Well, I _might_ be able to teach an AI how to do effective legal research and writing, or even to do pre and post trial discovery, but representing someone at t

Well, I _might_ be able to teach an AI how to do effective legal research and writing, or even to do pre and post trial discovery, but representing someone at trial? Not without full immunity from malpractice liability. It would be fun to see how an AI handled cross examination of a hostile witness, or dealt with a response to their hearsay objection like, "res gestae!". Still, a sophisticated AI could be a real help in transactional legal matters like contracts, real estate, taxes, wills and trusts where boilerplate abounds. As far as grades go, my average in law school was C+ (I'd never seen a blue book before that first final -- in college it was all research papers), but I was also one of the 48% who passed a certain state's bar exam in 1982. So there is hope for those AIs who dream of a future in the legal profession. Or maybe they'd just wind up as a sysadmin for a Fortune 200 company, and never regret it.