From Potential to Pitfalls: How AI Is Shaping the Future of Legal Practice

This webinar explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the legal profession, examining its role in reshaping tasks like legal research, case analysis, and document drafting. It addresses key challenges, including bias, data security, and reliability, while also highlighting judicial responses through case law and regulatory responses. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of AI's potential and be prepared to navigate its growing influence in legal practice.

Topics covered include: Legal Tech

Agenda:

Introduction & Overview
- Introduce speaker, set learning objectives, and contextualize AI’s rapid growth in legal practice
Core Concepts of AI in Law
- Define AI, machine learning, and large language models
- Explain how data inputs, hidden layers, and training lead to predictive outputs
Opportunities for Legal Practitioners
- Highlight efficiencies in document review, case analysis, translations, and content generation
- Discuss potential productivity gains and new service models
Risks & Challenges
- Address misinformation, bias, malicious use, and implications for data privacy
- Discuss the ethical risk of mis-reliance on AI outputs and ensuring validity in legal reasoning
Legal & Ethical Implications
- Review relevant regulations, case law, and evolving professional responsibility standards
- Explore emerging intellectual property concerns and the need for informed consent
Judicial & Regulatory Responses
- Examine how courts and regulatory bodies are responding to AI-driven practice
- Note recent rulings, proposed guidelines, and future areas of oversight
Recommendations & Best Practices
- Provide guidance on starting small, ensuring proper training, verifying sources, and maintaining compliance
- Encourage developing internal policies, audits, and ongoing professional education
Questions & Answers (as time permits)

Duration of this webinar: 60 minutes

Originally broadcast: February 04, 2025 9:00 AM PT

Webinar Highlights

This webinar is divided into section summaries, which you can scan for key points and then dive into the sections that interest you the most.

00:00 Introduction

Matt shares his perspective on AI, acknowledging its potential and dangers, and aims to provide actionable insights for legal professionals. He questions whether AI is over-hyped or under-hyped, aligning with those who see it as a transformative force. Matt plans to discuss real-world examples of AI's capabilities and its trajectory in the legal field.

04:56 AI in Legal Practice

Matt explains that AI has been part of everyday life for years, citing examples like Alexa and spell check. He describes AI's evolution beyond text, showcasing tools like Suno for audio and ChatGPT for video production. AI's ability to enhance images and identify individuals is demonstrated through a motor vehicle case example. He highlights AI's strength in processing structured data, using accident reports as an example. Matt illustrates AI's analytical capabilities with a summary judgment motion, showing how it can assist in legal analysis.

15:01 AI Tools and Applications

Matt discusses AI's predictive capabilities, noting its accuracy in predicting court outcomes based on briefs. He highlights a Stanford study showing AI's varying accuracy in legal-specific questions, emphasizing the need for better prompting. AI's potential to outperform humans in legal predictions is acknowledged, despite current limitations. He explains AI's foundational model as simulated brains, likening its learning process to human development. Matt describes the iterative training process of AI, using examples like identifying hot dogs to illustrate generative learning. He addresses the challenge of understanding AI's decision-making due to hidden layers and the complexity of its training data.

49:20 Ethical and Legal Implications

Matt discusses the potential of AGI, an AI capable of outperforming humans in any task, and its implications. He highlights the exponential growth of AI intelligence and its current capabilities in outperforming humans in standardized tests. Matt emphasizes the uncertainty surrounding AI's future and the need for ethical considerations in its development. He outlines ethical and legal implications, focusing on competence, confidentiality, and the unauthorized practice of law. Matt stresses the importance of understanding AI tools' data usage policies and the need for attorney review of AI-generated work. He discusses potential legal issues, including liability for AI actions and copyright concerns.

01:00:25 Future of AI and Conclusion

Matt addresses the inconsistency in court rules regarding AI usage and the need for better guidance. He encourages legal professionals to engage with AI issues and continue learning about its applications. Matt advises caution in adopting AI tools, emphasizing the importance of understanding their functionality and data sources. He raises ethical questions about AI's role in legal practice, including for pro se litigants. Matt recommends additional resources for deeper exploration of AI's ethical and practical implications.

Please note this AI-generated summary provides a general overview of the webinar but may not capture all details, nuances, or the exact words of the speaker. For complete accuracy, please refer to the original webinar recording.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Credits

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California CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 Technology in the Practice of Law

Earn Credit Until: June 30, 2026

South Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Difficulty: All Levels

Earn Credit Until: December 31, 2025

North Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 Technology Training

Earn Credit Until: February 28, 2026

Texas CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: January 31, 2026

This presentation is approved for one hour of Technology in the Practice of Law CLE credit in California, one hour of General CLE credit in South Carolina (all levels), and one hour of Technology Training CLE credit in North Carolina. This course has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of Texas Committee on MCLE in the amount of 1.00 credit hours.

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Speaker

Matt Wetherington Attorney
Wetherington Law Firm

Matt Wetherington is a nationally recognized lawyer focused on high-stakes cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, and class actions. Read More ›