The Precedent Machine

How AI legal research is changing what counts as relevant law

Somewhere in a glass tower in San Francisco, a second-year associate named Rydra stares at a brief citing a 1987 Wisconsin appellate decision in a California contract dispute. The case concerns the implied duty of good faith in franchise agreements. Cited eleven times in thirty-seven years. Never outside the Seventh Circuit. Rydra didn’t search for Wisc…