The legal profession in the Cayman Islands is facing “modernization” in the form of the Legal Services Bill which will soon be submitted to the Legislative Assembly. In the meantime, in the UK the Solicitors Regulatory Authority has approved plans to enable law students to bypass University.
They will undertake mandatory work experience and then take a new two-part Solicitors qualifying exam to become fully qualified. This “reform” of legal education harks back to the qualification process 50 years ago when articled clerks often paid firms to give them training. Suffice it to say the reform has not been without controversy and has been described as “dumbing down” the entry requirements.
The objective of the new Regime is to broaden access to the profession to students from less traditional socio-economic backgrounds. The new Regime, which starts in September, will also reduce the cost of qualifying as a Solicitor by as much as two thirds.
Some have argued that emphasizing the lack of connection between degrees and qualification when other professions are doing the opposite will diminish confidence in solicitors. It will be interesting to see how the system works when even the Chairwoman of the Legal Services Board has conceded that the “shake up” is not “without risk”. Perhaps one risk is the rise of AI or artificial intelligence.
The World Intellectual Property Organization for “lawtech” reported a record number of patents registered last year. It is suggested that international panic over the Coronavirus pandemic is likely to hasten the rise of artificial intelligence in the legal profession. China had filed the majority of the patents.
Many of the Chinese patents focus on the jurisdictions online court system. Those Patents cover the creation of artificial intelligence tools, which perform basic administrative or secretarial court tasks. This rapid increase in artificial intelligence has been caused by the lockdown, which has forced a steep learning curve on many lawyers. What does this mean for lawyers? It could free many lawyers from routine drudgery and make advice more robust and accurate. However, there is also a suggestion that technology will continue to become more intelligent, which, in turn, will start to reduce the numbers of qualified junior lawyers. Some senior lawyers believe artificial intelligence is unlikely to be able to replace the need for critical thinking and problem solving, which are the exceptional skill of lawyers. However, I found the juxtaposition of the “dumbing down” of the entry requirements to become a Solicitor interesting when set against statistics regarding the trend in artificial intelligence which could make those recruits redundant. We will have to see.