BY COLIN RIGLEY
When asked why lawyers don’t use generative artificial intelligence in their practices, ChatGPT said, “Lawyers are hesitant to fully adopt generative AI due to concerns about accuracy, reliability, and the ethical implications of using AI for tasks like legal advice and document drafting.” When asked the same question, one Washington lawyer said, “AI is crappy, inaccurate, inconsistent, and unnecessary.”
That lawyer isn’t the only skeptic. In fact, according to the results of a survey recently conducted by the WSBA’s Legal Technology Task Force,11 www.wsba.org/connect-serve/committees-boards-other-groups/legal-technology-task-force. only 25 percent of Washington legal professionals use generative AI applications in their work at all. And the use of AI corresponds dramatically to the size of the firm. Among lawyers at large firms and in-house counsel, 70 percent have adopted AI into their practice, yet only 22 percent of small firm lawyers have done the same. (The largest groups of survey respondents were solo practitioners, which accounted for 32 percent of the total responses, with the second-largest pool of responses coming from practices of 2-10 practitioners.)
These were some of the results of the Task Force’s September 2024 survey, which received responses from 516 legal professionals who shared how they are adopting technology into their practices—the results were compiled into a final report by the National Business Research Institute (NBRI).
Since their first meeting in May 2024, members of the Task Force have worked toward fulfilling the objectives of their charter to assess the legal technology landscape across the various sectors of the legal profession in Washington and the U.S., and to understand WSBA members’ use and awareness of technology.
“We’re in a pivotal moment in society,” Legal Technology Task Force Chair Jenny Durkan told the WSBA Board of Governors when the Task Force presented the survey results on Jan. 17. “These emerging technologies, I think, are going to be so much more transformative than even the industrial revolution. And in order to serve our members and our clients, it’s going to be incumbent upon us to make sure that people have both the education they need to harness the right tools for their work, and the rules of ethics are going to have to evolve as well.”
Particularly concerning among the survey results were the responses to questions about cybersecurity. When asked about their organization’s cybersecurity, 79 percent expressed confidence in their practices, yet far fewer responded positively about the tools they were actually using, with many not even taking advantage of the most rudimentary tools like multifactor authentication.
“Confidence is high and implementation is not so high,” Craig Shank, who serves as the Practice of Law Board Liaison to the Task Force, told Bar News, “and as you dig in a little bit further it really looks like implementation is really not so high.”
Shank added one of the challenges is that people aren’t aware of the resources available to them, such as The Law Firm Guide to Cybersecurity22 www.wsba.org/for-legal-professionals/member-support/practice-management-assistance/guides/cybersecurity-guide. and other WSBA guides.
“The issue is not that the WSBA hasn’t done anything about it,” Shank said. “Awareness is not what it ought to be and implementation is not what it ought to be.”
The Task Force’s beginnings date back to November 2023 when the Board of Governors adopted its four strategic priorities for the fiscal year, which included plans to assess technology-related opportunities and threats and determine the WSBA’s role with respect to regulation, consumer protection, and support to legal professionals.
“These emerging technologies … are going to be much more transformative than even the industrial revolution.”
Legal Technology Task Force Chair Jenny Durkan
With the survey results in hand, the Task Force will compile a final report for the Board of Governors by August. (A draft of the report was scheduled to circulate for feedback by May 1, with the final report expected to be ready in June.) According to the Task Force Charter, that report will “(1) evaluate the scope and efficacy of the Task Force’s achievements, and (2) provide feasible recommendations to support and strengthen the use of technology within the legal profession in Washington State.”
In addition to the survey, the Task Force has planned outreach activities, gone on a Microsoft campus tour, and attended a CLE presentation. Task Force members also created four workgroups to evaluate: (1) key emerging technologies; (2) impacts on practice, access to justice, and consumer protection; (3) impacts on courts, court rules, and procedures; and (4) education and ethics.
Island County Superior Court Judge Christon Skinner headed the workgroup on court impacts. Judge Skinner explained to Bar News that the workgroup focused particularly on rules of evidence, AI tools for the public to fill out court forms, AI language translation, and how courts might have to beef up their in-house technology. The group looked at the ways other courts are implementing AI into their daily operations, such as some jurisdictions in the U.S. that have already deployed public-facing court chatbots.33 www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/97187/Court-Chatbots.pdf.
Given the sheer amount of technology-related issues facing courts—ranging from the ethical rules and procedures many courts still need to solidify around AI practices, to the proliferation of deep fakes and other falsified evidence—Judge Skinner said “it was pretty daunting when we first got started.”
“AI is definitely going to be in our courts and we’re not going to avoid it,” Judge Skinner said. “We have to make sure people get educated and understand it and can be careful in terms of not letting a case be derailed by a person that’s savvy and can fake a photo or video.”
In total, Shank said that all the workgroups amassed 120 recommendations, and he joked that it’s “approximately 85 different ways of saying we need better training, more training, and people taking advantage of it.”
When the Task Force took its survey results before the Board of Governors, many Board members noted that the pace of technology, notably AI, is moving so fast that it’s difficult to keep up. However, many also acknowledged that AI, like any new technology, is a tool that lawyers will have to learn to use competently and ethically. It’s not a question of AI replacing lawyers, but lawyers who don’t know how to use AI in their practice will likely fall behind lawyers who do.
“The nature of lawyering is it’s not just a learned profession, it’s a learning profession,” Shank told Bar News. “You can’t be a lawyer without being in the learning business. … I really think we need to find a way for the WSBA to be delivering programs, training, and resources that meet people where they are, meet practitioners where they are, that serve as an effective onramp, that are effective stepladders for folks, wherever they might be, and that’s going to have to pair with a new level of awareness [about technology].”
Technology Resources for Lawyers
Want to improve your law practice’s cybersecurity but not sure what to do? The WSBA has a number of detailed guides covering a range of topics, such as The Law Firm Guide to Cybersecurity. You can find that guide and a bevy of other resources on the WSBA Law Firm Guides and Templates page.
About the author
Colin Rigley is a communications specialist with the WSBA. He has nearly two decades of experience in journalism and communications. He can be reached at:
NOTE
1. www.wsba.org/connect-serve/committees-boards-other-groups/legal-technology-task-force.
3. www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/97187/Court-Chatbots.pdf.