Gary Sangha is a Codex Fellow
Legal industry is at a crossroads due to the current economic climate, and high turnover rates of unhappy in-house attorneys. Both trends lead to increased workloads, and calls for “doing more with less” become louder.
Legal departments are burning out from answering those calls. According to Axiom’s 2022 In House Counsel Survey Report nearly half of lawyers feel “very or very stressed” or “burned-out.” Manual administrative tasks are eating into their ability to accomplish high value work. Over 40% time and budget is spent by contracting teams on low-complexity, unchallenging work. And shrinking teams only add to the burden of low-value work.
The number of hours a lawyer can spend in a single day is limited, but he or she has the opportunity to use legal technology to do more with less. AI can be used to accelerate revenue generation, achieve ROI for enterprise spending, and create more engaging work for in-house lawyers.
Legal departments under pressure
Legal teams today manage more functions within the business and navigate a changing regulatory landscape, all while managing fewer staff and budgets. Businesses are pushed to speed up contract turnarounds by an uncertain economy.
Burnout continues to plague lawyers. One third of in house counsels are not engaged with their work . What drains their energy the most?
- Repetitive tasks
- The work is not aligned with the organisation’s goals
- Administrative burdens
Lawyers are trapped in a slog that is unappealing and exhausting.
Chief legal officers have acknowledged the challenges. In an survey from 2023, respondents expressed a desire to give other departments more autonomy, delegate some low-risk tasks away from legal teams and accelerate deals.
CLOs recommend automating routine, simple tasks, and using technology to provide other departments with self-service forms, tools, and resources.
Human-centered AI
This belief is the principle behind “a href=”https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2023/01/30/why-human-centered-ai’s%20the%20future%20of%20Legal”>human centered AI. Technology should not be seen as a replacement for lawyers, but rather a tool that can enhance their work. This is the principle that underlies ” Human-centered AI,” which combines human intelligence with AI within boundaries defined by humans. This approach builds technology around human capabilities and needs.
Human-centered AI allows organizations to harness AI while retaining the benefits of critical thinking, empathy, and creativity. Legal AI designed with human-centered design will result in AI tools that automate the repetitive parts of the work, allowing lawyers to focus their efforts on more valuable tasks.
Minimizing friction to accelerate deals
How does AI-centered design that is human-centered work? Consider the current contract negotiation process.
Negotiations often drag on due to uncertainty about the motivation or reasoning behind each party. One party may question the reasoning behind a change proposed by another. If lawyers cannot reach the person who made the recommendation, then they’re stuck waiting. Contracts are often left in multiple inboxes for a long time.
With an AI-powered solution for contract review and negotiation, corporate legal departments are able to implement digital playbook standard that meets compliance requirements and minimizes risk. Legal teams can receive annotated and redlined contract versions in minutes, reducing the need for lengthy back-and forth negotiations. AI empowers other departments to draft and negotiate contract, reducing friction and legal bottlenecks between departments.
Prolonged negotiations can slow down revenue, and stop leaders from making business decisions. AI-supported lawyers can speed up deals and increase revenue.
AI centered on humans is ready to have a major impact
Nobody goes to law school with the idea of manually redlining contracts. Law students dream of having an impact. AI can be a powerful tool for lawyers to realize their dream when it is designed with them at the core.
In order to support their legal departments, which are facing high attrition rates and increasing workloads due to the challenges they face, lawyers will need tools such as AI. Legal can “do more” with less while increasing revenue generation.
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Author
Gary Sangha, founder and CEO at LexCheck is the leader in AI-powered contract intelligence and acceleration. He is a thought leader within the legal technology sector and a CodeX fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.
Serial entrepreneur Gary founded Intelligize which revolutionized the way lawyers could research regulatory filings. Intelligize, at the time, was one of the most rapidly growing legal technology companies in America. It was acquired by LexisNexis.
Gary began his career as a securities lawyer at Shearman & Sterling, New York City, and White & Case, Hong Kong. Gary has appeared in numerous media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s as well as various industry blogs. He was also named on Crain’s New York Business’ “40 Under 40 list”.
Gary received his J.D. Gary earned his J.D. The University of Toronto awarded him a B.A. in Economics and Commerce. He has been duly admitted and licensed to practice as an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law in all courts of New York.