AI can never replace a legal professional or put a law firm's work at risk: Amit Meharia, Managing Partner of MCO Legals

Amit Meharia is the Managing Partner of Meharia & Company, popularly known as MCO Legals, a pan-India law firm that offers legal solutions to clients across the country as well as abroad. .In this interview, Meharia speaks about the humble origins of the firm in Kolkata five decades ago, how keeping up with technology has helped the firm grow, the future of the Indian legal market and more..The firm has completed 55 years since inception. Could you share a little about the origins of the firm?.Meharia & Company was set up by my father, the late Mohan Prasad Meharia, in 1968. What started as a one-room office space in Kolkata now has a presence in various cities in India and abroad, 55 years down the line..Could you take us through the journey of MCO Legals over five decades?.MCO, as it stands today, is a modern-day law firm with well-developed infrastructure and advanced technology to cater to its clientele. While other firms are adopting the models of expansion through collaboration, we at MCO believe in indigenous growth, whether legal or managerial. MCO believes in quality and not in quantity.Keeping in line with our policy of indigenous growth, over the years, MCO has transitioned from a family-run firm to an institution-run firm. I have been Managing Partner of the firm since 2012 and recently, Anju Bansal and Tannishtha Singh have also been made Senior Partner and Partner, respectively. Abinash Agarwal and Paramita Banerjee have been made Legal Heads for our different practice areas as a recognition to their dedication to the firm.MCO Legals started its journey as a litigation firm. Over the years, the team’s focus has widened to corporate and commercial arbitration and litigation along with due diligence in all major sectors of the Indian Industry with specialization in energy laws (oil, gas, coal and electricity), asset management and corporate restructuring, restructuring and insolvency, projects and contracts, real estate, financial regulatory, labour and employment, statutory compliances, amongst others. MCO has garnered association with more than 40 public sector enterprsises and Central and state ministries, as well as numerous private clients..You pursued an LL.B. (Hons.) from King’s College London and thereafter a solicitorship under the Law Society of England and Wales. How do you think an LL.B. and solicitorship abroad holds relevance while litigating in India?.A fresh law graduate, irrespective of such graduation being from India or abroad, is faced with multiple challenges and is thrown open to a level playing field. However, I would say that what sets one apart is his bent of mind, discipline and dedication coupled with patience and perseverance. Such attributes are self-developed and nurtured and has little bearing with place of degree. Principles of self-discipline and appreciation of value of time are what enable me to ensure deliverables in an ethical, organized and transparent manner..The firm has an app called the MCO App that allows clients to track their matters, among other things. Could you tell us more about the app as well as other technology the firm has adopted?.Solicitor practice is not limited to law but also concerns running and operating a law firm having a vision and a business module. Law firm managing allows you to learn how to manage business, while practicing law, which is undoubtedly challenging. While being inducted into management of MCO Legals in the year 2011-2012, I realized the need of an integrated IT infrastructure catering to the needs specific to the firm. Having an IT infrastructure in legal field, let alone an in-house one, was and is still majorly an alien concept in India. The thirst to organize our working pan-India in such a manner that one need not be physically present in office led to the conceptualization and introduction of the MCOAPP. MCOAPP is an indigenous software, copyrighted and data protection law compliant. Being a store house of all documents since the inception of MCO Legals, the app makes work paperless and weightless. The entire functioning of MCO Legals is integrated on the system - whether team members, clients, billing or HR, etc..How do you see AI changing the legal profession? Do you think law firm jobs will be at stake as the technology becomes more advanced?.Technology is definitely the future and AI can visibly be seen as a catalyst in changing the legal profession as it stands today. Change is the only constant and much similar to the industrial revolution, which replaced muscle with machines, AI automates our mental tasks. Involvement of AI no doubt enables a legal professional to strategize and use his time and energy better – it augments our endeavour to make the profession a little less well-known for its long and arduous work hours and changes the conservative approach of ‘billable hours.’I feel that AI can definitely assist on data or pattern-based tasks such as reviewing contracts or research or data collection, analysing outcomes and making predictions on the basis of it. However, it can never be a replacement for a legal professional or put a law firm job at stake.AI will fall flat when the task involves arranging facts of a case, interpretating them, distinguishing applicability of case laws or arranging facts to sew arguments.Every case (barring some that fit the standard mould) are unique and an AI is incapable of analysing through the looking glass or appreciating nuances to provide tailored solutions. The appreciation of the situation comes only with precision, perception and polishing, attributes which are particular to a trained human mind and cannot be embedded in a programmed AI. .Do you see India becoming a hub for international arbitration? What needs to be done to make this a possibility?.For international arbitration, one of the parties essentially needs to be ‘international’, and for this, our government has indeed made pioneering efforts to create an ADR-friendly environment. The aims and policies of the government are targeted at overhauling the perennial adversarial system of unnecessary litigation – to reduce the load on the judicial system and also the exchequer through amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 in 2015, 2019 and 2021, the enactment of the India International Arbitration Centre Act, 2019 for facilitating institutional arbitration or the potential game-changing transformation in the justice delivery framework – Online Dispute Resolution by the Niti Ayog.Legislative strides have been taken to create a conducive international arbitral regime in India, but such strides are still plagued with persisting difficulties. Our approach of treating arbitration as a step-child of dispute resolution with primary priority being given to litigation needs to change. Such view is apparent inasmuch as there is a lack of full-time arbitrating lawyers or our desire to hold arbitration after ‘court hours’ or the lack of any specific Bar addressing concerns of the stakeholders of an arbitration..While there have been new laws and a revamp of existing ones, much time is also lost in reaching an agreeable meaning or interpretation of the law or addressing law, which is untouched by any amending legislation like the seat versus venue conundrum.A professional set up with transparent practice and procedure is the need of the hour – credible institutional arbitration centers may be brought to prominence to overcome the negative image or lacunae being harboured about international arbitration in India. The negative image of an ad hoc arbitration clouding our confidence in ADR needs to be cleared. We must also permit foreign lawyers to represent clients who are essentially ‘international’..In terms of expansion plans, where do you see the firm in the next three to five years?.Much like any other firm, in the next three to five years, my endeavour would be to first to consolidate our presence in the various cities where we have branch offices (apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata which are our main offices) and then to expand further through our policy of indigenous growth and delegation of authority. Secondly, we intend to double our working strength both in terms of legal and managerial members and thirdly, expansion of our working space at Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Specific extension plans like practice area diversification, technological integration or adaptation to regulatory changes are no doubt dynamic and would depend on the need of the hour..What are the top three trends that we will see in the legal market in the next three years?.Predicting specific trends in any industry is challenging. As far as the legal market is concerned, based on recent on-going shifts, firstly, one can expect an exponential rise in involvement of technology in the day-to-day functioning.From shifting to virtual or hybrid mode for court hearings in addition to the conservative method of presenting arguments in person, to the use of AI-based technology for research or digitization of court records, the advances of technology in the legal market will further spread.Embracing technology would indeed streamline processes, improving efficiency and reducing costs. One can see the rising trend of enhanced IT infrastructure to modulate the functioning of present-day firms – from using computers or laptops to the use of generic software like Provakil for data management or to track cases or, having its own tailored software to provide an edge in services rendered.Secondly, an innovative and proactive approach in reducing the litigation timeline to provide for swifter dispensation of justice is also on the rise with the recent notification of Supreme Court on barring the practice of seeking adjournments by circulating prior slips or letters. Thirdly, the legal market will also see strengthening of the framework of the ADR mechanism to keep abreast with other leading countries and government initiatives to enhance commerce and de-clog the creaking judicial system.