Democratizing the law: AI is the answer

Korea is widely recognized as one of the world's most digitally advanced nations. The country is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, robotics, autonomous vehicles and other future industries to secure global competitiveness. Yet there is one field that remains trapped behind high regulatory walls: legal services. Today, the world is in the midst of a legal AI revolution.

Across the United States and the United Kingdom, AI has rapidly become a core infrastructure of the legal industry. Tasks that once required teams of junior lawyers working for days — such as contract review, case law analysis and legal research — can now be completed in minutes. Drafting documents, conducting due diligence, ensuring compliance and providing legal insights are increasingly being transformed by AI.

One of the most prominent examples is "Harvey," a legal AI platform that has been adopted by many of the world's leading law firms. Among those firms is A&O Shearman, one of the largest global law firms, which has aggressively integrated Harvey into contract review, legal advisory work and due diligence processes. This is not merely a matter of efficiency. A widening productivity gap is emerging between firms that embrace AI and those that do not. The competitive landscape of the legal profession itself is being fundamentally reshaped.

The same transformation is occurring within corporate legal departments. Platforms such as "Wordsmith" allow employees to review contracts, check internal policies and ask compliance-related questions without waiting for legal teams to respond. Legal knowledge, once accessible only to specialists, is becoming an organizational resource that enhances productivity across entire enterprises. While much of the world has already entered the era of AI-powered legal services, Korea continues to hesitate at the threshold of regulatory debate.

To be sure, the rationale behind legal regulations is understandable. Safeguards are necessary to prevent unauthorized legal practice and protect consumers. However, the problem lies in viewing the future through outdated regulatory frameworks. In particular, the strict regulatory environment surrounding Article 109 of the Attorney-at-Law Act has increasingly been cited as a barrier to innovation and growth in the legal AI sector.

It is time to change the question. Instead of asking, "Who is allowed to provide legal services?" we should be asking, "How easily can citizens obtain legal assistance?" For many Koreans, legal services remain difficult to access. Everyday disputes involving housing leases, labor issues, inheritance conflicts, consumer rights and small claims arise constantly. Yet many citizens hesitate to seek legal advice because of cost concerns. The law exists for everyone, but in practice access to legal expertise is often limited.

Those with financial resources can readily obtain professional legal assistance. Those without such resources frequently give up their rights simply because they do not fully understand them. This is a form of inequality in access to justice. AI offers a historic opportunity to address this problem. Legal AI is not a technology designed to replace lawyers. Rather, it is a technology that amplifies the capabilities of lawyers while expanding public access to legal knowledge.

Consider health care. The rise of the internet and AI-driven medical information has not diminished the role of physicians. Instead, patients arrive at hospitals better informed, and the quality of health care has improved. The same principle applies to law. Through AI, citizens can better understand their rights and obligations, obtain basic legal information and seek professional assistance more effectively when necessary. Far from weakening the legal profession, AI enables lawyers to focus on higher-value advisory and strategic work.

There is also a broader issue at stake: national competitiveness. Law firms in the U.S. and the United Kingdom are already achieving dramatic productivity gains through AI. Global corporations are rapidly implementing AI-driven legal systems. Meanwhile, as Korea remains constrained by regulatory uncertainty, foreign legal AI companies continue to expand and innovate.

As history has shown in platform businesses and cloud computing, regulation rarely stops innovation. More often, it merely transfers the benefits of innovation to other countries. In the AI era, competitiveness will depend not on how effectively we restrict technology, but on how wisely we utilize it. Law is not a privilege reserved for a select professional group. It possesses the characteristics of a public good that serves all citizens. Consequently, our perspective on legal AI must shift from protecting vested interests toward maximizing public benefit.

Legal AI is more than a technological innovation. It is the democratization of law itself. It is a future in which every citizen can more easily obtain legal information, better understand their rights, and more confidently exercise them. If Korea truly aspires to become a global AI powerhouse, it must stop viewing legal AI as a threat and begin recognizing it as an opportunity. As Harvey, Wordsmith and other innovators reshape the future of legal services, we must ask ourselves a simple question: Will Korea lead the future of law, or will it merely watch that future unfold from behind a wall of regulation?

The time has come to begin the democratization of law.

Hong Dae-soon (hong.daesoon@kw.ac.kr) is a professor at Kwangwoon University.