Extract from Matt Noe’s article “A World Where AI ‘Thinks’ Like a Lawyer”
The legal profession has always been about out-thinking the opposition. Now, a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) offers plaintiff attorneys something beyond mere text generation—actual reasoning power that mimics the analytical process central to legal practice.
According to Thomson Reuters’ 2024 Future of Professionals Report, 77% of professionals believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years—a 10 percentage point increase from just a year earlier. This rapid adoption clearly shows the tools work.
These “reasoning models”—o1, o3, Deep Research, and DeepSeek—are a significant departure from conventional language models. They don’t just string words together convincingly; they work through problems step by step, much like an attorney would.
For plaintiffs lawyers handling personal injury and employment cases, this difference matters tremendously. The same report shows that 72% of legal professionals now view AI as a force for good in their profession. The focus has clearly shifted from whether to adopt these tools to how best to leverage them.
But how can they actually help in a practical sense?
