  While most commentators have focused exclusively on how LLMs will transform
day-to-day law practice, a substantial structural change could be afoot within
the legal sector as a whole. Large increases in productivity and attendant cost
savings could encourage law firms and corporate legal departments to develop
large language models in-house. A ten percent increase in attorney productivity
would encourage an average sized 'Big Law' firm to reduce its associate
headcount by 300 to 400 lawyers. This represents cost savings of 60 to 120
million dollars - more than enough to pay for the development of a specialized
LLM. Eventually, LLMs will push lawyers into highly specialized and nuanced
roles. After fully mature LLMs arrive, the lawyer will continue to play a
central role in legal practice, but only in non-routine legal tasks. These
tasks will primarily involve value judgments, such as the development of
precedent or its reversal, or the allocation of property and other scarce
resources. This new mix of lawyer-machine labor, where machines primarily carry
out routine legal tasks, and lawyers handle the non-routine, will give rise to
a growing demand for lawyers who can exercise good judgment and empathize with
the winners and losers of social change. Overall, the Article suggests a
possible future where there are fewer lawyers and greater consolidation of the
legal sector.
