Access to The Champion archive is one of many exclusive member benefits. It’s normally restricted to just NACDL members. However, this content, and others like it, is available to everyone in order to educate the public on why criminal justice reform is a necessity.
Will artificial intelligence (AI) make criminal defense lawyers obsolete? It is a question that people are asking.
AI can do a lot, particularly with tasks related to discovery. It can examine mounds of data and hours of audio in a flash, pulling out key details that counsel needs. AI is already playing a role in law offices — aggregating and summarizing data, conducting research, and writing legal briefs.
AI’s large language models (LLMs) can create detailed responses to inquiries in everyday language, and each month, millions of new users jump on the AI bandwagon. However, LLMs have training limitations, are susceptible to generating hallucinations, and stumble when a query requires complex reasoning. Clients don’t want their freedom in the hands of an instrument that gives incorrect or incomplete information.
An algorithm cannot create trust, understand social cues, or provide the empathy and compassion needed to help clients through their hardest times. People hear the clanging doors and smell the stench of the jail; it is all new and unsettling. In walks the defense lawyer for that first meeting, ready to do what the best defenders do: calm the client and show genuine interest, build rapport, and make the client feel understood and supported. ChatGPT cannot do that.
In a nutshell, AI lacks the human touch.
Lawyers do more than research case law, write briefs, and analyze discovery documents. On any given day, defense counsel will have to think on the fly and make strategic decisions. Defense lawyers are persuaders and influencers. They stand in the well of the courtroom, making emotional arguments and telling stories that resonate with jurors and judges. Perplexity AI cannot do that.
Jury argument requires an appeal to human factors, and the appropriate emotions cannot be ceded to algorithms. Each case is unique and requires the human touch that can only come from defense counsel. Although AI can assist in identifying portions of a transcript, a criminal trial lawyer must still connect with the human beings on the jury.
Being adept at using various AI platforms will get us only so far. Clients want a defense lawyer who will shield them when the government applies maximum legal pressure and tries to break them. They will always need that calm voice, looking them in the eye and being honest about their potential exposure if they go to trial. AI cannot be there when the client is feeling anxious and needs reassurance. And let’s not forget, some clients are high-maintenance folks. Does AI have the patience to deal with them?
The best lawyers aren’t apathetic and focused on ledgers and balance sheets. They are tougher than steel and focused on achieving the best result for the client. Think about the lawyers you admire. Do you hold them in high regard because of their efficiency? Of course not. You appreciate their talent, benevolence, and passion for the law. Claude cannot replicate those traits.
Lawyers go to the scene of the crime, find the best experts, and figure out if family trauma played a role in the client’s predicament. This skill set is not in AI’s arsenal.
Creative insight, strategic thinking, and compassion will always be a job requirement for lawyers.
Some clients find themselves in the crosshairs of law enforcement more than once in their lifetime. Each time trouble finds them, they hire the same lawyer who represented them previously. Why do they return to the same defense lawyer? Because criminal defense lawyers excel at cultivating relationships and connections. Maya Angelou said it best: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Even if a prior case outcome was not great, a client will come back to you if you were a tenacious advocate who treated him with respect.
It is not easy to be the thread that holds the legal fabric of a nation together, but this is what NACDL does every day. Each member provides zealous advocacy — one client at a time. As a collective, we fight against laws and policies that make the criminal legal apparatus unfair to a wide swath of society. Google Gemini cannot do that.
The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice due to the work of lawyers like you. AI can do many things, but until it develops a heart and a soul, criminal defense lawyers will thrive.
About the Author
Christopher A. Wellborn is a founding member and past president of the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He practices in state and federal courts, representing clients facing all types of misdemeanor and felony charges, including drug charges, traffic offenses, white collar crimes, and juvenile offenses. Wellborn is sought after nationwide for his experience with unwarranted charges of shaken baby syndrome and child abuse.
Christopher A. Wellborn (NACDL Life Member)
Christopher Wellborn PA
Rock Hill, South Carolina
803-366-1065
cawlaw@comporium.net
www.wellbornlawfirm.com
