I think legal search and intelligent document search tools are where the money is. Not "AI lawyer" stuff.

Legal document templates and generating them with given constraints existed before the LLM boom. They are accurate and predictable. Many easy and clear cases are already automated. You get a basic case, you take a template, and if the case has something specific, you add it.

I can see LLMs helping with: some paralegal work, legal searches when humans are there to judge the results, spotting and reporting errors in writing. Small modifications for templates.

The problem with the "AI lawyer" idea is that after things are written down, most of the thinking is already done. The text is the output of a hard-to-automate process involving:

* "Asking questions," being curious, and spotting things visually or by listening.

* figuring out the angle (formulating a case theory),

* identifying what is special in the case (the core anomaly),

* what the client wants (the true client objective). That's almost never what they say unless it's another corporate lawyer. You need to figure out emotional drivers, risk tolerance, and what constitutes a "win."

* what the opponent wants (adversarial motives),

* identifying ambiguities. Society is always shifting, and new ambiguities are created steadily.

A lawyer does all this and writes down their thinking. Lawyers think in writing. The legal profession has a really amazing blogosphere.