the Zealous

From David Lat, Law2020, The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence:

Just as lawyers can over-delegate work to subordinates, they can also under-delegate, causing them to serve their clients less efficiently. In the context of artificial intelligence, one can imagine underutilization of AI – for example, a lawyer not using AI even though it could help that lawyer serve the client better.

In fact, given some of the psychological attributes commonly associated with lawyers – a focus on detail, a desire for control, an aversion to risk – the greater danger might very well be underutilization of, rather than overreliance upon, artificial intelligence.

In the majority of US states, a lawyer's duty of competence includes an obligation to be up on the latest technologies.

The President then asked, "What about these notes? Why do you take notes? Lawyers don't take notes. I never had a lawyer take notes."

McGahn responded that he keeps notes because he is a "real lawyer" and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing.

The President said, "I've had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes."

- Mueller Report, vol. 11, p. 117.
 

The reason there’s so much Latin in the law is that the present-day legal systems of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and much of Europe are ultimately direct or indirect heirs to the Roman legal system, and to the attendant language and terminology imposed on its subjects during Rome’s conquest.

Over 1500 years have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire, and yet here we are as a profession, continuing to use terminology like sui generis, habeas corpus and mutatis mutandis. (A brief and fascinating explication of this can be found here.)

This is generally understood among us. But what’s with all the French in the law of the common law countries? Force majeure or voir dire, anyone? Even today, the hail that court clerks in the US and England call when the judge enters the courtroom is French in origin: oyez (citation).