Robot Lawyer sounds like a glossy procedural that would run for seven seasons on US TV, but maybe one will be handling your lease negotiations sooner than you think.
A new survey of the UK and US markets, by legal intelligence platform Robin AI, reveals that nearly one in three people would be open to letting a “robot lawyer” represent them in court, while 47% would happily let AI review a rental agreement.
Those in favour might just have an eye on cost-cutting, as, on average, respondents said they would need a 57% discount to choose a virtual lawyer over a human. Which is perhaps surprising, given that the survey also finds that only 10% of people fully trust law firms in the first place, with the UK legal system widely viewed as “expensive, elitist and difficult to access”.
But all Diary can think about is precisely which robot lawyer we would choose. Arnie would make a powerful case as The Litigator. But, as a protocol droid, C-3P0 is fluent in six million forms of communication, which we reckon must include legalese.
We’re gonna need a bigger bookshelf
A few weeks ago, Diary’s attention was caught by Irwin Mitchell planning partner Nicola Gooch likening her job to the very choosy mouse in the That’s Not My… children’s book series.
Suitably inspired, we offered our own suggestions of real estate titles for young readers. But things did not end there. Gooch repaid the compliment, sharing our entry on LinkedIn, and called on her followers to “keep this going”. And so they did, with almost 100 replies so far – solicitors, barristers and even eminent KCs getting in on the act.
Titles include: Harry Potter and the Order of the General Permitted Development; The Tiger Who Came to Planning Committee; Anne of Green Belt; and our favourite, Gooch’s own The Magic Faraway Tree Preservation Order. Time for Estates Gazette to dust off the old book publishing line?
Meet the team… Dominic Plaskota, reporter
You will have been with Estates Gazette a whole year in July – and it has been an eventful one! How would you sum it up so far?
It has been pretty action packed, hasn’t it? There’s naturally been a few spicy moments, as well as some great stories and friends made. Lots of stories to tell – which is, at the end of the day, never a bad thing.
What is your favourite thing about your job?
As I’m sure our readers can tell, we’ve got an amazing, supportive news team who are all committed to the job and having a few laughs along the way. Tim’s great (obviously), Evelina is an absolute machine, Akanksha is fiercely competitive (and a winner at that), Shifali is a bundle of joy. They’re all awesome. Aside from that, just being paid to be a journalist is a dream. When I found out I’d got the job at Estates Gazette over the phone, I replied, “I don’t know if you can hear this, but I’m smiling a lot right now.”
And why is offices the most exciting sector to cover?
Towers big. Dom like.
Beautifully put! No wonder you started Summed Up as an enterprising student – how would you ‘sum up’ that?
I set up a student news page on social media and created infographic explainers on issues in the news. I knew that a separate news app was often too many taps away, so I thought people would engage better it just popped up on their social media. And they did! I learnt that I wanted to be a journalist, who would willingly wake up at 6am to write these things before lectures. Some might say I discovered a passion, others might call me a nerd.
They’d be brave: you were a rugby player at school and university. Are you still?
God no. I got tired of waking up feeling like I’d been run over every Sunday. Instead, in suitably yuppie style, I go bouldering or sip oat milk lattes while reading The Economist.
Tell us something the world doesn’t know about Dominic Plaskota
So, my great grandfather was part of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Poland in the Second World War. As a postman, he could intercept messages and “misplace” those denouncing people to the Gestapo. My other grandfather escaped from a forced labour camp in Germany, evaded capture and made it all the way back to Poland to survive the war. Meanwhile, I still run up the stairs when switching the lights off at night.
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