Lawpath offers AI legal advice to small businesses — but don’t expect to ditch real lawyers just yet

Australian small businesses now have access to automated legal advice through Lawpath’s new artificial intelligence platform, a development co-founder Dominic Woolrych says that could help company directors put off by the significant costs of traditional legal guidance.

Lawpath has added a new AI integration to its on-demand legal advice platform, allowing users to simplify complex clauses inserted into legal documents, or translate wordy passages into a second language.

The startup will soon allow users to ask specific questions about what a contract term could mean for their business, and an AI-assisted contract drafting tool allowing users to build the frame of their next legal document.

Lawpath states its AI platform is geared to help small businesses better understand leases, privacy policies, supplier contracts, and even employee agreements.

Speaking to SmartCompany, Woolrych said the AI platform serves as an extension of Lawpath’s existing platform — which already offers subscribers access to document drafting tools and unlimited legal advice from real-world commercial lawyers.

The vast majority of small businesses don’t access legal help, with the main barrier being cost, Woolrych said.

“So what you find is that most of the small businesses out there in Australia are really just not protected when it comes to legal [matters],” he said.

“The Lawpath platform originally was built to combat that issue and give small businesses access to fair and affordable legal help.”

Instead of taking important but easily-answerable questions to legal professionals, users can “now get the answers that you need through the software,” Woolrych added.

It is a paid feature, but an introductory offer means it currently comes at no cost for existing Lawpath subscribers.

Users of Lawpath’s free subscription tier can access a 12-month trial.

Woolrych said it is the company’s intention to eventually roll it out for free on a permanent basis.

Can AI replace lawyers?

The legal and startup worlds are well-apprised of how generative intelligence and other AI integrations could change the profession.

OpenAI claims ChatGPT-4, the latest version of its AI-powered chat tool, is capable of scoring in the top 10% of entrants to the standard US bar exam for would-be lawyers.

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs this year projected that AI-led automation could affect 18% of the global workforce, with legal professionals surely among that figure.

However, some recent attempts to merge cutting-edge AI tools and traditional legal strategies have backfired.

This month, a lawsuit brought by two US attorneys made international headlines when the presiding judge found that cases cited in the argument simply did not exist.

It was later discovered the attorneys had asked ChatGPT for relevant case information, leading the AI tool to fabricate legal precedents which never actually took place.

Woolrych is clear that Lawpath’s new platform is no replacement for specific legal advice, prepared by a qualified practitioner.

“In the future, we might find a world where AI can replace lawyers,” he said.

“We’re not there yet.”

Reflecting on ‘hallucinations’ cooked up by AI tools, Woolrych said his company’s offering is trained on 25 million data points gleaned from its 300,000 clients, limiting the ability of the platform to conjure wonky advice.

“We don’t just use the generic ChatGPT or [generic] data sets,” he said.

It is not intended to muscle out Lawpath’s existing offerings, either.

If a business “really needs commercial advice, like, ‘Hey, what should I do here is a good deal'”, Woolrych said, “that’s when you still should be going to a lawyer”.

Government seeking AI expertise

Conversations around the effectiveness and trustworthiness of AI advice stretch beyond the startup and legal realms, with the federal government now actively considering ways to encourage its benefits while minimising risk to users.

The National Science and Technology Council, the official body tasked with providing high-level scientific and technical advice to the Prime Minister and key other key ministers, this month released a ‘rapid response report’ on the state of generative AI.

“With the rapid acceleration of the development of AI applications, such as ChatGPT, and indications of increased capability, it is time for Australia to consider whether further action is required to manage potential risks while continuing to foster uptake,” it reads.

Separately, The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is now consulting with industry leaders and experts on AI usage, with the goal of forming regulatory and policy responses to the emerging technology.

“The right measures will foster the public trust Australia needs to fully realise the benefits of AI,” the Department states.

Woolrych said he is not currently involved in those discussions but believes data gleaned from Lawpath’s small business offering could be of use.

“The fact that we were able to launch our product and get it into the hands of small businesses straight away, kind of means that not only do we have a big cohort of small businesses that are using it every day, with hundreds of businesses using it, but it also means we are learning a lot about how small businesses want to use it, and the effects it is having on them,” he said.

“So I put my hand up to be to be involved in those kind of conversations.”