The Future of Lawyers: What Law Students May Confront in the AI World?

Abstract

Before the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI), legal work was the profession that required specific knowledge and expertise. Consequently, those with no legalbackground could not easily take away the work. Due to rapid technologicaldevelopment, the age of AI has begun with dramatically strengthened advances.From being a “facilitating tool” for humans, it has become a “human replacing tool.” As AI could work even more efficiently than humans in many fields, therefore a big concern is that human jobs could possibly be replaced by AI. Nonetheless, one of the jobs such as “a lawyer” is viewed as unlikely to be replaced by the new technology. Henceforth, a lawyer, be they law students, lawyers, or even judges, apparently underestimated and overlooked AI. They envisage that AI can never compete with the human brain as the law has such complexity, spirit, ethics, and a legal code of conduct that only humans can fully comprehend. This may lead lawyers to underestimate AI in the long run. This article has compiled the remarks that the author views as beneficial and specifically relevant to “law students” who are about to step into the labor market and whose potential competitors may not be restricted only to fellow human law students from various universities but also AI in the future as well.