William S. Veatch

While pursing his law degree in the 1980s, Veatch looked for ways to apply math and logic to law. However, the technology wasn’t yet available. He put the thought aside for several decades and began a career in business, corporate banking and finance law.

But technology has caught up.

“With the data revolution we’re experiencing right now, we can process huge amounts of data over the internet,” Veatch said. “There have been improvements in the data sciences, math and logic. It’s come to the point where we can actually start to develop a mathematics of ideas and start applying this logic to legal analysis in ways we couldn’t do before.”

In addition to his law practice, Veatch is an author and part-time computer scientist who works with industry leaders to develop software applications in the legal and financial services industries. Projects include apps for delivering cloud-based legal advice and a digitized map of the substantive law of commercial transactions.

His latest book, The New Logic of the Law - Vol.1: Building a Foundation for Artificial Intelligence in the Law, establishes a system of logic that can serve as the foundation for artificial intelligence software applications.

Using AI based on this system of logic, Veatch is working with a company to build a new type of digitized contract. This “data contract” would be able to read an agreement and, to a certain degree, understand it. The project is still in the early stages. The data contract targets the financial services sector, but Veatch said the math and logic at its core could be applied to a number of industries.

Veatch anticipates that AI will have big consequences for the legal industry in the coming years, producing technology solutions that will save time and money. AI can quickly and more effectively complete mundane tasks that involve sifting through huge volumes of data.

He’s not worried about AI replacing attorneys, though. Instead, such technologies will allow lawyers to focus on the more interesting aspects of the law.

“AI and software can mimic how we think, but not what we think,” Veatch said. “Ultimately, decisions still have to be made by people that understand the legal principles that went into developing the law, why a contract is drafted the way it is, and what’s important to each of the parties.

“Software, at this point in time, anyway, can’t answer those types of questions.”

— Jennifer Chung Klam