The impact of AI on mediation: The non-AI skills young lawyers need to develop
If you are a trainee solicitor, paralegal or newly qualified lawyer, you have probably already experimented with Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) following the protocols provided by your firm but how does the advent of AI impact on your involvement in mediations?
In the course of your work you may have used AI to:
summarise documents
produce chronologies
identify issues
draft correspondence or other documents
prepare meeting notes
And even if you haven't yet, the chances are somebody in your firm has done so. The question isn't whether AI is coming into legal practice.
It's already here.
The more interesting question is:
What skills become more valuable when AI can do parts of your job?
That is a question we have been addressing as mediators; and it is just as important for the lawyers who are tasked with finding suitable mediators and preparing a case for mediation.
For generations, junior lawyers developed expertise through the time-consuming tasks of legal research, document review, preparing bundles and chronologies and drafting summaries. Those skills still matter, but AI can now help with much of the first-draft work and can do so much more quickly.
Non-AI skills
But even if those tasks can be done quickly there is still plenty of scope for making a difference when preparing for mediation:
get to know your clients and how they like to operate
prepare estimates of likely costs
set up financial models for various potential outcomes
exercise sound professional judgement around the legal arguments that might be realistic
exercise commercial judgement and help the client to identify their underlying interests, needs and priorities
develop a suitable BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) based on the above
recognise the emotional drivers that may lie behind a dispute
find suitable mediators
take responsibility for setting up mediations
As AI becomes better at processing information, the lawyers who stand out may not be those who simply know how to use AI and obtain some useful outcomes. They may be those who know how to challenge it, recognise its limitations and its biases. Along with those listed above, the skills that could become increasingly valuable throughout the mediation process (what I call non-AI skills) include:
· Thorough preparation
· Client communication
· Creative problem-solving
· Negotiation skills
· Commercial awareness
· Professional judgement
· Finding the right mediator
Achieving a successful outcome from mediation still depends on the mediator helping the parties to find the key points that will unlock the dispute. During the course of a mediation the mediator will do this through building trust, listening, creativity and judgement and helping the parties to identify the future they want to achieve. Understanding how the mediator is likely to be addressing the issues will enable you to get the best out of the mediation process for your client.
As things stand (and this may change) however much AI is going to be used in preparation it is not currently going to be present in the “mediation room” itself and is therefore not going to be able to make the dynamic decisions on process or strategy that mediations require. Despite the advent of AI, clients are likely to lean heavily on their lawyers for some time to come and the use and deployment of "Non-AI" skills will continue to be invaluable.
