Partner Attorney Sinyoung Choi of Cha & Kwon Law Offices noted that AI has already begun reshaping the overall workflow within small law firm practice. While general-purpose LLM tools are useful for expanding the range of ideas and generating initial drafts quickly, she emphasized that they have clear limitations in areas where accuracy is critical, such as case citations and legal references. For this reason, she explained that cross-verification through legal-specialized AI systems is essential. Rather than treating AI as a simple automation tool, it is being utilized as a supporting instrument that accelerates the starting point of legal reasoning and refines the structure of legal arguments.
 
Attorney Choi further explained that the adoption of AI has significantly reduced the time previously spent on drafting legal briefs. Beyond merely assisting with writing, AI enables lawyers to quickly explore multiple analytical approaches and options. As a result, matters that combine criminal and civil issues, or cases where capital markets regulation intersects with criminal liability—once burdensome due to the time required for initial research and issue identification—now present a much lower psychological and time barrier. This shift demonstrates that AI is not only improving efficiency in practice but also expanding the scope and complexity of cases that lawyers can confidently handle.
 
At the same time, Attorney Choi stressed that client confidentiality and data security must remain the highest priority when using AI tools. She explained that identifiable information such as real names, case numbers, or investigative strategies must never be entered into AI systems. Instead, queries are structured using anonymized or abstracted references such as “Person A” or “Listed Company B.” This approach underscores that even as AI becomes more widely integrated into legal practice, the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality and ethical responsibility must never be compromised.
 
Attorney Choi also emphasized that while AI may function as a work partner, it does not share responsibility for legal outcomes. AI may assist in locating statutes and precedents or organizing draft materials, but the final judgment regarding how those materials apply to a real case—and the risks a client may ultimately bear—must be made by the lawyer. In the AI era, she noted, the role of legal professionals is evolving beyond that of information processors to experts who not only manage technology but also take full responsibility for the legal consequences of the decisions they make. (로웨이브 2026. 2. 27)

URL: AI 시대의 소규모 로펌 | 대표·파트너 변호사의 AI 활용 리포트 | 로웨이브 Lawwave