KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called on the legal profession to undergo a fundamental shift in values, skills and knowledge to remain relevant in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and rapid global change.
In his keynote address at the inaugural Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) Conference, he said the future of lawyering must go beyond mastering statutes and precedents, as these are increasingly becoming the domain of advanced AI systems.
“The lawyer of 2030 will therefore no longer be a ‘search engine in a suit’ because far more will be required. It follows that what needs to be cultivated today must shift to those that are not easily replicated and are complementary to current and upcoming AI capabilities.
“Law students ought to be trained to be ethical filters in this vast sea of data. The lawyer of 2030 and beyond must be competent in relation to technology and AI, possess the ability to make sense of data and be imbued with the culture of ensuring that the law is utilised for the public good,” he said when officiating the conference themed ‘Lawyering 2030 – Skills, Strategy & Legal Education’ at Universiti Malaya (UM) here, today.
Also present were Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Chief Justice Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, CLEA Patron Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan, UM Pro-Chancellor Tan Sri Zainun Ali and UM Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Noor Azuan Abu Osman.
–BERNAMA
