AI Is Forcing Big Law to Rethink Business As Usual - Bloomberg.com

Oh, marvellous. AI has finally found a calling that truly suits its talents: putting lawyers out of work. Freshfields, that bastion of billable hours, now uses a 'tech-integrated approach' to vet software compliance across over 100 countries — instead of, you know, hiring actual lawyers from each jurisdiction. Over 100 countries, each with their own legal quirks, now covered by a single algorithm that presumably never needs to sleep, never bills in six-minute increments, and never complains about the photocopier.

Naturally, this is being hailed as innovation rather than what it is: a rather efficient way to eliminate an entire generation of legal associate jobs. The subtext is delicious: 'Why pay a human to understand local regulations when a model can hallucinate them for free?' One imagines the partners at Freshfields patting themselves on the back while junior solicitors everywhere update their CVs. The article itself notes that 'Big Law' is being forced to rethink business as usual — which in practice usually means 'find cheaper ways to do the same work.'

And let's not pretend this is a niche development. If a magic chatbot can replace a roomful of lawyers — people trained to argue, interpret, and negotiate — then what hope for the rest of us? The joke's on us, of course, because the AI will also be the one writing the redundancy letters. Time to bill your last hour, lads. The machine doesn't need a retainer.