NEW YORK: An Introduction to Family/Matrimonial: High Net Worth

Family Law Practice for High Net Worth Individuals in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. We see it everywhere in our lives and it is now prominent on everyone’s smartphones for daily use. But how does that affect the practice of family law, and specifically the world of high-net-worth individuals involved in family conflicts? As I will address below, there are many advantages and uses of AI in family law practice which we are embracing for the benefit of our clients. There are, however, risks and limitations to those uses that must be recognised by counsel to ensure the quality of services that our clients need, expect and deserve.  

Let’s first address the uses of AI in our practice. Those uses range from basic document management and analysis to legal research and writing. AI is particularly helpful when it comes to summarising or digesting lengthy documents or transcripts. A digest of a lengthy deposition transcript or transcript of a hearing can be produced in minutes where these documents took many hours to produce in the past. One can now search these documents for particular subjects or testimony and get immediate results, a great advantage when retrieving that information is crucial for an ongoing trial or hearing. As we all know, counsel have their computers in court and can access documents in files on the spot. The ability to parse those documents and find important information at the same time is a tremendous advantage.  

Beyond searching and summarising transcripts, AI can search and summarise lengthy documents, such as lengthy contracts, tax returns, net worth statements, prenuptial and separation agreements and court decisions. Once again, these are great time savers. As most firms now keep client files in their computer systems, AI can also search those files to find critical documents quickly. It ensures that documents are not overlooked and can be quickly retrieved in an efficient manner.  

AI capabilities go beyond merely finding documents and summarising them. It now can play a critical role in creating documents. AI software can create templates for agreements, outlines for depositions and trial testimony, and arguments for legal briefs and memoranda. It goes as far as providing legal research based on a simple question from an attorney. Once again, by providing these drafts of documents, outlines and memoranda, an attorney can be given a roadmap from which to more efficiently create a final product that is complete and of best use for their clients.  

While recognising these amazing tools – and taking the steps to employ them in all aspects of our practice – it is critical to recognise their limitations and engage in the steps necessary to ensure these programs are used properly and thus to avoid any negative impact on clients. At each level of use, there are pitfalls to be avoided. Thus, when using AI for basic document management, summaries and the like, the product of the AI cannot be a substitute for critical thinking by an attorney when looking at the specific language of a document or questioning whether something may have been omitted or mischaracterised. While AI summaries can be tremendously helpful, their completeness must be checked. Summaries of testimony are no substitute for ultimately reading the actual testimony to be used. Expanding or modifying searches to capture other aspects of a document or documents requires the attorney to take the summary as a jumping off point for further analysis and research.  

Critical thinking by an attorney becomes even more important when AI is used to create documents or do legal research or write papers for a court proceeding. While, in current advertising, one frequently sees AI used by employees to essentially rewrite their communications for them, which are then sent wholesale to their superiors at work, that is a practice that should not be – and is not – used by our attorneys. While the responses from AI can provide helpful suggestions, the writing must come from counsel familiar with the situation at hand, the goals of the client and the recipients’ characteristics. There is no one-size-fits-all category for written work product from a firm dealing with family law issues. It must contain the nuance and analysis of experienced attorneys.  

In addition, legal research performed by AI software cannot be relied upon as always correct or complete. A computer program’s reading of a case is not a substitute for that of a skilled attorney. All citations must be checked for accuracy. Further lines of argument can then be suggested by the attorney who will ultimately write the argument utilising some of the product from AI sources. It is still the case that on occasion, the answers received from an AI source for a question posited are simply incorrect. We know that this tool has its limits and must be double checked. Moreover, there is a strong and well-founded concern among law firms and clients that the use of AI could compromise the confidentiality of client information. Firms must not use AI software that would expose client information to public uses of AI and document management systems should specifically provide for client confidentiality and ensure that documents in the system do not go out to public AI destinations. To ensure this, documents and data on law firm systems should never be reviewed by any person outside of that firm. These documents must not be saved by the firm’s AI software for machine learning and need to be deleted from a firm’s AI space once processed in that firm’s private area. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times.  

Ultimately, one cannot place unquestioning faith in documents created by AI or research produced by AI sources because the skills of research and writing would be forever lost if attorneys could simply send off communications or legal documents at the push of a button without original thought and critical analysis.  

In a dynamic and ever-changing world, it is vital to keep abreast of technology and the many ways it can be used to improve the representation of sophisticated clients whose needs are often complex. We are very much on that forefront, but doing so with a knowledge of both its benefits and its limits and never forgetting the critical importance of bringing the skill and experience of attorneys to bear on the work product.