Law students and staff at one of the UK’s top universities are to be trained in artificial intelligence technology.
The Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London claims that the 12-week online course − which includes workshops featuring partners from law firms and company IT executives and free access to legal AI software − is the first of its kind.
The course, which starts in January, has been developed in partnership with legal technology suppliers Harvey, Legora, Luminance and Lucio.
The course teaches students the technical basics of AI topics, including how to instruct AI models − ‘prompt engineering’ – and how to use them responsibly for legal tasks.
Professor Dan Hunter, executive dean of the law school, said that the training was an acknowledgement that AI had become “fundamental” to the next generation of lawyers.
Growing demand for AI to automate routine legal tasks, such as research and drafting contracts, has created a boom in legaltech.
According to Thomson Reuters, 80% of legal professionals believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years.
Yet alongside hopes that AI will free lawyers from some of the more mundane legal tasks and allow them to spend more time on tasks that require strategic thinking and judgement, there are also concerns that the technology will lead to job losses, particularly among entry-level roles.
Earlier this month, Clifford Chance said it will cut business services roles in London, with up to 50 jobs potentially affected, according to a report by the Financial Times, around 10% of its back office staff in the city.
A further 35 employees could see the scope of their roles change, according to the FT, with greater use of AI among the factors driving the change, alongside reduced demand for some business services and more work being done in hubs in India and Poland, where Clifford Chance opened an operations hub last year in Warsaw.
King’s law students are “excited but nervous” about AI and how it will affect the legal sector, said Hunter. “The reality is [our students are] using [AI] all the time so they understand better than… [for example] managing partners, the significance of all the power of the tool, and they’ve seen how quickly it’s moved.”
Harry Borovick, general counsel at Luminance, said that over the next 10 to 20 years, he did not think there would be a reduction in available legal jobs for law graduates.
This is because any AI-related reduction in demand for some legal roles will be offset by AI creating new roles, such as “legal technologist”, “legal operations”, or experts in implementing legal technologies, he predicted.
“These are all roles that just didn't exist 10 years ago… so, I think there’s a huge opportunity there.”
Email your news and story ideas to Nick Huber at [email protected].
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