These law firm leaders shared their generative AI wins and lessons learned during a session on the first day of the Knowledge Management and Innovation for Legal Conference on Thursday in New York. Melissa Morrison, a director at LexisNexis, moderated the panel session.
Generative AI, which is capable of creating original text, became mainstream in late 2022 following the public release of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. This technology created new opportunities for law firms, with some already seeing real results.
One of those firms that has already benefited from generative AI is Husch Blackwell LLP. Kevin Bielawski, the firm's director of legal operations, said during the panel session that Husch Blackwell used generative AI to save time for legal research and reviewing documents. The firm is also using this technology to transcribe audio and locate critical facts.
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC has turned to generative AI to respond to a high volume of discovery requests, which resulted in savings for a client, said David Rueff, the firm's chief client solutions group officer.
Despite the success, Rueff said firms should view these tools with "cautious optimism," as some produce results that are not accurate.
Challenges still persist with these tools. Rueff said there is a "hype" challenge where vendors are bypassing law firm tech leaders by pitching directly to attorneys. This puts pressure on firms to vet generative AI applications that may not pass firm security protocols, according to Rueff.
Andrew Sprogis, the chief innovation officer at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, said during the panel that law firm clients are still getting used to generative AI.
"It's new to us, it's new to everybody," Sprogis said.
Some leaders said they are seeing increased demand from clients to use generative AI, and others say some clients are prohibiting the use of these tools.
To get the best results, law firms are developing AI policies.
Rueff said Baker Donelson's AI policy includes rules that prohibit the use of publicly available tools for client work or anything that contains sensitive, confidential information for the firm. For generative AI tools approved by the firm, users must follow outside counsel guidelines and any rules that exist in specific court jurisdictions.
Baker Donelson has also introduced training on generative AI and training for specific tools from vendors. The training has increased tool adoption and helped attorneys understand how generative AI works. This includes prompt engineering, which involves creating inputs for generative AI, which Rueff said is "a whole new ballgame."
Bielawski said Husch Blackwell's AI policies require having a human in the loop at all times, zero data retention and the prohibition of the use of client data to train generative AI models.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.
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