A prominent AI-powered law firm’s plans to buy liability insurance for its AI outputs is raising questions about evolving human oversight of legal tech.
The announcement by venture capital-backed law firm Crosby marks a departure from the tenuous line legal tech companies have walked by touting what AI can do while also driving home the notion that lawyers should continue to review the technology’s outputs. Liability insurance may help insulate firms from civil suits to a degree, but the looming issue for state bar associations, courts, and regulators is where the line should be drawn between what a chatbot can do on its own and what a lawyer has to review.
More legal tech companies are likely to start taking a more cavalier approach to lawyering without lawyers, Oliver Roberts, who teaches about AI and the legal industry at Washington University in St. Louis, said in an email.
