PALO ALTO—An underserved legal market. Inefficiency at law firms. Bias and amorality in artificial intelligence. These are some of the themes that were percolating Thursday at the Stanford CodeX center’s FutureLaw conference, an annual event focusing on tech innovation in the legal industry.

The tenor of the event was one of both excitement and urgency, with the occasional dour warning that technology may actually end up putting some lawyers out of work. It was hard to escape the feeling that technological change is coming to the legal profession—and fast.