Re: our recent discussion about robots taking over lawyer/judge jobs, there’s more fuel for that fire.

The American Lawyer’s senior writer Julie Triedman cites a recent Altman Weil survey that revealed that “35 percent of law firm leaders said they could envision replacing first-year associates with law-focused computer intelligence within the next five to 10 years.”

The article, “Computer vs. Lawyer? Many Firm Leaders Expect Computers to Win,” notes senior associates may also be vulnerable. The survey included responses from chairs and managing partners at 320 firms with 50 to 1000+ lawyers.

Triedman notes that Dentons has announced a joint venture to develop a new artificially intelligent legal assistant that can research case law and answer legal questions, and that Latham & Watkins is testing New IBM Watson applications.

Check out the survey, “2015 Law Firms in Transition.”

Hat tip: David Cowen, The Cowen Group

P.S. Triedman also wrote “A Few Good Women,” part of The American Lawyer’s May cover  “Special Report: Big Law Is Failing Women.”

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist for Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business. She is a member of the California bar. Twitter: @MonicaBay
Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.