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<\/p>\nBy: Eric Richard<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not that long ago there was no such thing as an app store, the word \u201csmartphone\u201d wasn\u2019t commonplace, and artificial intelligence existed only in science fiction. Today, we know a very different world. Companies fight to have a best-selling app, smartphones are considered a necessity for everyday life, and artificial intelligence is finding a place in industry after industry.[1]<\/a> The legal profession is no exception.[2]<\/a> Year after year people are \u201ctaking the law into their own hands,\u201d whether it be through the use of websites like LegalZoom or any number of others. People are trusting lawyers less and trusting their own abilities more. It was only a matter of time before artificial intelligence started playing a role in an attempt to do what lawyers have spent years being trained to do.<\/p>\n One segment of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, is already capable of scanning documents and anticipating their relevancy to a particular case.[3]<\/a> While some aspects of a lawyer\u2019s work will likely always be safe from machines and artificial intelligence, such as appearing in court, any automation is always cause for concern. [4]<\/a> Basic document review has already been \u201coutsourced,\u201d although to machines and not to persons of other countries than the United States, with more and more likely to follow.[5]<\/a> This isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, after all, with less time needed to be spent on menial tasks, lawyers will be free to devote more time and manpower to the more complicated aspects of work that come with a common law system.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n But what happens when a program is capable of handling more than just the menial tasks? What happens when an app could handle actual lawyering and cut the attorney out of the equation altogether? That\u2019s exactly what people like Justin Kan and Josh Browder are trying to do.[7]<\/a> Kan is an entrepreneur who is responsible for the video game streaming service, Twitch.[8]<\/a> After selling Twitch to Amazon for nearly a billion dollars, Kan has set his sights on a different venture, and now operates a legal technology start-up in Silicon Valley.[9]<\/a> It\u2019s called Atrium, and the company isn\u2019t just looking to replace the menial tasks done by lawyers, it\u2019s engineers are hoping to design artificial intelligence that could even issue stock options to employees of a corporation or assist with fundraising from venture capitalists.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n While Kan\u2019s work is still in the early stages, Browder has released an app just this month called DoNotPay that looks to further chip away at the work lawyers are traditionally hired to do.[11]<\/a> At first, DoNotPay was just a tool that people could use to challenge a parking ticket without the need of an attorney, but now a new update will reportedly allow the user to sue anyone in small claims court in all 50 states.[12]<\/a> The latest version of the app is still in its infancy, and we have yet to see what successes and complications are going to come, but it\u2019s fair to say that innovation is never going to slow down. Artificial intelligence is muscling its way into the legal profession and apps like DoNotPay might just be the first of it but will certainly not be the last.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> See <\/em>Dan Mangan, Lawyers could be the next profession to be replaced by computers<\/em>, CNBC (Feb. 17, 2017, 1:55 PM), https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/02\/17\/lawyers-could-be-replaced-by-artificial-intelligence.html.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> See <\/em>Steve Lohr, A.I. Is Doing Legal Work. But It Won\u2019t Replace Lawyers, Yet<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Mar. 19, 2017), https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/03\/19\/technology\/lawyers-artificial-intelligence.html.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n [7]<\/a> See<\/em> Elizabeth Dwoskin, This Silicon Valley start-up wants to replace lawyers with robots<\/em>, Wash. Post (Sept. 14, 2017), https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/innovations\/wp\/2017\/09\/14\/this-silicon-valley-startup-wants-to-replace-lawyers-with-robots\/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7a7097ee6959; See also<\/em> Jason Tashea, DoNotPay app aims to help users sue anyone in small claims court–without a lawyer<\/em>, A.B.A. J. (Oct. 10, 2018, 9:30 AM), http:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/article\/file_a_smalls_claims_suit_anywhere_in_the_country_through_an_app\/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> See<\/em> Dwoskin, supra<\/em> note 7.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n [10]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n