As artificial intelligence tools continue to advance at rapid rates, they are increasingly being used by Spokane attorneys and Gonzaga University law students. 

Some firms, however, are taking cautious approaches to ensure confidentiality for their clients and accuracy in AI-generated content.

"One of the benefits of AI for lawyers is that an immense amount of information is accessible, and not only accessible, but can then be translated into content," says Jacob Rooksby, dean of Gonzaga University School of Law.

While tools with AI components permit attorneys or law students to generate drafts of pleadings, answer research questions, or put together briefs, the need for attorneys will remain, says Rooksby.

"I think it's one powerful and additional tool that is going to be impactful on the practice, and will change how we educate, but I'm not worried about it circumventing or replacing the need for attorneys," he says.

At Fig. 1 Patents PLLC, a firm located at 116 W. Pacific in downtown Spokane, AI tools are being used to speed up or automate routine tasks like drafting emails, writing policies, and creating social media posts.

“We have all these different parts in the process of what we do," says Mark Niemann, co-founder of Fig. 1. "AI really is allowing us to automate all these different parts.”

Fig. 1 is also beginning to use AI tools to help prepare patents, says Patrick Walsh, also a co-founder of the firm.

“We’re moving into an area where the tools are getting better, and if you don’t use them to do those things, ultimately, you may be left in the dust,” Walsh says. “We are constantly evaluating and testing out these tools to do those things.”

Concerns over privacy, accuracy, and quality loom large, however. Walsh says that Fig. 1 makes sure the firm doesn't use AI models that could disclose confidential client information, especially considering the potential ramifications that public disclosure could have on patent protections.

Lee & Hayes PC, a Spokane law firm located in the Bank of America building, at 601 W. Riverside, downtown, is still testing and training AI tools before rolling them out across the firm, says Yanek Kondryszyn, a Lee & Hayes partner, who is also the chair of the firm's AI and machine learning committee.

"Right now, we are on hold with deployment across the firm," Kondryszyn says. "We have limited ... the use of AI and (machine learning) to nonclient projects, internal projects for the firm that don't pertain to confidential data."

In addition to wanting to ensure the privacy of clients' confidential information, Lee & Hayes is waiting for the AI tool market to settle, as models are advancing at a rapid pace. Kondryszyn says they don't want to make a large investment on an AI model that may be obsolete in a few months.

The accuracy and quality of content produced using AI models is also a concern for attorneys.

"One of the hardest things about AI is that the models that we have today are very good at looking pretty and generating an output that looks convincing," Kondryszyn says. "But once you start to dig into the details, you start to find all sorts of flaws."

Attorneys have to be able to review the content produced by AI tools and check for errors, while also making sure to tailor documents and information to meet each client's needs, Kondryszyn says.

A lack of accuracy and strategy comes into play when using AI tools to prepare patents, Niemann and Walsh say.

“With us, it’s very important to write a patent that actually protects our clients’ innovations,” Niemann says. “It almost becomes more important to have people that understand what’s a good patent, what’s a bad patent. It still takes somebody to be able to say these are good claims, these are bad claims."

Fig. 1 uses AI to automate certain parts of patent applications, Niemann says, but much of the applications require more creative thought and strategy than what AI tools are capable of producing.

Unlike patents, contracts and wills—documents that require less strategy and are often more repetitive—are examples of legal documents that AI tools can be more effective in creating, Walsh says.

Even those documents, however, would still require review and editing from attorneys.

While AI tools will save time compiling information, attorneys will still have to possess the knowledge to be able to edit and organize the information that is produced.

Even with access to more information, Niemann says, a good argument is often the simplest argument. Access to more information through AI tools makes critical thinking and persuasion even more important.

The ability to analyze and edit information is important for law students at Gonzaga as they prepare to enter a workforce that is continuously increasing the use of AI technology.

"You don't just go right to the role of being an expert editor," says Rooksby. "There has to be some work as a creator to get you to that point. You don't get to fully immerse yourself in AI until you've immersed yourself in the legal world without AI, and then know how to integrate it appropriately, ethically."

At Gonzaga, the required legal research and writing course uses some AI technology as it's made available through the school's subscription services. A one-credit course on AI and the law will be offered starting in August, Rooksby says.

"I think (AI) is going to require that attorneys and law students really view their role differently, in the sense of they have to manage technology better, and they have to view themselves as seekers and purveyors of truth and wisdom," says Rooksby.

Anytime life, liberty, and property are on the line, people are going to want to know that a human is behind the legal work being done, says Rooksby.

Despite the various concerns over AI tools, Kondryszyn anticipates their use eventually will become ubiquitous across all law firms.

"AI will be so useful that it would almost be malpractice to not use it for a client, much like if an attorney were to use a typewriter and then bill all that time using a typewriter," he says. "I don't know if you could substantiate those fees for the time spent when you could do it with Microsoft Word much more quickly."