On March 19, 2020, I was to give a lecture to law students at the University of Sherbrooke under the title: the uberization of law; it was three days after the decree of the total containment of Quebec, it was countermanded. Recent news on artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT prompted me to review this conference that remained in my boxes.
To understand each other well, here is what I mean by uberization. It is the application, to a given economic activity, of the results obtained by the digital systematization of the stages of production, combined with the use of a non-professional workforce, external to the traditional environment of this industry. This covers all those that economists Pierre Boucher and Henri Beauregard designate as “uber-competitors”.
Long before the company Uber overturned the taxi industry almost everywhere in the world, Anglo-Saxon legal America experienced a phenomenon of a foreign professional contribution made possible thanks to the Internet and which came to exert significant pressure on the cost of providing various services of a legal nature. It involved many lawyers from India, for example, who had the intelligence to be admitted to various bars in the United States, notably those of the States of California and New York.
They can thus, from India, legally and competently provide large law firms with research and case processing services at a fraction of their own cost, the in house cost. The British jurist Richard Susskind describes the phenomenon well. The young lawyers who have just graduated, who are seeing the windows of reception narrow in large firms, are the ones who suffer.
The exercise of law being regulated everywhere, uberization is only responsible for satisfying, online, simple and formatted needs, form of contract or will, procedure for contesting an infraction ticket, lark . No advice! Economist researchers Pierre Boucher and Henri Beauregard also cite in their research work a study by Professors Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxford University which places legal services in third place among the least risky employment sectors ahead of nine other categories at increasing risk.
Nevertheless, the phenomenon has led many to question the economic relevance of resorting to a professional, in some way overqualified, to render a service regarding questions whose solutions are already well known and well established in doctrine and case law.
A fast and dramatic effect
Artificial Intelligence is coming! Will the situation be reversed?
In the March 2023 issue of News which devotes a voluminous dossier to AI, a journalist questions ChatGPT on the effects that conversational platforms such as his will have on the so-called liberal professions. ChatGPT responds that “jobs that primarily involve repetitive interactions are affected.” And it lists in order: “lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and psychologists”.
In my opinion, the effect will be rapid and dramatic among young lawyers who are no longer required to run to the courthouse in place of their boss to present files and pleadings, these filings now being made online. There remained research in doctrine and case law, also facilitated by computers, and the development and editing of files. Also true for the non-litigious practice of the profession.
The Barreau du Québec has of course come by train. This spring, its training department subjected ChatGPT to a part of the questionnaire for admission to the profession. A result of 30% seemed to delight the trainers. However, the ChatGPT version at the time had only been “exposed” to US law and, in my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before he and his ilk get to work right here. .
lawyers offshore have not been attracted by the small market of Quebec law, especially since its civil law particularism constitutes a sort of barrier. This will not be the case at all for artificial intelligence. Is there a commotion in the cabinets? A college professor told me recently that 2,000 lawyers leave the profession each year.
What about the notarial profession? Apart from a few non-contentious procedures in the law of persons that notaries instrument for presentation in court, the exercise of law by notaries is far removed from the courtroom. And this aspect of notarial practice, a right of proximity, is based more on the very personal relationship of the professional with his client than on extensive research, the fruit of which is intended for the consideration of the court. In my opinion, ChatGPT and its ilk will have little to do here.
For the practice of conventional business law, AI will quickly become an indispensable tool for both the notary and the non-litigating lawyer. Both will be equipped for a quality service, faster and less expensive for the customer. However, “less costly” also means less intervention by collaborators and auxiliaries. So fewer lawyers on the job!
There remains real estate law. The impact of AI will be crucial here. What will the buyer of a house prefer before the choice to see his notary or to pay for his purchase online after having received quality and up-to-date information thanks to AI? The mortgagee has already, in many cases, obtained adequate security through a specialized insurer. For the other party, the borrower, will AI provide adequate consumer protection?
In the field of law, the questioning which is essential belongs to the university faculties: will we always need a thousand new graduates each year? Towards young people, they have a serious duty of reflection and transparency.