[2024 LTAS] Lawyer Kang Mingu: "Writing Judgments with AI... We Must Ride the Cheollima"

"Legal Industry Transformation Tsunami... Increased Work Efficiency with AI"

On the 27th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Kang Min-gu, the representative lawyer of Law Firm Doul, is giving a special lecture at the "2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)" hosted by Legal Newspaper and Messeisang. Photo by Legal Newspaper

"The legal community must also ride the cheollima of artificial intelligence (AI)."

Kang Mingu, the representative lawyer of Law Firm Doul, said this on the 27th at the '2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)' held at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, hosted by Legal Times and Messe ISANG. On this day, Lawyer Kang gave a special lecture titled "Survival Attitude and Strategy of the Korean Legal Profession in the Era of Generative AI."

Lawyer Kang was appointed as a judge at the Uijeongbu Branch of the Seoul District Court in 1988. By actively utilizing digital technology in his work, he left over 10,200 rulings during his 36 years as a judge. After retiring in January this year as a presiding judge of the Seoul High Court, he has been working as the representative lawyer and "digital evangelist" of Law Firm Doul since May.

Lawyer Kang diagnosed that the legal profession has faced a tsunami of change with the advent of generative AI. This is because it not only increases the productivity of legal professionals but also lowers the barriers to judicial access for the general public.

Sharing his experience using AI, Lawyer Kang predicted that AI will enhance the work processing capabilities of legal professionals. There are many areas where AI can be utilized, such as analyzing key issues and organizing the defendant’s grounds for defense when uploading rulings. Lawyer Kang explained, "If I spent 70% of my energy writing rulings as a judge, AI utilization can reduce that to 10%."

Even ordinary people can easily use legal knowledge. For example, they can ask ChatGPT to create a sample complaint or inquire about necessary legal procedures.

Regarding hallucination, where AI generates false information, he cautioned against excessive concern. Last year, two lawyers were fined 50 million dollars each by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for submitting fake precedents answered by ChatGPT. Lawyer Kang said, "The frequency of hallucinations is decreasing due to voluntary feedback from questioners and continuous error correction efforts by service providers." However, he advised, "AI should be used as an auxiliary tool, and the final judgment must be made by humans."

Finally, he emphasized that the legal community should accept related technologies with an open mind beyond just using AI in their work. Lawyer Kang predicted, "AI that learns rulings and practical thesis materials existing only inside courts and provides them to judges will soon appear," adding, "This will contribute to swift rulings and prevention of misjudgments."