Swedish law firms debate AI’s future impact on profession

Sweden’s legal profession has opened a national discussion to examine how evolving disrupter technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) will impact law firms and the niche services they deliver to clients.

The debate is emerging amid a surge in the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools by law firms of all sizes across the legal sector in Sweden.

A national debate was triggered by a growing sense of apprehension in the profession, underscored by job security concerns that extend to largely unanswered questions over how-fast paced advances in digital and AI technologies will likely reshape how the legal profession operates as specialised services providers in a sector where demand for traditional legal advice is changing.

The pervading perception of uncertainty is reflected in data, collated by the Swedish Bar Association (Advokatsamfundet), that reveals that over 50% of lawyers and 70% of legal staff in Sweden are concerned about their long-term job security.

This sense of trepidation is based on concerns about the future demand for basic legal services in a changing landscape where potential private and corporate clients can access and use AI technologies as an assistant to help them resolve certain types of common legal issues outside the litigation loop.

For most lawyers in Sweden, the forward march of AI presents both opportunities and risks. More law firms are responding to the challenge by implementing GenAI projects at primary levels in their organisations. The significance of the transformation means that law firms are set to become more AI-focused by employing a higher number of legally trained IT specialists while hiring fewer lawyers.

In June, the Swedish Bar Association (SBA) issued its first guidelines standard to member law firms covering the use of GenAI models and algorithms in legal practice. The guidelines’ index was formulated by a special technical working group established in the SBA. The same working group is scheduled to produce a larger and more comprehensive checklist of recommendations on the use of AI by lawyers by year-end 2024.

AI has the potential to drive administrative efficiencies and help lawyers across Sweden to better serve clients, said Ann-Marie Carelius Ovin, chief information officer (CIO) at law firm Vinge.  

“We first started to pay attention to the possibilities of AI in 2017,” she said. “It was new, raw and a wolf in the distance back then. We realised the technology needed more time to develop and tracked developments. When ChatGPT emerged in 2022, it became clear to Vinge’s management that the wolf was now at the door and here to stay. We realised it was time to acquire competency in this technology and understand the regulations that come with it to remain competitive as a law firm in the long run.”

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 caused a significant and universal ripple in the global technology sphere, impacting all corners in public and private organisations, including law firms.    

Sweden’s legal profession must develop a deep understanding of AI rather than fear a technology that has the potential to disrupt the sector but will not lead to the large-scale replacement of lawyers, said Ovin.   

“AI technology is in itself neither good nor bad, but it can be used for both good and bad,” she added. “Law firms have the opportunity to play an important role in being a balancing voice in the ongoing debate about AI.”

AI platform

Vinge is currently using tools developed by Harvey AI, an innovative AI platform optimised for legal work built on OpenAI’s latest language model. Inside Vinge, Harvey AI is being deployed in a personal assistant role to support routine tasks such as contract analysis, due diligence, litigation and regulatory compliance. 

The legal profession, despite the under-flow of foreboding in the sector, has no sustainable reason to be apprehensive about the “AI revolution”, said Johan Wallquist, head of AI and digital innovation at Blendow Group, a Stockholm-headquartered consulting agency serving Sweden’s legal profession.  

“AI can be the lawyer’s friend,” he said. “Using advanced machine learning algorithms speeds up legal processes. Employing AI tools can free up a lawyer’s valuable time to undertake more complex tasks. AI has already become indispensable in other industries where entire teams of so-called AI assistants are the norm. The legal profession will not be the exception.”

Those law firms who invest time and capital to understand the potential of AI tools, and integrate the technology into their business operations, will reap a commercial advantage over their rivals, said Wallquist. 

“AI increases efficiency and will become a more important component in meeting the future expectations of clients,” he added. “Law firms will not want to fall behind competitors that have already embraced and strengthened their use of generative AI.”

GenAI adoption

The adoption of GenAI models by law firms has begun to accelerate in Sweden, as more embrace the technology to build a competitive edge.    

Setterwalls Advokatbyrå, founded in 1878 and Sweden’s oldest registered law firm, launched a project in June to introduce GenAI throughout its commercial law-focused business. The launch was preceded by an in-depth “benefit and risk” analysis by the company, said Daniel Sandberg, CIO of Setterwalls.

The benefit and risk analysis embodied a deep-dive investigation to ascertain best methods to successfully integrate AI into a legal business, mindful of fundamental and connected issues such as ethics, integrity and data security. The analysis also examined best methods to identify potential risks in a legal services environment unused to dealing with innovation-led technological change requiring both adaptation and learning.

“We not only focused on choosing the right technical solutions, but above all, we wanted to create the optimum conditions for an AI-mature organisation to help it adapt to the new opportunities and challenges that AI brings,” he said. “Our priority is to create security, knowledge and ensure our employees can use AI in a responsible and efficient way.”

Setterwalls has set the full implementation of GenAI across its entire organisation as its foremost objective. The project’s mission aims to utilise the full potential of digital tools for increased value creation across the legal consulting business.

The AI integration will comprise training courses for legal staff to elevate their awareness of GenAI tools.