[Interview] Lee Hyuksoo, LexisNexis Korea CEO: "AI Technology Will Enhance Lawyers' Work Efficiency and Quality"

"Lawyers Can Focus on High-Value Tasks Through Simple Task Automation"
"Improving Public Access to Justice Will Lead to Expansion of Legal Service Market"

Lee Hyuksoo, CEO of LexisNexis Korea, is being interviewed on the 13th at the LexisNexis office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyung aymsdream@

How far can artificial intelligence (AI) go in performing legal tasks on behalf of humans? What changes will the development of the legal tech industry, especially AI, bring to the global and domestic legal markets?

Lee Hyuksoo, CEO of LexisNexis Korea, a global legal tech company, said, "Through the advancement of AI, including generative AI, lawyers will automate simple tasks and focus on high value-added work, leading to revolutionary changes in the legal industry."

The advancement of AI in the legal field means that the time and effort spent on tasks performed by lawyers or legal assistants will be drastically reduced, allowing more time to be invested in other tasks that AI cannot provide, thereby enabling much more efficient work processes.

When I met with CEO Lee on the 13th, he said, "With the growth of legal tech, we expect improvements in the efficiency of legal services, qualitative enhancement of legal services, and better customer experience. This will further lead to improved public access to justice and expansion of the legal services market."

Regarding the current situation of the U.S. and domestic markets leading the legal tech industry, CEO Lee said, "Thanks to a relatively deregulated market environment, the development of legal tech in the U.S. is progressing much faster than in Korea. Legal tech companies with a market capitalization exceeding 3 trillion won have already emerged, leading the global market in terms of scale and scope." He added, "While we cannot ignore the difference that the U.S. follows common law and Korea follows a civil law system, compared to Korea, the range itself and the breadth and depth of supported tasks are much more diverse, which is a major difference between the Korean and U.S. legal tech markets."

However, CEO Lee believes, "In Korea as well, with the advancement of AI, the range and depth of tasks supported by legal tech will become much more diverse. Services such as case law search and analysis, and drafting legal forms, which expand with legal tech, will provide an environment where lawyers can focus on strategy formulation. Additionally, by supporting effective management of consultations, clients, cases, and documents, the number of cases and clients that can receive legal assistance from lawyers within the same amount of time can increase."

Hyuksoo Lee, CEO of LexisNexis Korea, is being interviewed on the 13th at the LexisNexis office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Meanwhile, CEO Lee sees it as difficult for AI to completely replace lawyers' work. He said, "AI does not intervene in cases where subjective judgment and decisions are involved. Therefore, I believe that the development of AI technology to assist lawyers' work will not have a direct correlation with a reduction in law firm lawyers' jobs."

LexisNexis is preparing to launch ‘Lexis+ AI,’ which utilizes generative AI technology and features conversational task execution capabilities not seen in existing legal AI functions.

At the ‘2023 Legal Tech AI Forum’ hosted by Legal Times and sponsored by Asia Economy on the 18th, Pascal Rozier, Director of North Asia at LexisNexis, will deliver a special lecture titled ‘The Evolution of Generative AI in the Legal Field,’ explaining the development process and achievements of AI in legal tech and introducing the background and differentiated features of ‘Lexis+ AI.’