Corporate counsel weigh pros, cons of AI for productivity

In-house attorneys are faced with the same dilemma we all are — whether and how to adopt artificial intelligence.

While the productivity benefits AI brings are plentiful and many corporate counselors have found a way to implement the technology into their practices, these attorneys worry about trusting the tools too much as they safeguard proprietary information for their clients.

Fears surrounding confidentiality and cybersecurity are keeping some attorneys from experimenting with the technology. But attorneys and tech experts who have implemented AI in legal settings say if used properly, it can revolutionize the office.

Corporate Counsel and Chat Bots

Chief Legal Officer of Copeland Christine Carney said AI can’t be ignored, but the manner in which it is implemented and how it is introduced to attorneys matters. Her company has adopted a governance framework to guide the safe use of AI.

Carney said Copeland approaches AI through the lense of a “people first culture.”

“We take that and then just want to have a really thoughtful and disciplined approach to AI. So similar to how we approach technology, just making sure that we rigorously are assessing data and cyber security standards, but then taking it and tailoring it, configuring it to fit what we’re doing within the company,” Carney said. “For any process that we’re working on that has to always start with people.”

Copeland has used AI tools for optimization and to analyze data for better decision making. But, Carney stressed, the technology doesn’t replace colleagues who are still relied on to make final decisions.

“We’ve streamlined campaign planning and automation of certain repetitive tasks, but (it is) always being used to empower teams, certainly not replace them,” Carney said.

This looks like making sure that humans are given oversight and are validating data from AI, keeping accountability within the team.

“But we’ve certainly seen that by allowing AI to help with certain types of data analysis or to help craft messaging, then our team members can focus on strategic tasks and utilize it to help them,” she said.

Myers Dill, a partner with Husch Blackwell, said while the roll out of AI started quietly, it is now a hot button issue for the legal community.

“There are two sides of the AI coin. One is, how are you using as a law firm, AI tools?” Dill said. “The other side of that coin is, what sort of issues does AI introduce for our clients?”

Internally, Dill said Husch Blackwell has policies in place governing the use of AI.

“I think front and center of that is making sure that clients know when you’re using AI. Clients pay for attorneys, and sometimes clients want purely attorney brains and not you know the reliance of AI or any use of AI, so we’re always upfront about the use of AI,” Dill said. “Clients can also rest assured, our AI tools are vetted by our AI and data team through IT and so everything is confidential and hosted on our own secure server, so you don’t have to worry about confidentiality issues and that sort of thing.”

The firm uses a variety of different AI powered tools, Dill said. This includes an internal program called prompt composer that uses generative AI to help attorneys develop and organize work product.

“AI is almost like having another team member to kind of bounce ideas off of, and that’s the way I try to think of a tool like prompt composer is as another team member,” he said.

While AI is making a difference in workplace efficiency, it isn’t at a point yet where attorneys see it making a true impact on how the billable hour is calculated.

Dill said because AI is a tool at attorneys’ disposal to help cut down on time, clients may start to see small savings on their fees when attorneys calculate their time on a project. But this is difficult to calculate as there is no particular analysis included with the bill determining how much time AI saves.

Carney said at this time when evaluating legal partners, the use of AI does not play a significant role and instead, firms are asked to place bids on specific projects based on the outcome, not time savings.

Law school to AI startup

Evan Wong, the CEO of Checkbox.ai, started the legal-focused AI company after graduating from law school.

Wong and his co-founders, James Han and Paul Wenck, designed the AI tool to specifically help in-house legal teams as a cost cutting measure and a way to manage workflows.

Specifically, the tool helps in-house attorneys manage legal requests across departments to streamline the intake process for requests, whether they come in via email, call, Slack, or Microsoft Teams. The point, Wong said, is to take the mundane work off attorneys’ plates so they can focus on deep legal work that requires their human expertise and can’t be automated.

“We’ve actually built what is known as a legal front door software that is more than just legal intake. It handles everything I talked about, from intake to triage to creating self-service for the business (and) creating matters that are then assigned to the correct person with reporting that wraps around the whole thing,” Wong said.

The tool is specifically trained on companies’ compliance policies to safeguard confidentiality, avoid conflicts of interest, and always have human accountability, Wong explained.

Checkbox.AI is just one of a slew of legal tools targeted towards attorneys, but is specifically focused on corporate counsel and compliance teams.

Other legal AI tools that have been developed in recent years include Clio, Westlaw, CoCounsel and Harvey AI.

In July of 2024, the American Bar Association issued its first ethics guidance on the use of AI. Along with safeguarding client confidentiality, the ABA cautioned attorneys to not overly rely on AI and abdicate responsibilities to it, citing the competence portion of the model rules of professional conduct.

The future

Currently, AI is the worst it will ever be, Dill said.

“And so, I think exploring ways to implement it into your practice and to make your practice more efficient is something you should never stop doing,” Dill said. Keep exploring ways that it could work for you. Patent prosecution, for example, is a little more nuanced and tools are starting to come out. They’re not perfect, but I’ve trialed some of them and have had a look and they’re getting closer to being quite useful. So, I think having an open mind toward it is really important.”

Carney acknowledged that many folks fear AI but said that is the case for nearly all new technology.

“We certainly want to make sure people feel confident embracing the technology, but do so very wisely under consistent guidance and always making sure that we’re protecting data and our data has integrity,” Carney said. “Really for us, it’s about highlighting that the team comes first, so it’s something that we can utilize to help our team be able to focus on more strategic tasks, by not replacing the expertise that they have, but enabling them to go faster.”

Looking at the evolution of technology that has been developed in the past, it’s not fear mongering to note that AI development will continue on a forward path, whether attorneys learn to use it or not, Wong said.

“AI is not going to replace lawyers,” Wong said. “AI are going to replace lawyers that don’t embrace AI.”