DR & AJU Law Group LLC made headlines this week as it became the first law firm in South Korea to introduce a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot service available 24 hours a day.

Its goal is to give users free access to legal consultation but the innovation has met scrutiny from the Korean Bar Association, a representative group of lawyers.

The association argues that the software could be a violation of regulations on lawyer advertisements.

The latest interference from vested interests in innovative progress has reminded us of past struggles faced by tech startups such as Law&Company, the developer of the legal counseling platform LawTalk.

DR & AJU’s AI service represents a significant leap forward in efforts to promote greater consumer convenience.

Equipped with a user-friendly interface, the chatbot has been trained with over 10,000 questions and corresponding answers from legal datasets, ensuring swift responses to legal queries.

The Korean Bar Association, however, accused the term “Free 24-hour Legal Consultation,” used in an ad for the AI service, of violating the regulations on lawyer advertisements.

Under the current law, no one other than lawyers can give legal opinions to solve legal problems.

As a result, the law firm succumbed to the pressure and chose a more neutral term, “Legal Questions and Answers (Q&A).”

The clash between legal tech pioneers and vested interests is not something new.

The Korean Bar Association‘s previous legal battle with LawTalk, a legal software platform launched by Law&Company, was another example of showing the challenges faced by innovators in navigating regulatory landscapes.

Legal technology, also known as legal tech, has become a widespread buzzword, with many governments busy driving innovation, as the global market is projected to be valued at a staggering 47 trillion won ($35.2 billion) by 2027.

Tech innovation must never stop in the face of any impediment from vested interests.

By Editorial Team

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