The Legal Tech Bro Blues: Generative AI, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Future of Legal Research and Writing
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.
Occasionally, but not often, the legal tech bro touches on access to justice, suggesting that AI will solve this complex and age-old problem as well. He cannot fathom that AI would ever be used to justify cuts to legal aid or further rarify the luxury of skilled human legal representation. This is because the legal tech bro is the techno-optimist1 par excellence, and he harbors an extreme aversion to skepticism, however well-informed, and a contempt for the defenders of established practices and processes. He perceives caution about the use of AI in law as a threat to his relevance and livelihood.
Nicholas Mignanelli
Head of Reference, Lillian Goldman Law Library, and Lecturer in Legal Research, Yale Law School. I am grateful to Susan Nevelow Mart, Nor Ortiz, Simon Stern, and Nicholas F. Stump for their thoughtful comments.