Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Sector
Vasiliki Papadouli · 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have gained increased usage in the legal profession, further changing the way lawyers practise law and judges render court decisions. From mere administrative tasks, like case scheduling and transcription services, to more advanced and complex ones, such as document review and compliance checks, AI systems can (fully or partially) replace lawyers and judges. Indeed, autonomous AI systems , like COMPAS (i.e., Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions ), can analyse contracts and rapidly extract important data, thus significantly supporting legal advice. However, despite the outstanding outcomes of AI systems in the legal sector, their use raises several ethical questions (e.g., lack of transparency, impossibility of explanation), and legal concerns regarding the potential liability of lawyers and states in case of damages attributed to AI systems. These are the reasons why most AI systems used in the legal sector fall into the category of high-risk AI systems or prohibited ones, according to the recent EU Regulation 2024/1689 on AI in the European Union (the AI Act). The multiple applications of AI in the legal sector, the ethical concerns, and the legal implications are issues of significant importance for modern legal scholarship and practice that deserve further legal analysis.