Legal advice software that replaces law firms

Further eroding the demand for lawyers are software products like this one called General Counsel Navigator that is intended to provide in-house corporate attorneys with quick answers to many common legal questions thereby obviating the need to consult with an outside law firm. For instance, in-house lawyers are often asked by their corporate clients about the legality of prize sweepstakes. Rather than call an outside firm that will charge to have an associate prepare a state-by-state survey of the law, in-house counsel can instead check a desktop software package that's been vetted by 150 corporate counsel to get a quick and inexpensive answer along with links to the relevant citations.

Whatever you may think about the shortcomings of using software in lieu of talking to a flesh and blood attorney, it's a form of artificial intelligence that's still in its infancy and will only get better with time.  You can read a brief review of General Counsel Navigator courtesy of the Corporate Counsel blog here or watch the informational video below.

(jbl).