The impact and challenges of legal platforms on law practices : Focusing on Attorney Advertising and Legal Document Generation

As legal platforms become a core service delivery method of legaltech, it is necessary to examine new issues in legal ethics, including the Lawyers Act. This study aims to analyze the impact and challenges of legal platforms on the legal business, focusing on case acceptance (lawyer advertisement) and legal work (legal document Generation). First, we examined whether lawyer search services on legal platforms are permissible advertisements or prohibited paid solicitations under the Lawyer Act. Then, we analyzed whether automatic legal document Generation services using generative AI technology constitute the handling of legal services by non-lawyers(Unauthorized practice of law). Based on these findings, we concluded that there are reasonable ways to regulate lawyer advertisements and issues to appropriately regulate automatic legal document Generation. The study concludes that attorney search services should be principally allowed as advertising, though supervision is needed regarding commission levels and recommendation algorithm fairness. Automated legal document services are currently not considered legal practice due to their lack of case specificity and legal reasoning process. However, the study suggests legislative amendments, including the Attorney-at-Law Act, or regulatory exemptions to promote legal tech development. The issue of the impact of legal platforms on the law business should no longer be viewed as a matter of protecting the profession or aligning the interests of interest groups. It is more of an issue of the times due to the structural transformation of our society. In solving these challenges, it is important to improve people’s access to justice and to overhaul laws and systems that enable continuous innovation in legal services.