Artificially intelligent technologies have entered the United States legal market — and it appears they are here to stay. In 2019 alone, investments in legal technology amounted to over 1.2 billion dollars. Presently, AI legal tools fall into six major categories: (1) due diligence, (2) legal analytics, (3) document drafting, (4) intellectual property, (5) legal advice, and (6) practice management. This Article seeks to provide a descriptive synthesis of the functions that each of these tools serve in addition to assessing some of their immediate impacts on legal practice. Part I provides a brief overview of important definitional terms and technical processes that underlie AI technologies. Part II addresses how the market for legal technologies developed. Part III takes a deep dive into the features of the various tools outlined above and assesses how they are changing the legal landscape. Part IV presents several points of concern or skepticism surrounding each tool or category of tools, and on occasion, attempts to ease those concerns. Finally, Part V argues that despite these concerns, AI technologies in the legal industry have a net positive impact because they expand avenues for access to justice.
