Even the more tech literate attorneys raised their eyebrows when OpenAI launched ChatGPT back in December 2022—fascinated by the powerful technology that underpinned the chatbot, and disquieted about what it would mean for their jobs.

To be sure, those worries were misplaced, since the most advanced generative AI tool is far from showing up to court a robot lawyer.

However, the democratization and public rollout of such a formidable technology—one which may change the way attorneys research and draft documents, among other tasks—does mean that tried and true legal processes and specialties are bound to change. And whether the legal community is ready for that is up for debate.