On 04/18/2023,
in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Daniel S. Christian, ethics, Europe, faith, future, global / globalization, history, law schools, leadership, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, UK, United States,
by Daniel Christian
On 04/17/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, economics, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, tools, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
A.I. Is Coming for Lawyers, Again — from nytimes.com by Steve Lohr (behind paywall)
Previous advances in A.I. inspired predictions that the law was the lucrative profession most likely to suffer job losses. It didn’t happen. Is this time different?
Excerpt:
But unless the past isn’t a guide, the impact of the new technology is more likely to be a steadily rising tide than a sudden tidal wave. New A.I. technology will change the practice of law, and some jobs will be eliminated, but it also promises to make lawyers and paralegals more productive, and to create new roles. That is what happened after the introduction of other work-altering technologies like the personal computer and the internet.
One new study, by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, concluded that the industry most exposed to the new A.I. was “legal services.” Another research report, by economists at Goldman Sachs, estimated that 44 percent of legal work could be automated. Only the work of office and administrative support jobs, at 46 percent, was higher.
Lawyers are only one occupation in the path of A.I. progress. A study by researchers at OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and the University of Pennsylvania found that about 80 percent of American workers would have at least 10 percent of their tasks affected by the latest A.I. software.
Also relevant/see:
039 | Micro-legal & AI Legal Help — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com
On 04/11/2023,
in law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, podcasting, society, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Fastcase, vLex merger accelerates investment into legal AI — from reuters.com by Sara Merken
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
(Reuters) – As artificial intelligence pushes deeper into the legal industry, Fastcase and vLex are merging in a deal the legal research companies said [on 4/4/23] will speed up the creation of AI tools for lawyers.
…
The merger creates a law library that is “the biggest legal data corpus ever assembled,” the companies said. The new company will have more than one billion legal documents from more than 100 countries, including judicial opinions, statutes, regulations, briefs, pleadings and legal news articles, they said.
Also see:
In Major Legal Tech Deal, vLex and Fastcase Merge, Creating A Global Legal Research Company, Backed By Oakley Capital and Bain Capital — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi
Excerpt:
In a deal that will reshape the legal research and legal technology landscape on a global basis and threaten the longstanding “Wexis” legal research duopoly, the companies vLex and Fastcase today announced that they have merged into a single entity that they say will have the world’s largest subscriber base of lawyers and law firms and a legal research library of more than 1 billion documents from more than 100 countries.
Speaking about the legal realm and innovations, also see:
On LawNext: 15 Years, 15 Lessons: Clio Founder Jack Newton On What He’s Learned About Building a Successful Company — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi and Jack Newton
Excerpt:
As Clio marks its 15th anniversary in 2023, Newton sat down with me to share 15 lessons he has learned along the way regarding what makes a successful company and a successful leader. He also reminisces about the early days of starting Clio and his early successes and challenges. Notably, he and Gauvreau founded Clio in the middle of the Great Recession, and one of the lessons he shares in this episode is his belief that a recession is a great time to build a company.
For anyone who has founded or is thinking of founding a legal tech startup, this episode is a must-listen. Even for those who are not tech founders, but law firm founders, many of Newton’s lessons apply.
On 04/03/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, career development, change, changing business models, emerging technologies, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Tools like ChatGPT will revolutionize the work of lawyers. Lawyers & law students must therefore learn how to use these tools now. Here is a practical guide on how to do so: https://t.co/gtbzB7Xvfg
Here are a few new key pieces of advice we elaborate on in the piece:
— Daniel Schwarcz (@Dschwarcz) April 2, 2023
Also relevant/see:
Having spent my career training lawyers, I’m convinced of AI’s transformative power for law – AI can perform core elements of legal reasoning: breaking down cases, applying rules to facts, arguing in alternative, analogizing. Lawyers need to get comfortable with this tech ASAP! https://t.co/VFIwbpTzFd
— Daniel Schwarcz (@Dschwarcz) April 3, 2023
On 03/28/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Canada, change, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, disruption, emerging technologies, experimentation, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal,
by Daniel Christian
GPT-4 is already disrupting the legal sector but what does it mean for your legal practice? I spoke a few ChatGPT experts. Thanks @scottastevenson @computational @DanLinna @lawdroid @tweetatpablo @colinlachance #legaltech #lawtwitter https://t.co/7Ecq71cRwa
— Julie Sobowale (@JulieSobowale) March 27, 2023
Also from Julie Sobowale, see:
- Law’s AI revolution is here — from nationalmagazine.ca
At least this much we know. Firms need to develop a strategy around language models.
Also re: legaltech, see:
- Pioneers and Pathfinders: Richard Susskind — from seyfarth.com by J. Stephen Poor
In our conversation, Richard discusses the ways we should all be thinking about legal innovation, the challenges of training lawyers for the future, and the qualifications of those likely to develop breakthrough technologies in law, as well as his own journey and how he became interested in AI as an undergraduate student.
Also re: legaltech, see:
- AI and the Law: What You Need To Know — from medium.com by Paul DelSignore
The AI Topic Nobody Is Talking About
On 03/16/2023,
in Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, UK, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Legal Prompt Engineering – Examples and Tips — from law.mit.edu by Dazza Greenwood and Damien Riehl
Walk through and discussion of Legal Prompt Engineering examples, showing ways to compose inputs to generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude to get improved outputs for law and legal processes
GPT4 demo’s last 5 mins should be a must watch for legal / tax folks!
Spoiler Alert: snippet of US tax code is used + a fictional set of facts, and GPT asked to determine the appropriate tax calculation + reasoning, which it seemingly does correctly.https://t.co/rthFsTCUic
— lawtomated (@lawtomated) March 14, 2023
PwC announces strategic alliance with Harvey, positioning PwC’s Legal Business Solutions at the forefront of legal generative AI — from pwc.com
Excerpt:
LONDON, 15 March 2023 – Today, PwC announced a global partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Harvey, providing PwC’s Legal Business Solutions professionals exclusive access (among the Big 4) to the game-changing AI platform.
Harvey, which is backed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, is built on OpenAi and Chat GPT technology. It is a platform that uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to automate and enhance various aspects of legal work. Harvey will help generate insights and recommendations based on large volumes of data, delivering richer information that will enable PwC professionals to identify solutions faster. All outputs will be overseen and reviewed by PwC professionals.
The strategic alliance builds on PwC’s ability to bring human-led and tech-enabled solutions to clients, delivering on its global strategy, The New Equation.
The Robot Lawyer Resistance — from a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz
Description of podcast:
Should AI belong in the courtroom? Joshua Browder ventured to run an experiment where a robot lawyer would defend a court case. Looking to up the ante, he even offered $1m for a Supreme Court hearing! His experiment was met with a threat of 6 months jail time. Listen in for the full story.
Also somewhat related, see:
What’s New in Legal Technology? ABA TECHSHOW 2023 — from attorneyatwork.com by Joan Feldman
ABA TECHSHOW has been the place to learn what’s new in legal technology for more than 35 years. Last week in Chicago, we scoped out the ABA TECHSHOW 2023 exposition hall. Here are a few of the highlights.
On 03/11/2023,
in 21st century, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), Canada, experimentation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Working To Incorporate Legal Technology Into Your Practice Isn’t Just A Great Business Move – It’s Required — from abovethelaw.com by Chris Williams
Excerpt:
According to Model Rule 1.1 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct: “A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.”
In 2012, the ABA House of Delegates voted to amend Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1 to include explicit guidance on lawyers’ use of technology.
If Model Rule 1.1 isn’t enough of a motivator to dip your feet in legal tech, maybe paying off that mortgage is. As an extra bit of motivation, it may benefit you to pin the ABA House of Delegate’s call to action on your motivation board.
Also relevant/see:
While courts still use fax machines, law firms are using AI to tailor arguments for judges — from cbc.ca by Robyn Schleihauf
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
What is different with AI is the scale by which this knowledge is aggregated. While a lawyer who has been before a judge three or four times may have formed some opinions about them, these opinions are based on anecdotal evidence. AI can read the judge’s entire history of decision-making and spit out an argument based on what it finds.
The common law has always used precedents, but what is being used here is different — it’s figuring out how a judge likes an argument to be framed, what language they like using, and feeding it back to them.
And because the legal system builds on itself — with judges using prior cases to determine how a decision should be made in the case before them — these AI-assisted arguments from lawyers could have the effect of further entrenching a judge’s biases in the case law, as the judge’s words are repeated verbatim in more and more decisions. This is particularly true if judges are unaware of their own biases.
Cutting through the noise: The impact of GPT/large language models (and what it means for legal tech vendors) — from legaltechnology.com by
Excerpts:
Given that we have spent time over the past few years telling people not to get to overestimate the capability of AI, is this the real deal?
“Yeah, I think it’s the real thing because if you look at why legal technologies have not had the adoption rate historically, language has always been the problem,” Katz said. “Language has been hard for machines historically to work with, and language is core to law. Every road leads to a document, essentially.”
…
Katz says: “There are two types of things here. They would call general models GPT one through four, and then there’s domain models, so a legal specific large language model.
…
“What we’re going to see are large-ish, albeit not the largest model that’s heavily domain tailored is going to beat a general model in the same way that a really smart person can’t beat a super specialist. That’s where the value creation and the next generation of legal technology is going to live.”
Fresh Voices in Legal Tech with Kristen Sonday — from legaltalknetwork.com by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell with Kristen Sonday
On 03/02/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Meet CoCounsel — “the world’s first AI legal assistant” — from casetext.com
Excerpt:
As we shared in our official press release, we’ve been collaborating with OpenAI to build CoCounsel on their latest, most advanced large language model. It was a natural fit between our two teams. OpenAI, the world leader in generative AI, selected Casetext to create a product powered by its technology that was suitable for professional use by lawyers. Our experience leading legal tech since 2013 and applying large language models to the law for over five years made us an ideal choice.
From DSC:
I look forward to seeing more vendors and products getting into the legaltech space — ones that use AI and other technologies to make significant progress on the access to justice issues that we have here in the United States.
On 03/02/2023,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blogs / blogging / vlogging, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, productivity / tips and tricks, tools,
by Daniel Christian
How Does Your Firm Stack Up When It Comes To Legal Tech? A Look Through the 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report — from jdsupra.com
Excerpt:
The 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report measures current legal technology trends. How does your firm compare to the rest?
Lawyers are rarely accused of rushing into change, but current legal technology trends show a few glimmers of hope that (slowly but surely) law firms are realizing the significance of incorporating technology into their litigation practice to remain relevant and competitive. The 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report: Vol. 5 – Litigation Technology & E-Discovery reveals that law firms went through a belt-tightening phase in 2020 and 2021 but then made investments in 2022 to improve their litigation offerings.
ChatGPT Writes Our February 2023 FPI Newsletter Blog Post — from .law.upenn.edu by the Future of the Profession Initiative (FPI) at Penn Carey Law
Excerpt:
For our February 2023 FPI Newsletter, we used ChatGPT, the advanced chatbot, to help us write this blog post. Below, our prompts are in bold, with ChatGPT responses following.
Write the introduction to a newsletter focused on the legal implications of ChatGPT. Include implications for legal education, law firms, and clients.
Trends and Highlights from the 2023 Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report — from lawtechnologytoday.org Taylor Young
Excerpt:
Earlier this month, Actionstep released the results of the 2023 Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report, an inaugural survey of legal and administrative staff from midsize US law firms focused on identifying their key priorities, challenges, goals, and opportunities heading into 2023.
Trends and insights that rose to the top…
23 Legal Tech Insights for 2023 — New Report with Input from Industry Experts — from lawtechnologytoday.org Taylor Young
Excerpt:
If you are in legal tech, change is constant. This means staying on top of emerging trends (yes, even beyond the latest ChatGPT craze) is vital — not because you need to sign up for every new, shiny thing, but because you want to harness the advantages technology creates and prepare your organization for the future. That’s why tech-savvy practitioners will soon be heading to the ABA TECHSHOW.
As you head into conference-mode to dig into the latest in legal technology at TECHSHOW, our team thought this is the perfect time to share trends and industry insights to give you some food for thought and areas to investigate at the show.
Last year, we shared 10 legal tech trends driving success in the legal industry. Because what we shared was so well received, we’ve expanded the content with our latest report, 23 Legal Technology Insights for 2023, which includes thoughtful analysis of major trends, comments from industry experts, and tips to help you make the most of the tech in your organization. Here’s a snapshot of some of the key technology trends for 2023.
On 02/23/2023,
in Access to Justice (A2J), change, changing business models, India, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, tools, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Allen & Overy breaks the internet (and new ground) with co-pilot Harvey — from legaltechnology.com by Caroline Hill
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
We’re told that at the end of the trial, around 3,500 of A&O’s lawyers had asked Harvey around 40,000 queries for their day-to-day client work. MIG head David Wakeling said in a statement yesterday: “I have been at the forefront of legal tech for 15 years but I have never seen anything like Harvey. It is a game-changer that can unleash the power of generative AI to transform the legal industry. Harvey can work in multiple languages and across diverse practice areas, delivering unprecedented efficiency and intelligence. In our trial, we saw some amazing results.”
Also related/see:
OpenAI-backed startup brings chatbot technology to first major law firm — from reuters.com by Sara Merken
Summary:
- Allen & Overy partners with legal startup Harvey
- Harvey received $5 million in a funding round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund last year
Today: the 7th largest law firm on Earth announced a 3,500-lawyer deal with Harvey, an OpenAI-backed AI Lawyer startup:
See below for:
– Deal details
– Harvey’s capabilities (?)
– Harvey’s open roles (I refer talent to them!)1/6 pic.twitter.com/OLdusvcqrG
— AI Pub (@ai__pub) February 16, 2023
Global Firm Allen & Overy Rolling Out Harvey.ai — from legallydisrupted.com by Zach Abramowitz
Excerpt:
Here’s another way to think about what it can do: read, understand, analyze, issue spot and draft responsive documents. Does that apply to a lot of contract work? Sure. Litigation? Yep, that too. The reason this is hard to swallow is that we’re stuck in a framework where there are contract tools for contracts, eDiscovery tools for discovery, drafting tools for drafting etc. The AI revolution could potentially change that paradigm.
The Top Legal Tech Startups to Watch in 2023 — from gritdaily.com by Spencer Hulse
Excerpt:
There are certain industries that have been slower to embrace technology than others, and the legal profession is one of those at the very top. However, legal tech startups have been gaining ground in recent years, with the market expected to reach around $32 billion in 2025. There is also a significant rise in legal department spending on legal tech, which is only going to rise in the coming years.
Legal tech offers numerous solutions, which include everything from offering legal advice digitally to AI and automating some of the time-consuming processes formerly handled with pen and paper.
The following list includes legal tech startups and companies of all sorts, from those that have been around for years to up-and-coming innovators.
Embracing The Tectonic Shift: How Technology Is Transforming The Legal Profession — from livelaw.in by Khushboo Luthra
According to a Gartner Report, 4 of 5 legal departments plan to increase technology spending. By 2024, legal departments will replace one out of five lawyers with a nonlawyer staff, and 1/4th of the expenditure on corporate legal applications will go to non-specialist technology providers. By 2025, legal departments will have automated 50% of legal work related to significant corporate transactions.
Generative AI Is Coming For the Lawyers — from wired.com by Chris Stokel-Walker
Large law firms are using a tool made by OpenAI to research and write legal documents. What could go wrong?
Excerpt:
The rise of AI and its potential to disrupt the legal industry has been forecast multiple times before. But the rise of the latest wave of generative AI tools, with ChatGPT at its forefront, has those within the industry more convinced than ever.
“I think it is the beginning of a paradigm shift,” says Wakeling. “I think this technology is very suitable for the legal industry.”
Generative AI is having a cultural and commercial moment, being touted as the future of search, sparking legal disputes over copyright, and causing panic in schools and universities.
As law profs/law schools consider how to deal with chatGPT on exams, let me propose one approach: students *must* use it on one issue-spotting question, but then have to redline the answer, showing their work in improving upon it. 1/3
— Gabe Teninbaum (@GTeninbaum) February 22, 2023
Addendum on 3/6/23:
Will artificial intelligence replace your lawyer–and will its name be Harvey? — from fortunes.com by Aron Solomon