Lawrence The AI Paralegal

💻Is Lawrence about to become your new high street solicitor?

No, this isn’t a client of ours, but an AI bot created by Lawhive. This bot can already pass the Solicitors Regulation Authority exams (it scored 74%) and Google has taken a £9.5 million stake in this startup, aiming to shake up the high street legal market.

Lawhive has been around since 2021, pairing consultant lawyers with prospective clients for lower fees than competitors. Their AI bot, Lawrence, doesn’t replace the lawyers, but does the repetitive legal work and helps make legal advice more accessible.

Co-founder Flinn Dolman, says, “At this time, it's clear that AI will not be replacing the value that human connection provides in a solicitor and client experience, but using AI that's equipped with theoretical legal knowledge allows our legal experts and solicitors to create efficiencies."

But Lawrence didn’t score 100% in those exams, so it’s important to know law firms can’t rely on AI chatbots to give accurate information every time. They’re prone to inventing answers.

Privacy is another area that needs careful consideration before deploying an AI chatbot. But despite this, it’s clear Google sees a future in this area of legal technology and plenty of non-legal companies already use them.

What do you think? Does your law firm use an AI chatbot? Are you a fan?