The Legal Tech Bro Blues: Generative AI, Legal Indeterminacy, And The Future Of Legal Research And Writing

Nicholas Mignanelli (Yale; Google Scholar), The Legal Tech Bro Blues: Generative AI, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Future of Legal Research and Writing, 8 Geo. L. Tech. Rev. 298 (2024):

In recent years, a new figure, the tech bro, has arrived in the legal field. He can be found opining on podcasts and social media platforms, selling his wares in the boardrooms of big law firms, and giving guest presentations in law school classrooms. He speaks with unwarranted confidence about the coming technological transformation of law and the brave new world of so-called “AI-driven” law practice that awaits lawyers and judges. He promises that these changes will bring unimaginable efficiencies and profits.

This Essay begins with a description and assessment of the legal tech bro archetype. In the pages that follow, this Essay problematizes the legal tech bro’s approach to the law by examining the concepts of “the legal singularity” and legal indeterminacy. Next, this Essay considers what aspects of lawyering should be automated by exploring the role experience plays in legal research and how it forms the basis of legal creativity. With this understanding in mind, this Essay proposes a new normative model of the legal research and writing process that allows lawyers to responsibly augment their law practice with LLM-based technologies. Finally, this Essay concludes by discussing the curricular implications of this model.

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