Michelle Behnke highlighted the ABA’s role in helping lawyers to grasp AI’s limitations
Artificial intelligence could help boost access to legal assistance, American Bar Association Michelle Behnke said in her recent appearance on the Legal Services Corporation podcast “Talk Justice.”
She pointed to the shift in lawyers’ AI awareness in recent years and highlighted the ABA’s responsibility to help lawyers understand the technology’s limitations while serving as a guide on using it efficiently and effectively.
“The ABA's role is to help lawyers understand what [AI’s] shortcomings are, how to use it, how to keep your client's information confidential,” Behnke told LSC president Ron Flagg on the podcast. “[How to] uphold all those rules that at its core, we believe to be important for the practice of law, but to get with the program, so to speak, to keep progressing as technology progresses.”
Flagg and Behnke also tackled the issue of legal deserts – areas where they are few to no attorneys. Behnke emphasized adaptability as a solution, along with the adoption of novel models that were not dependent on one-to-one legal representation.
“I don't think there's one solution for how we do this, but I do think that lawyers have to be open to looking for the variety of solutions. We can't simply say, ‘we've always done it this way’ ...There just aren't enough lawyers to go around,” Behnke said.
At the end of the month, national, state, and local bar members will head to Capitol Hill for a meeting with Congress members on ABA Day. ABA Day has advocated for significant federal investment in civil legal assistance for decades.
“From my vantage point, the most important [message] to help our congressional members understand is that that investment is not a handout. It's an investment in our system of government,” Behnke said. “[I try to] show them how a lack of representation, a lack of assistance, actually affects not just the people that are in the courtroom or that are seeking the assistance, but the entire system.”
The LSC’s Leaders Council sponsors the “Talk Justice” podcast.
