While this article seems to be a bit light on specifics, the automation of most legal practices is something that ML will have a great affect on in the near future (imo). Junior associates get paid insane salaries to do very meaningless grunt-work at biglaw firms. Those who aren't on track to become partners, are essentially burning the firms' resources, thus there exists an big incentive to automate the work.
Junior associates are not burning the firm's resources. They are the firm's resources. They generate billable hours, which is how the partners make money. Which is why most of the legal profession is much slower to replace them than you might think.
This is true too. The billable hour billing practice incentivizes inefficiency. In some respects that makes the industry ripe for disruption, but it's staying power may suggest the opposite, that is, that the business isn't about being efficient. Sometimes as logical people we assume everyone else is logical too. But my experience is that law firms are stuffed with worker bee types who don't see the world that way. They are not the innovative logical types who would develop something to increase efficiency
