P2P

42 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 Getting On Board With Large Language Models (LLMs) like Claude or ChatGPT evolving rapidly, and new legal tech innovations announced weekly, law firms cannot afford to stay on the beach. During a recent conversation with a few legal contemporaries during LegalWeek 2024, Jackson Walker's Chief Knowledge Services Officer Greg Lambert likened the situation to "a boat leaving the dock." I.e., the longer firms wait to get on board, the further it will be out to sea. It will be harder to catch before it disappears over the horizon. Yet, despite this sense of urgency, there is still some hesitancy among legal professionals to get on the boat. As mentioned above, most are still gingerly testing the waters because they don't feel they have the right expertise or knowledge to leverage the technology. Lawyers first need to educate themselves on the basics: what Gen AI is, how it works, and how it can benefit their organization, clients, or stakeholders. Once the basics have been mastered, the next step is to learn about the available tools, how they address specific legal needs or use cases, and how they might integrate into existing workflows. Research is essential, as initial Gen AI legal tools were built on open-web versions of popular LLMs, which are more prone to hallucinations. Since then, more "professional grade" tools have emerged – trained on vast amounts of legal data, content, and case law and using hallucination-mitigating approaches like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Also, many organizations cannot afford to invest in several overlapping point solutions specializing in a handful of use cases. Understanding your organization's AI needs at a high level will also help you choose the right tools for the job, thus minimizing friction and frustration that could cause mistrust and abandonment. Current use cases include document review and summarization, intelligent document or contract drafting, conversational search for case law and practical guidance, DMS integration, and more, with new ones constantly being developed. In some cases, customer feedback is the driving force behind Gen AI innovations, ensuring that new features and capabilities are rooted in real-world legal practice. Building Trust Through Hands- On Training and Practical Use Beyond education, building trust is also driven by hands-on training and familiarity with Gen AI-powered technology. The more a lawyer has access to the tools, the more confident and comfortable they will be interacting with the underlying capabilities. Forward-thinking law firms are already on the boat, experimenting with Gen AI's ability to change how they work. According to the survey, the largest law firms are taking the lead, with 43% of Am Law 200 firms setting aside a dedicated budget for Gen AI tools. By contrast, only 19% of other firms have a Gen F E A T U R E S "The longer firms wait to get on board, the further it will be out to sea."

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