A BigLaw firm recently ran an experiment at the South by Southwest Sydney event, in which it tested whether artificial intelligence was capable of besting a senior associate in a mock trial. The end result offers pertinent lessons – not just for lawyers’ use of emerging tech but also for advocates and clients alike. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Lander & Rogers senior associate and innovation manager Jeanette Merjane and digital economy lawyer Kenneth Leung about their respective work at the BigLaw firm and interest in artificial intelligence (AI), the impetus behind testing AI’s capacity to win a court case, how they undertook the experiment at SXSW Sydney, and the questions the firm hoped to answer in doing so.

Merjane and Leung also delve into what happened in the mock trial, how well the AI platform performed, what Merjane’s experience was like going up against an AI platform, whether AI is likely to improve its advocacy, the insights gained from running the mock trial, whether the nature of advocacy is changing, whether clients will want to use AI to get the answers they are seeking, and what the experiment teaches us about the importance of human advocacy.

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