Lawyers make heavy use of automated document sifting in e.g. e-discovery. Junior lawyers are expensive. Any tech that makes them superfluous is a boon to the partners. When we toss the village drunk from the bar, it isn’t because we’re scared they’ll drink all our booze.
You know what an attorney can't do? Disclaim malpractice liability!
It'd be wondrous if the esteemed minds of hackernews could put their brain cycles towards actually applying common sense and other things rather than jerking off to edgy narratives about disruption while completely disregarding the relevant facts to focus on what they find politically juicy ("lawyers are scared it will succeed". It's a tautological narrative you are weaving for yourself that completely skirts past all the principles underlying the legal profession and it's development over hundreds of years.
These people are being sold snake oil. Cheap snake oil, maybe, but snake oil nonetheless.
Not really. There are more lawyers than legal jobs. A lot of lawyers are toiling for well under 100k a year. People pay 1500 dollars an hour for some lawyers and 150 an hour for others due to perceived (and actual) quality differences. Adding a bunch more non-lawyers isn't going to impact the demand for the 1500 dollars an hour lawyers.
Legal work is expensive because ANY sort of bespoke professional work is expensive. Imagine if software developers had to customize their work for each customer.
And the reason lawyers are expensive is because bad legal advice usually costs far more in the long run.