In todays Platforum9 session, Antoinette Moriarty from the Law Society of Ireland explored the psychological dimensions of AI adoption in legal practice, addressing how technology can both alleviate and create stress for practicing lawyers. Drawing from her expertise in working with lawyers through a psychological lens, Moriarty provided insights into managing the transition whilst maintaining professional wellbeing.

The Current Stress Landscape

Legal professionals face mounting pressure across multiple dimensions. At least 35% of practicing lawyers globally report that their wellbeing is being severely or significantly impacted by their work—a figure that climbs substantially higher in some jurisdictions.

The primary stress triggers identified include complexity of caseload, volume of work, interactions with colleagues, and interactions with clients. “Lawyers are finding it increasingly difficult with the always-on mentality, the sense that we’re always going to be available to our clients, but also that we’re always going to have some kind of superior answer,” Moriarty explained.

This creates a profound professional identity challenge as lawyers grapple with questions of value and relevance in an increasingly automated world.

The Psychological Challenge of AI Adoption

The introduction of AI tools presents a complex psychological dynamic for legal professionals. Whilst technology promises to address complexity and volume issues, it simultaneously creates new anxieties about professional relevance and competence.

“Human nature has a fascinating tendency to replace anything that’s freed up with something even more problematic,” Moriarty observed, drawing parallels to how people often clean their homes before cleaners arrive. This reflects a deep-seated fear of appearing incompetent or showing vulnerability.

The legal profession’s training compounds this challenge. “Your training is to problematise and then resolve. So you really accentuate the problem so that you can highlight it, intensify it, and then begin to make sense of it,” she noted. This analytical approach, whilst professionally valuable, can lead lawyers to overthink and complicate AI adoption unnecessarily.

The Surrender Paradox

One of the session’s most striking insights concerned the need for psychological surrender during technological transition. “We do actually need to surrender to something in order to survive it, recognise we can survive it, come back up again with incredibly resourced strength to think about professional practice from a whole new lens,” Moriarty explained.

This concept directly challenges legal professionals’ training and instincts. Lawyers are conditioned to maintain control and demonstrate expertise, making the idea of surrendering particularly difficult. However, this surrender isn’t about abandoning professional standards—it’s about embracing uncertainty as a pathway to innovation.

Building Community and Embracing The Beginner’s Mind

The session emphasised the importance of community building during technological transition. Rather than attempting to navigate AI adoption in isolation, firms should create supportive networks for learning and experimentation.

Moriarty recommended leveraging younger professionals who are “fluent in this way of being and thinking” through reverse mentoring relationships. “Listen to the rising leaders. They haven’t left the house without asking what the weather is since they were 10,” she noted, highlighting their natural comfort with technology.

The concept of “beginner’s mind” emerged as crucial for successful AI integration. “This is where we get away with not knowing at all,” Moriarty observed, noting that current expectations are lower than they will be in future years, creating a unique window for experimentation and learning.

Strategic Implementation Approaches

For practical implementation, Moriarty outlined several key recommendations:

Build Your Kitchen Cabinet: Assemble a trusted group of advisors whose opinions you value. Don’t wait—start this week and make AI strategy a regular agenda item.

Listen to Young People: Leverage rising leaders who are comfortable with technology. Ask them to research tools, summarise findings, and take manageable portions of the larger AI implementation challenge.

Develop a Coherent Strategy: Create a six-month plan rather than attempting ad hoc implementations. “Without that guiding map, we’re just hitting a constellation of stars and not an awful lot is going to feel like it’s shifting in a coherent way.”

Take Weekly Action: Set new goals every Monday and work cumulatively toward your objectives. The complexity shouldn’t intimidate legal professionals—”lawyers love complexity.”

The Expert-Led Model Transition

A fundamental shift is occurring in how legal services operate. “The expert-led model is on its way away from us,” Moriarty observed. “We are now going to become our own experts, our own leaders, but we will be doing it in community, in circles, sitting together in a very meaningful way.”

This represents a move toward collaborative rather than hierarchical approaches to both client service and professional development. Clients and lawyers are increasingly “on a journey together” rather than operating in traditional expert-client dynamics.

Industry Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

The session highlighted an unprecedented level of collaboration emerging within the legal profession around AI adoption. Large firms are sharing experiences and insights with smaller practices, recognising that the entire ecosystem benefits when all participants are competent and capable.

“Unless the lawyers on the other side are equally competent, capable, and productive, the clients will still have a negative experience because the process will be slow,” Gannon noted. This ecosystem thinking represents a significant departure from traditional competitive approaches.

Redefining Professional Value

As AI handles more technical tasks, lawyers must reposition themselves around distinctly human capabilities: listening, understanding, empathy, communication, and relationship building. “This will be how you distinguish yourself as a professional in the future,” Moriarty predicted.

The technology creates opportunities for lawyers to spend greater periods of time with clients and colleagues in different ways that yield stronger, more trust-based relationships. However, this requires intentional cultural and strategic shifts rather than simply adding AI tools to existing practices.

The Permission to Not Know

Perhaps the session’s most liberating message concerned professional permission to acknowledge uncertainty. “For the first time, probably ever in the history of law, it’s okay not to know,” Moriarty concluded.

This represents a profound shift for a profession built on expertise and certainty. The current transition period offers unique opportunities for experimentation, learning, and relationship building that may not exist once AI adoption becomes standardised.

Looking Forward

The session framed current challenges as part of a broader transformation that extends beyond technology to encompass professional identity, client relationships, and industry culture. Success requires viewing AI adoption not merely as a productivity enhancement but as an opportunity to fundamentally reimagine legal practice around human connection and collaborative problem-solving.

The transition may be “quite a bloody birth,” as Moriarty noted, but it offers unprecedented opportunities for those willing to embrace uncertainty, build community, and prioritise wellbeing alongside technological advancement.