From tech laggards to leaders: Chris Stock at Clio on lawyers' rapid adoption of AI

Stock explains that the rise of conversational AI has made technology more approachable for lawyers. “It feels a lot more human, which in itself can frighten some people, but that’s the reality,” he says. Clio’s product, Clio Duo, is designed to capitalize on this trend. “We’re not actually trying to have lawyers replace themselves,” Stock clarifies. “What we’re trying to do is really supplement lawyers’ tools on a day-to-day basis that will make them a lot more efficient and allow them to produce higher quality work more quickly with less overhead.”

AI’s potential is particularly pronounced in addressing the legal talent gap, a challenge that’s only worsened in recent years. “Support staff are harder and harder to find,” Stock notes. “Hiring an assistant or a paralegal can cost almost as much as a first or second-year attorney in many states, and it’s becoming cost-prohibitive.” For smaller firms, this disparity is especially pronounced. “AI is the great equalizer,” he says, pointing out how Clio Duo allows lawyers to automate daily tasks using natural language. “We already can allow them to automate simple daily tasks simply with natural conversation.”

Stock also addresses two key concerns when lawyers discuss AI: trustworthiness and client confidentiality. The issue of AI-generated “hallucinations” gained notoriety after cases where lawyers submitted false citations generated by AI. “These things are going to happen when software or innovations are new,” Stock acknowledges. “Our job is to make sure that we limit these sorts of problems and eventually eliminate” them.

Since those incidents, significant progress has been made. “The more training that we give those models, the more accurate answers are going to be,” he says. For its part, Clio avoids positioning Duo as a legal research tool. “We are focused purely on allowing lawyers to automate automatable tasks,” Stock says. “Legal research is a lot more sophisticated, and that’s where those public-facing models really fall over.”

Confidentiality is another sticking point. Stock is clear: “The thing to keep in mind when looking at AI tools … is to consider that [for] the AI tools available to the general consumer, large language models that cover almost everything that's on the internet, there's not really a layer in between that says, ‘Okay, well, you’re a law firm. We need to make sure we get all of these things correct.’” This, he argues, is where products like Clio Duo come in. “We are focused on making sure that we have that layer between what is public and what is private.”

Stock warns law firms against relying on public AI tools without proper safeguards. “You can pay for an enterprise version of GPT, and that will ensure that you will not have your data exposed to the public,” he says, though he notes that such solutions can be cost-prohibitive. Clio Duo, in contrast, offers an all-in-one solution. “It has actually been the fastest-growing product that we have ever released,” Stock says.

AI is also reshaping legal business models. Stock recalls a conversation with a family lawyer in rural Australia who embraced AI to implement fixed-fee billing. “He said his clients are always looking for price certainty,” Stock says. By automating document production and other tasks, the lawyer found he could offer fixed fees without sacrificing profitability. “His firm is actually five times more profitable now that he’s charging on a fixed-fee basis,” Stock says.

Beyond family law, AI is transforming practices like mergers and acquisitions. Stock recounts a complex transaction involving a 500-page operating and contribution agreement. “One of the law firms was an AM Law firm, and another firm was a mid-sized firm,” he says. The smaller firm leveraged AI tools to proofread documents and suggest amendments, effectively replacing the need for an army of associates. “Rather than doing all of the research upfront, which takes an exponential amount of time, that research is now done very quickly utilizing AI tools,” Stock says. “And then the associate’s job is to go and check that it’s right.”

Stock predicts AI will further disrupt the traditional law firm hierarchy. “If we look at where AI has come in the last two years – how far it has come … you’ve got ChatGPT-4 that’s about as clever as a graduate” student, he says. “I think what we’re going to see is associates in law firms will largely be in the domain of larger law firms, [while] AI becomes the great equalizer.”

This shift, he argues, will level the playing field for smaller firms. “We’ll have smaller law firms out there who traditionally haven’t been able to afford the scale of their business, able to mix it up with those larger firms by using AI to effectively become virtual associates,” Stock says. But he is quick to add that AI isn’t infallible. “You will need to check your AI’s work,” he says. “You wouldn’t not check your associate’s work.”

The implications for access to justice could be profound. “There are so many legal cases that go unanswered every year because people can’t afford legal services,” Stock points out. “This should bring the cost of legal services down for the end consumer, provide access to justice to more people, but allow law firms to be more efficient and make more money at the same time.”

For Stock, the legal profession is at a crossroads. “Law firms were once considered recalcitrant when it came to technology adoption,” he says. “Right now, law firms, for the first time ever, are at the cutting edge.”

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