The full title of “barrister at law” apparently traces back to 16th century England, providing pleading and advocacy services. Since then, little has changed.
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Around that time, in the mid-16th century, something else happened in Europe: the Scientific Revolution. Since then, everything has changed.
The name and the services of barristers have not changed, but in the last quarter of a century, digitisation and the internet have brought about evolutionary changes to the way barristers provide their services.
More and more legal resources have become digitised and accessible through the internet – gone are the days when barristers had to compile a database or run to one compiled by others; a few clicks in front of a screen (including the clicks required to confirm your purchase) will give you access to any legal database you will ever need.
Technologies have hitherto nudged barristers on in the services they provide, by opening up to every barrister oceans of legal databases and voyages their biological brains are capable of charting.
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In comes AI, a digital brain that has all the legal database oceans already “learned” and therefore capable of charting voyages needed by the barrister in a heartbeat (one of them does have a heart).