ChatGPT, Royal Mail swap shop, and a judicial name game: your letters to the editor.

Letters roundup: 3 February 2023

The artificial intelligence tool allows users to create original text, from contracts to poems - but is it a threat to companies and will it kick us out of our jobs?

ChatGPT could be the beginning of the end for business owners, or it could just be all talk

A look at the shape of the legal landscape heading into 2023.

The Top Legal Trends for 2023

Each morning as I wait for my Nespresso, I eye my toaster with a growing sense of unease. One day, without a shadow of a doubt, it will become intelligent and, if that intelligence resembles anything even remotely human, probably punch me in the face.

Are hyperclever chatbots beginning of the end for business owners?

I have worked across multiple jurisdictions as a litigator. I became primarily interested in Mediation as a form of Dispute Resolution as I witnessed first-hand the emotional and financial effects Court Proceedings and Litigating had on my clients. Conversely,  I saw the benefits to my clients in their having access to Mediation as they were able to take control and reach Agreement in relation to the issues in Dispute without a Judge or Tribunal imposing an Order upon them. With the added benefit of time and money saved. 

My ultimate aim is always to give back the control to the parties via my tried and tested method of Mediation. 

Living with conflict and disputes is difficult. Reaching agreement doesn’t have to be!

politics

Katherine Muldoon

Each of us has been in a situation wherein we catch a more senior staff member at a bad time and have our head subsequently bitten off. It is almost a comedic and celebrated element of the training process, and our seniors regale us with stories from their day when someone threw a book at them or ripped up a draft document in their face as a method of ‘teaching’. They wear it like a badge of honour.&nbsp; Needless to say, those senior staff members might have been having a difficult day. However, the lack of emotional regulation and impulse control is not only unprofessional, but it shows a considerable lack of respect towards the junior. This creates a negative working environment. It also perpetuates the cycle of people taking out their frustrations on others. The juniors will likely go on to adopt these bad traits! We must remember that junior staff members are still in the learning stages of our careers and are under a hell of a lot of pressure to behave, look and perform at a certain level. We are leaned on heavily for support by other more senior staff and are still building our confidence. Senior staff need to be encouraging towards us and set a good example of how to act.&nbsp; Talent is currently in very high demand and companies are rightfully raising the bar for employee experience. If employers don’t make junior staff members feel supported and valued, they will deservedly lose those staff members to firms that treat them better.&nbsp; These issues also arise when junior members deal with a firm’s clients, third parties and peers. Junior staff are an extension of their supervisors and represent the firm in which they are being trained. They are usually the glue that keeps the whole thing together. If a client or any third party is rude or aggressive towards your junior staff members, it should be taken as a direct insult to their supervisor and the entire firm. Indeed, the firm should take a view as to whether or not to work with the said individual again. Certainly, at a bare minimum, the junior should be backed by their seniors if they are on the receiving end of any abuse of this kind.&nbsp; Whilst this article may be perceived by the old guard as another “snowflake” piece, it is not suggested that junior staff should not be reprimanded when necessary. Only that the reprimanding made, is appropriate. They should, at all times, be spoken to and treated professionally, on equal footing as all other members of the organisation. If senior staff members have overstepped the line or acted inappropriately – sorry goes a long way.&nbsp; Managers need to ask juniors what they require to be able to do their job better, not look for problems to chastise under the guise of ‘instruction’. The latter understandably breeds contempt and will result in staff simply punching time and collecting their pay at the end of the month.&nbsp; A junior staff member's standard of work is directly affected by the impact of their leaders. A valued and respected junior will produce better quality work because of the leadership environment in which they work.<blockquote>A toxic work environment is more likely to change you than you are to change it. Get out.</blockquote>

Chrystal Pereira

'I'm quitting to pursue my dream of not working here'

A female legal firm founder sitting at her desk perusing her to-do list receives an email notification, opens the email, and to her dismay notes the salutation; 'Dear Sirs...'.&nbsp; She looks around. There are no 'sirs' in sight. Her team is entirely female. Indeed, the email was directed to her alone.&nbsp; Several thoughts spring to mind:&nbsp; 1. This (lazy) greeting is not reflective of her gender.&nbsp; 2. It would have been easy to find out who they were emailing.&nbsp; 3. It feels impersonal.&nbsp; 4. Wouldn't 'Good morning' / ‘Dear Katherine’ have sufficed?&nbsp; Most importantly, why is the sender assuming the recipient(s) is/are male? Well, I am the female founder. I received that email. I receive countless emails addressing me as 'Sir' or Sirs' every week of my working life. Often the senders are female. I find it offensive.&nbsp; Using 'Sirs' to address a group/company/firm assumes everyone in that group is male.&nbsp; There is an implied presumption that there are no women in decision-making / professional roles in said group.&nbsp; It is rooted in sexism.&nbsp; It is outdated.&nbsp; It is lazy.&nbsp; For the record, there are #nosir(s)here.&nbsp; &nbsp;<blockquote>There is an implied presumption that there are no women in decision-making positions</blockquote>

No Sir(s) Here

There is a lot of noise online at present surrounding advances in AI technology and the perceived risk to lawyers' jobs.&nbsp; The general public seems excited at the prospect of the great lawyer purge (and what they see as associated wasted costs, delays, and general untrustworthiness).&nbsp; I disagree. Lawyers are not in any immediate danger of being replaced by AI. Those making predictions online are missing the important yet silent nuances surrounding the lawyer-client relationship. People mostly seek counsel from a lawyer not for their memory bank of legislative clauses and/or precedent case law. They want to feel reassured by an appropriately qualified person with whom they can place their trust and with whom they can build a rapport. The most obvious analogy I can draw is that of the support call automated robot response versus actual human agent; I know which I would prefer to deal with in a crisis. A lawyer's experience is their business. Lawyers exercise independent professional judgment. AI cannot currently emulate essential lawyer skills such as strategic/creative thinking, conflict resolution, negotiation, emotional intelligence and empathy. In short, the things that make a good lawyer great.&nbsp; There are a host of other issues including that of data privacy laws, program bias in decision making, lack of transparency and unclear legal responsibility. For now, my opinion remains that AI won’t replace lawyers. It will free us by assisting with time-saving in things like due diligence, contract management, discovery, and legal research. It will make us quicker, more accurate, and increase cost-effectiveness, which will in turn improve client care overall as we have more time to focus on what we are trained to do.&nbsp; &nbsp;<blockquote>The most obvious analogy I can draw is that of the support call automated response versus actual human agent; I know which I would prefer to deal with in a crisis.</blockquote>

AI won't replace lawyers.. yet. 

I have worked across multiple jurisdictions as a litigator. I became primarily interested in Mediation as a form of Dispute Resolution as I witnessed first-hand the emotional and financial effects Court Proceedings and Litigating had on my clients. Conversely, I saw the benefits to my clients in their having access to Mediation as they were able to take control and reach Agreement in relation to the issues in Dispute without a Judge or Tribunal imposing an Order upon them. With the added…

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Katherine Muldoon

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