The greatest threat to lawyers may not be artificial intelligence itself. It may be lawyers who learn how to use artificial intelligence more effectively than their peers.

Orit: Over the past year, one topic has dominated my conversations with law firm partners, General Counsel, legal leaders, and lawyers across Toronto: artificial intelligence.

The question is no longer whether AI will transform the legal profession. It already is.

As a legal recruiter, I have a unique vantage point into how AI is reshaping hiring decisions, staffing models, and the skills lawyers need to succeed. What I’m seeing is not the replacement of lawyers, but a fundamental shift in how legal services are delivered and a profession that is being challenged to evolve faster than ever before.

Few people are better positioned to discuss that evolution than Kalvin.

I’ve known Kalvin since law school, where we spent countless hours studying together. Over the years, I’ve watched him become an exceptional lawyer with a rare ability to combine sharp legal analysis with practical business judgment. Beyond that, he’s a true mensch – thoughtful, generous with his time, and deeply respected by everyone who knows him. As Vice President, Legal and Associate General Counsel at Spin Master, he has also developed deep expertise in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, making him uniquely qualified to share his insights on how AI is transforming the legal profession.

AI Has Captured the Legal Market’s Attention

Kalvin: From Bay Street firms to boutique practices, and from sophisticated in-house legal departments to lean legal teams, lawyers are increasingly integrating AI into their daily work. Legal AI platforms generating the most attention are Harvey, CoCounsel, Legora, Lexis+ AI, Microsoft Copilot and Spellbook, among others, and they have quickly become one of the most talked-about legal AI tools in the Toronto market.

Orit: The reason is simple. For decades, lawyers spent countless hours reviewing documents, conducting legal research, drafting agreements, summarizing contracts, and organizing information. Today, AI can perform or assist with many of those same tasks in minutes – from analyzing large volumes of documents and conducting legal research to generating first drafts, reviewing contracts, identifying risks, streamlining due diligence, and producing concise summaries for clients and business stakeholders.

To me, this is the real story. AI isn’t replacing lawyers; it’s changing how legal work gets done. As routine tasks become increasingly automated, mentorship, practical experience, and the development of sound legal judgment will become even more valuable, making it essential for firms and law schools to rethink how they prepare the next generation of lawyers.

Why Harvey Has Become Such a Hot Topic

Orit: Of all the AI platforms currently being discussed, Harvey has arguably become the breakout success story within Toronto’s legal market.

As a purpose built legal AI tool, Harvey is being adopted by major law firms and legal departments globally. Lawyers are using it to review documents, assist with research, generate drafts, and improve workflow efficiency.

Kalvin: The feedback I hear most often is this:

‘Harvey is not outright replacing lawyers. It is acting as a highly sophisticated assistant.’

As its core, lawyers remain responsible for judgment, analysis, strategy, advocacy, and ultimately the advice being delivered. It is the lawyers who have the license to practice law, not Harvey.

The Benefits Are Real

Kalvin: There is no question that AI offers significant advantages from legal research to drafting. These are tangibly felt in any lawyer’s day to day practice.

Increased Efficiency

Orit: Law firms are under constant pressure to deliver value while managing costs. AI enables lawyers to spend less time on routine tasks and more time on strategic work.

Kalvin: For legal departments being asked to do more with fewer resources, AI tools can be transformative if deployed thoughtfully and responsibly. Many in-house lawyers are already using AI tools to bolster and add support for areas such as contract review, contract management, as well as procurement, and compliance related tasks. Overall, this can lead to more effectiveness and efficiency gains in managing risk within an organization.

Better Client Service and Democratization of Legal Services

Kalvin: Clients increasingly expect legal services to be delivered faster and more efficiently. Firms that leverage AI effectively may gain a meaningful competitive advantage. Interestingly, democratization of legal services means that legal services provided by smaller firms, now enhanced with AI tools can compete more effectively when compared to their larger firm counterparts, thereby decreasing some of the barriers within the legal industry itself.

The Risks Are Equally Real

Orit: While the benefits are significant, so are the risks.

The Ontario legal community recently witnessed a highly publicized example involving a Toronto lawyer who submitted court materials containing AI-generated case citations that simply did not exist.

The cases appeared legitimate – they were not. This incident became a cautionary tale for the profession and highlighted a critical reality: AI can and does hallucinate and can readily generate convincing answers that are entirely wrong.

That is why lawyers cannot outsource their own judgment.

Kalvin: AI can assist with legal work. It cannot replace the responsibility to verify authorities, assess risk, protect client interests, and ensure accuracy.

The lesson is not that lawyers should avoid AI.

The lesson is that lawyers must understand and work around its limitations.

What About Junior Lawyers?

Orit: One of the most important questions facing the profession is how AI will affect the development of junior lawyers. Traditionally, associates learned through repetition:

• Reviewing contracts
• Conducting research
• Drafting agreements
• Identifying risks

If AI increasingly performs portions of this work, firms will need to rethink training, mentorship, and professional development. As AI reshapes the traditional learning curve for junior lawyers, legal training must evolve just as quickly.

Kalvin: In an effort to adapt and train juniors to use these tools effectively, senior lawyers need to effectively leverage these AI tools, while balancing their use with a correct growth and responsible use mindset. AI adoption in-house means that emphasis on proper mentorship and guidance need to be front and center alongside effective AI tool use. In order to develop junior lawyers to be able to add value and develop into a ‘trusted advisor’ role, the ability to effectively understand and analyze legal issues, and truly work with clients as a business partner remains essential. When you “outsource all of your intelligence and critical thinking to an artificial neural network, you’re doing your own neural network (i.e. your brain) a disservice”, which ultimately lessens your effectiveness as a lawyer.

Efficiency gains are valuable. But they cannot come at the expense of developing the next generation of lawyers.

Will AI Reduce Demand for Lawyers?

Orit: This is the question I am asked most often. My answer: not necessarily. What AI is likely to reduce is the amount of time required to perform certain legal tasks. Whether that translates into fewer lawyers is far less clear.

Historically, technology has changed the nature of professional work rather than eliminated it. In fact, I am not seeing employers hire fewer lawyers because of AI. What I am seeing is a growing demand for lawyers who combine legal expertise with business judgment, adaptability, technological fluency, and strategic thinking.

 

Kalvin: While the future has many uncertainties, our observations are as follows: the lawyers who are most likely to thrive are those who can effectively advise, negotiate, advocate, influence, lead, and continue to build trusted relationships with their clients.

What AI Cannot Replace

Kalvin: For all of its capabilities, currently, AI cannot:

• Build trusted client relationships
• Negotiate complex business issues
• Persuade a judge or jury
• Navigate organizational dynamics
• Lead a legal department
• Exercise nuanced human judgment

To that end, it is clear that the best lawyers have never been merely technicians.

They are advisors, strategists, leaders, problem-solvers, and trusted partners – and those skills are becoming more valuable – not less.

Orit: While AI enables associates to work more efficiently, it does not replace the partner’s role in reviewing the work and applying experienced legal judgment. Human oversight remains essential: AI-generated output must be independently reviewed and verified rather than trusted to validate itself.

Final Thoughts

Orit: As a recruiter, I am not seeing a decline in demand for legal talent. Instead, I am seeing a growing demand for lawyers who combine legal expertise with business judgment, strategic thinking, adaptability, and technological fluency.

AI can help lawyers work faster and more efficiently, but it cannot replace judgment, trusted relationships, leadership, nor does it currently have the ability to navigate complex human and business challenges.

The lawyers who will thrive are not those who resist AI, nor those who rely on it blindly. They are the ones who embrace it as a tool while continuing to provide the insight, judgment, and practical advice that technology cannot replicate. In my view, AI will not replace great lawyers – it will make them even more valuable. Ultimately, success in this new era will belong to legal professionals who continue to learn, adapt, and evolve alongside the technology.

Kalvin: As legal professionals, our super powers have always included the ability to problem solve and be adaptive – the new challenges we face as profession will require us to be even more nimble and agile as we continue to evolve in this world of AI.