{"id":6024,"date":"2025-05-24T12:51:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T12:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ai-scared-her-now-its-her-associate\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T12:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T12:51:30","slug":"ai-scared-her-now-its-her-associate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ai-scared-her-now-its-her-associate\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Scared Her; Now It\u2019s Her \u201cAssociate\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Cathy Cowin, a solo practitioner based in Fresno, Calif., isn\u2019t new to technology. Long before becoming a lawyer, she earned a degree in computer systems and applications. So when generative AI began creeping into the legal space, she understood both its power and its risks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cChatGPT scares me because it\u2019s out there in the wild,\u201d says Cowin in a recent law.com vodcast<\/a>, referring to its relative lack of guardrails concerning law-practice matters. \u201c[But] it became clear that [generative AI] was going to\u2026 become commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When LexisNexis launched a bounded, law-specific generative AI tool (Lexis+ AI Protege), Cowin felt ready to fold the technology into her practice \u2013 despite her instinctive hesitation as a solo to invest in new tools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOverhead creep is something that I\u2019m always really cognizant of,\u201d says Cowin. \u201cBut in the case of Protege, it\u2019s allowed me to take cases where I wasn\u2019t completely comfortable with that area [and] handle really tough questions from clients on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a non-negotiable for my budget,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Minutes to a Simple Yes or No<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked for a favorite AI use case, Cowin talks about a time she needed to boil down a thick stack of banking documents into a simple yes-or-no answer. In the vodcast, Cowin describes uploading the documents into her AI tool and getting an answer \u201cwithin minutes\u201d \u2013 replete with relevant sections specifically highlighted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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AI isn\u2019t perfect, according to Cowin \u2013 sometimes turning up cases not \u201cquite on point\u201d for her research purposes. But even then, she says, she\u2019s not particularly put out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOften in that context, there’ll be something to the side on the screen that will take me to something that is relevant,\u201d says Cowin. \u201cI haven’t had a negative experience where I’ve been completely misled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the vodcast, Cowin talks about upleveling her research and analysis by treating AI as a sounding board \u2013 a stand-in for the associate she doesn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The associate analogy, for Cowin, also encapsulates the risk element of AI in law practice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt’s a tremendous resource, but you have to look at it like an associate that you still need to keep track of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That said, generative AI is known for defaulting to sycophancy<\/u><\/a>. Cowin\u2019s secret for ensuring trusted answers from AI: pretending to be opposing counsel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Getting Safe and Comfortable<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite her initial caution about unbounded generative AI, Cowin points out that the need for human quality control isn\u2019t much different than with other computer applications and online tools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe internet [is] something like the world’s most efficient idiot; if you ask it for chips, you’re equally likely to get an Intel chip for your computer or Doritos,\u201d says Cowin. \u201cWe need the opportunity to observe [new technology] safely.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To that end, Cowin recommends LexisNexis\u2019s live demos and training sessions for taking lawyers from skeptical to proficient.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThen [you can] launch off to where you feel comfortable\u2026 that you know how to do the correct queries,\u201d says Cowin. \u201cAnd you\u2019re going to get great results.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Joe Stanganelli is a writer and recovering attorney. He is managing director of content advisory Blackwood King LC.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To read more insights, thought leadership and other video perspectives from Lexis+ Ai, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cathy Cowin, a solo practitioner based in Fresno, Calif., isn\u2019t new to technology. Long before becoming a lawyer, she earned a degree in computer systems and applications. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3425,6076],"class_list":["post-6024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-associate","tag-scared"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}