburgh earlier this year, John Craske, director of innovation at law firm CMS, told attendees: “AI systems we’ve got today aren’t great at everything and one might argue that some of them aren’t great at anything in the law. But this is the worst that they’re ever going to be. You do need to experiment.”

He added: “We have to think about how we are going to engage with that.

It’s the challenges around use cases, people, and culture we need to think about so that we drive those things and help people experiment.”

Paul Mosson, the Law Society’s executive director of member services and engagement, and founding member of the LawscotTech Advisory Board, added: “Artificial Intelligence is on everyone’s lips and comes up in the most surprising conversations. Increasingly we are all asking how it will impact the legal sector, in what ways it’s already used, and what’s next.

“These are big questions and there is no simple answer, but we are all accepting that we need to increase our understanding and knowledge of AI.

“This is why AI is a key focus of the LawscotTech Advisory Board, which in line with the Law Society’s five-year strategy is seeking to help solicitors identify the art of the possible as well as guard against risks.

“That’s why we’re offering events such as this conference to members at no added cost, to raise awareness of what is out there, and why adopting technology is vital to remain competitive.”