The transformative potential of AI in family law firms
New technologies boost efficiencies and improve the client experience
By Lucy Saddleton, Managing Editor, ADB Insights
In association with:
Societal shifts and technological advances, together with evolving legislations, have transformed the traditional framework of family law firms in the US. Family law firms are leveraging new generative AI technologies to streamline legal research and enhance document review, and to provide and predict better outcomes for clients, while freeing up time to focus on client relationships.
At the Legal Innovation Forum’s recent webinar, Family law in-focus: How to gain a competitive edge with AI, our panel of experts from across North America discussed the transformative potential of AI for family law firms, and shed light on how it can be used to serve clients better and win more cases. They also debated governance and the ethical use of artificial intelligence platforms.
Foundational models such as Open AI and Chat GPT are evolving and improving at a remarkable pace, opening new doors for legal professionals.
“The rate of improvement is really significant, and it enables companies like ours to build that domain-specific intelligence that's needed to really help litigators to understand the law better and faster, and prepare document drafts that are needed to provide the highest quality services that they can to their clients,” said Mark Doble, founder and CEO at Alexi - a Toronto-based provider of AI-powered tools for litigators.
Mark Doble, Founder + CEO, Alexi
Ralph White, board certified marital and family law attorney at The Law Office of R.T. White in Florida makes use of Alexi’s technology to save time and money when generating legal memos and appellate briefs, among other things.
Ralph White, Board certified marital + family law, The Law Office of R.T. White
“It cuts down my time significantly on the research,” said White. “You're able to deliver quality services to your client for significantly less money. The amount of time for it to create a memo is two minutes, so you put your query in, and two minutes later you have significant legal research and a memo portion.”
Despite the reduced time required to complete a task, White is not concerned about fewer billable hours. Rather, generative AI technologies allow him to take on more cases and deliver a higher quality of service.
Stephen Embry, a Kentucky-based lawyer and publisher of legal blog Tech Law Crossroads agreed that AI advancements lead to better client service. He noted that using these tools will allow lawyers to serve more clients for less money, thus offering access to justice and reaching a segment of the population in an economically viable way that they had previously been unable to reach.
Stephen Embry, Tech Law Crossroads Kentucky
“We can't ignore the back office advancements that these tools give us,” said Embry. “So much of what lawyers do, you can't bill for, and yet it's crucial to your practice. The bills themselves, the client intake, the initial response; all of those things can be done and automated with these tools, which makes for happier clients.” AI tools can also be useful to train less experienced lawyers, he added.
THE ETHICAL USE OF AI
According to John Allen, partner at Michigan-based Varnum Attorneys, “we are amidst an explosion of both technology and regulation from a legal ethics point of view, on the use of AI by lawyers.” Regulations surrounding AI use are in its infancy, Allen said. He likened it to “the dawn of electronic discovery” back in the 1970s, noting that even today, the courts are still modifying the application of electronic discovery.
John Allen, Partner, Varnum Attorneys
Allen urged webinar attendees to review the American Bar Association’s formal opinion 512 on ethics relating to the growing use of Gen AI among lawyers.
Client confidentiality is one of the key ethical challenges facing family lawyers. Allen recommended implementing an AI policy within your law firm to ensure that all AI platforms are thoroughly checked prior to use.
“Do we disclose to the client that AI was used to produce part of that product? I think you will find most ethical references saying: yes, we ought to do that,” said Allen. “Clients ought to know what is being used, much as we might have disclosed to them in the past that we used Lexis or Westlaw or some of the more common historical research methods.”
Conversely, Jillian Duggan-Herd, partner at Cage & Miles in California, believes that lawyers should not have to inform clients that they are using AI, any more than they would inform them that they are using email.
Jillian Duggan-Herd, Partner, Cage & Miles
“I think the pendulum is swinging way too far in terms of this technology and the discretion to use it,” said Duggan-Herd. “As a practitioner, we have basic fundamental ethics that we need to follow, and they run the gamut of client confidentiality, to competence, to everything in between. I don't think that the governance of AI in that way is okay…I think that the more that we try to micromanage it, the harder it's going to be to use.”
Duggan-herd noted that lawyers should be using AI tools with discretion and integrating them in a way that is in the best interest of the clients, while ensuring all ethical guidelines are followed.
Embry agreed, adding that lawyers are ethically required to bill reasonably. To choose to avoid using certain AI tools could result in bills being higher than they should be, which could be seen as unreasonable.
As family law firm clients increasingly demand the use of AI - regarding it as a cost-saving tool - firms must be mindful of the need to fulfill ethical duties in using it.
“My advice to all lawyers is to stay informed about this,” said Allen. “There's a wealth of material out there in the bar journals, and you should keep on reading about it and learning about it and developing relationships with platforms you find reliable and responsible.”
White added that AI should be treated like a first year associate.
“If a first year associate handed a partner a memo, I think you'd be a fool to just sign that memo or position paper and send it in the court without double checking it, triple checking it, making sure the sites are right, or even reviewing the case law,” said White. Similarly, a memo or paper generated by AI should be throughly checked and reviewed for accuracy, he added.
IMPROVING THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE
AI technologies create efficiencies which free up more time for lawyers to respond to clients. Moreover, these products have the potential to improve the quality of legal work, according to Doble.
“If we're not there now, we're very close to a point where AI will just allow the lawyer to do much better work,” said Doble. “It's not just about being more efficient…It's going to improve the quality of work products, and the quality of understanding of the lawyer. All of these things will get elevated significantly, and that's far more important in my view than just efficiency and cost reduction.”
Duggan-Herd added that lawyers need not view AI as something that will reduce billing costs. Instead it should be seen as a springboard to better service. Using AI to create a first draft frees up time for the lawyer to improve upon it and thoroughly prepare before going to court, for example.
“On a cost basis, I don't think clients can be paying any less for what you have to do ethically to verify, but also to make it what it should be, which is a superior product,” said Duggan-Herd.
Lawyers need not fear that AI will give rise to the end of lawyering, according to our speakers. In fact, panelists agreed that lawyers who do not embrace and keep up with the rapid changes in AI technology will be left floundering.
“My own prediction is that AI as we know it now will probably be non-existent in the blink of an eye. It's going to advance that fast,” said Allen. “This is not going to be a choice, because this is sufficiently broad in the marketplace, now the clients themselves are going to start demanding it.”
Embry added: “How we do that work may certainly change, and how it's perceived by the clients may change, but I don't think there's ever going to be a lack of need for lawyers.” In fact, Embry believes that AI may level the playing field in the legal landscape.
“What happens in the legal ecosystem is going to change, and in many respects, it's going to be better. It's going to be more fair,” said Embry.