AI will cause “structural collapse” of law firms by 2030
Lawyer here.  I do not know how soon AI will achieve either the humanity or know-how to replace lawyers, but will offer a few observations as a practitioner.<p>As for the know-how: Processing and comprehending legal texts does not seem to be an insurmountable technological task.  However, the breadth of legal practice areas (family law, IP, criminal law, administrative law, etc.), and how these several areas often overlap to influence our daily lives seems a much more complex task.<p>As for the human element: legal problems are frequently extremely personal and require an empathetic response.  This is so at the lawyer-client level, as well as the lawyer-lawyer level.  After all, most legal issues require navigating complex relationships between humans, or groups of them.  I don&#x27;t think our society is ready for automated justice at this point.  My clients certainly aren&#x27;t.<p>So, it seems the human component isn&#x27;t immediately threatened by AI, while the technical know-how might benefit those with deeper pockets and access to the &quot;better&quot; AI.  Practically speaking though, the deep pocketed clients already have armies of lawyers at their disposal.  With that in mind, the technical advances are likely to benefit smaller practitioners and clients (like me) who have limited resources.<p>I fully expect to be practicing law in 2030.  If all the lawyer jobs are fully automated by then, I&#x27;ll have MUCH more to worry about.