The Law Society of England & Wales has sent out a practice note to remind everyone that ‘AI is not a legal entity’ and so lawyers ‘cannot transfer professional responsibility’ to an LLM or legal AI tool. They also stressed that ‘AI is no substitute for junior lawyers’, among other things.

The warnings – which don’t carry any legal authority as the Law Society is a representative body and is not an official regulator of the profession – are part of a major piece of work that outlines multiple voluntary guidelines for legal AI use.

While most lawyers will be happy to accept that they cannot treat AI as a legal entity to which responsibility can be delegated, (even when using agents), the point that AI cannot be a substitute for the work of junior lawyers is a far more complex issue.

— Legal Innovators UK Conference, November 4 and 5, London —

Some work that junior lawyers do can indeed be replaced with AI tools – albeit with the right checks put in place before that work goes to the clients.

Perhaps the more accurate phrasing would be ‘AI cannot always substitute for the work of junior lawyers, but give it a try because things are advancing very rapidly. You might be surprised at what it can do!’ And especially so as more mundane workflows feel the full impact of agentic AI.

Although, the Law Society, which is in effect ‘the union’ for lawyers on this side of the Pond, is rather unlikely to send out that particular message.…

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