The 43rd Professional Forum (the third in this academic year) held by the Aranzadi LA LEY Foundation and Esade Law School focused on ‘How will generative AI impact lawyer-client relations?’ Participants included Jose Luis Barceló, head of legal counsel at Ilunion, Beatriz Hoya, director of New Law and coordinator of the Legal Hub at PwC Jurídico y Fiscal, and Cristina Retana, director of Content and Innovation at Aranzadi LA LEY. Cristina Sancho, president of the Aranzadi LA LEY Foundation, and Eugenia Navarro, professor of Strategy and Innovation at Esade Law School, chaired the discussion about how generative AI has revolutionized the legal landscape and the future of the legal practice, its impact on the lawyer-client relationship, and how it will affect the structure of law firms and corporate counsels.

A paradigm shift

The speakers consider that the onset of generative AI constitutes a sea change in how lawyers work and also change of habits: not only in the legal field. “Never before has technology been so accessible. This fact, together with the human appearance of generative AI and its ability to efficiently perform mechanical tasks, constitutes a paradigm shift and makes it the perfect co-pilot for lawyers, who can then guide and supervise certain parts of a process,” emphasized Retana. In this respect, Barceló pointed out that Ilunion uses this technology “massively and across the board in all areas to generate standard contracts and procedural contracts, and for sophisticated analyses of jurisprudence or compliance, to name but a few.”

The importance of empathy in the lawyer-client relationship

One of the main issues in this new landscape is whether generative AI could actually replace the legal profession. Barceló believes that “AI will never be able to replace the lawyer, because our profession is based on personal relationships, and technology is unable to empathize with clients. We all feel more at home with lawyers able to empathize and understand: traits that machines cannot deliver. AI will undoubtedly simplify many mechanical tasks, but it will be an intelligent assistant, a co-pilot that helps the lawyer.”

The challenges posed by generative AI

According to Beatriz Hoya, one of the main challenges of this technology is its fleeting nature and constant updates, whilst, on the other hand, “we must distinguish the inherent risks of generative AI (biases, black box or inability to trace why AI gave one answer rather than another, privacy or intellectual property) from the risks of using this technology more or less appropriately”.

“We’ll have to see what AI regulations emerge,” emphasized Barceló before mentioning “fundamental rights, attacks on privacy, biased screening that excludes certain groups or anticipates certain personalities or traits, fraudulent use or theft of identity, etc.”

Retana concluded that “bias is a crucial factor, and the input sources used to train AI are the first bias. At Aranzadi LA LEY we deal with these issues by developing solutions in secure environments.” The speaker pointed out that transparency is also a risk, particularly in the realm of justice. “To know what grounds were used to answer a query, two considerations must be taken into account: the legal context and the updating of sources. The extent to which information is up to date is critical due to the volume of regulations we must deal with.”

Training: crucial for the efficient implementation of generative AI

“Young lawyers have a great mindset, but they’re not prepared, there’s no technology associated with the profession in their curriculum,” said Barceló. “Our juniors learn to program in-house: the ability to code or automate tasks affects how you write a prompt.”

Retana believes that, “besides generative AI, practicing lawyers must have a basic knowledge of technology and basic business applications, be able to search a database, and use management software.” Hoya concluded that “this is a massive challenge because technology has a direct impact on learning and how information is processed. The challenge entails the ability to develop professional skills without having personally studied thousands of documents, as used to be the case.”