Legal Trends of 2022
The legal profession is changing, with technology at the heart of significant changes. 2022 will be a time of profound changes to the legal world, and this blog post will explore the five trends likely to affect how we practice law.
1. DATA
The explosion of data means that our legal practice will be increasingly automated. In the most extreme scenario, lawyers will be replaced by robots. This might sound far-fetched, but it has already started in some regions of law. According to RAND, a US think tank, AI is already used to draft legal documents and create contracts.
2. AI FOR THE MASSES
A significant trend for the future is that AI is likely to become a significant part of everyday life. Law firms will use virtual assistants to help them with tasks, while other legal professionals will negotiate with AI.
3. BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY
Blockchain is one of the biggest buzzwords in law and technology. The blockchain is a distributed, secure digital ledger for creating permanent, transparent records of all transactions. In 2022 blockchain will become more commonplace and impact everyday transactions such as buying and selling property.
Until now, blockchain has been limited to specific use cases. This is because of limitations such as the inability to store large amounts of data on the blockchain and the technical complexity of implementing it; however, these obstacles are likely to be overcome, meaning it is a technology that will have a widespread practical impact.
4. CHATBOTS
The chatbot — a computer program that enables easy communication with customers, clients, or partners over the Internet — will become increasingly important for legal services. The rise of chatbots will allow a more customer-friendly approach to legal services, where rather than calling a lawyer for advice, you can type in your query and have an automated response.
5. BIG DATA FOR JUSTICE
In the future, law firms will use big data to provide legal services. Big data is a vast pool of data that has been collected and analyzed. With the help of big data, lawyers will be able to predict events before they occur and advise clients based on that. Big data will also be used to support legal decision-making.
To sum things up, it’s clear that the legal profession will change in the coming years. It is unclear what the future holds for lawyers. Still, there will undoubtedly be more technology and automation, making the profession increasingly accessible to non-lawyers.
Originally published on Jose Simon Elarba’s website.