legal reform

ChatGPT and AI Applications for In-house Lawyers [Jefferson]

On 03/27/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT and AI Applications for In-house Lawyers — from docket.acc.com by Spiwe L. Jefferson

Excerpt:

The explosive emergence of ChatGPT as a consumer tool has catapulted Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its subfield, natural language processing (NLP), to the technology stage. As AI and NLP continue to evolve, the use of AI-powered tools, such as the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), in the legal industry has become increasingly prevalent. Many lawyers are experimenting with AI and grappling with its applications to streamline practices and improve efficiency.

While GPT and other AI-powered tools can potentially revolutionize aspects of the legal profession, it is important to consider the current limitations and potential pitfalls in implementing these technologies.

017 | Post-Event Learnings w/ AI Prompts |Brainyacts #17 — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com

Excerpt:

Earlier this week some of you were at Legalweek in New York. Others of you joined Terri Mottershead and the Centre for Legal Innovation to talk about what consultants think about ChatGPT/Generative AI.

Far too many of us attend these events and never take the time to invest in ourselves and our organizations by capturing our learnings and insights.

In fact, I will go a step further.

If your organization paid for you to go, there is an obligation to transfer your personal experience into one that benefits the organization. Sort of a return on investment for the $ and time away from the office.

Law has a magic wand now — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Some people think Large Language Models will transform the practice of law. I think it’s bigger than that.

Excerpts:

ChatGPT4 can also do things that only lawyers (used to be able to) do. It can look up and summarize a court decision, analyze and apply sections of copyright law, and generate a statement of claim for breach of contract.
…
What happens when you introduce a magic wand into the legal market? On the buyer side, you reduce by a staggering degree the volume of tasks that you need to pay lawyers (whether in-house or outside counsel) to perform. It won’t happen overnight: Developing, testing, revising, approving, and installing these sorts of systems in corporations will take time. But once that’s done, the beauty of LLMs like ChatGPT4 is that they are not expert systems. Anyone can use them. Anyone will.

But I can’t shake the feeling that someday, we’ll divide the history of legal services into “Before GPT4” and “After GPT4.” I think it’s that big.

From DSC:
Jordan mentions: “Some people think Large Language Models will transform the practice of law. I think it’s bigger than that.”

I agree with Jordan. It most assuredly IS bigger than that. AI will profoundly impact many industries/disciplines. The legal sector is but one of them. Education is another. People’s expectations are now changing — and the “ramification wheels” are now in motion.

I take the position that many others have as well (at least as of this point in time) that take the position that AI will supplement humans’ capabilities and activities. But those who know AI-driven apps will outcompete those who don’t know about such apps.

How AI will revolutionize the practice of law [Villasenor]

On 03/22/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, sociology, tools, United States, by Daniel Christian

How AI will revolutionize the practice of law — from brookings.edu by John Villasenor

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to fundamentally reshape the practice of law.

Excerpt:

BROADENING ACCESS TO LEGAL SERVICES
AI also has the potential to dramatically broaden access to legal services, which are prohibitively expensive for many individuals and small businesses. As the Center for American Progress has written, “[p]romoting equal, meaningful access to legal representation in the U.S. justice system is critical to ending poverty, combating discrimination, and creating opportunity.”

AI will make it much less costly to initiate and pursue litigation. For instance, it is now possible with one click to automatically generate a 1000-word lawsuit against robocallers. More generally, drafting a well-written complaint will require more than a single click, but in some scenarios, not much more. These changes will make it much easier for law firms to expand services to lower-income clients.

Working To Incorporate Legal Technology Into Your Practice Isn’t Just A Great Business Move – It’s Required [Williams]

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 Caroline Hill

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

‘ChatGPT Already Outperforms a lot of Junior Lawyers’: An Interview With Richard Susskind — from law.com by Laura Beveridge
For the last 20 years, the U.K. author and academic has been predicting that technology will revolutionise the legal industry. With the buzz around generative AI, will his hypothesis now be proven true?

Excerpts:

For this generation of lawyers, their mission and legacy ought to be to build the systems that replace our old ways of working, he said. Moreover, Susskind identified new work for lawyers, such as legal process analyst or legal data scientist, emerging from technological advancement.

“These are the people who will be building the systems that will be solving people’s legal problems in the future.

“The question I ask is: imagine when the underpinning large language model is GPT 8.5.”

Blue J Legal co-founder Benjamin Alarie on how AI is powering a new generation of legal tech — from canadianlawyermag.com by Tim Wilbur

Excerpts:

We founded Blue J with the idea that we should be able to bring absolute clarity to the law everywhere and on demand. The name that we give to this idea is the legal singularity. I have a book with assistant professor Abdi Aidid called The Legal Singularity coming out soon on this idea.

The book paints the picture of where we think the law will go in the next several decades. Our intuition was not widely shared when we started the book and Blue J.

Since last November, though, many lawyers and journalists have been able to play with ChatGPT and other large language models. They suddenly understand what we have been excited about for the last eight years.

Neat Trick/Tip to Add To Your Bag! — from iltanet.org by Brian Balistreri

Excerpt:

If you need instant transcription of a Audio File, Word Online now allows you to upload a file, and it will transcribe, mark speaker changes, and provide time marks. You can use video files, just make sure they are small or office will kick you out.

Generative AI Is Coming For the Lawyers — from wired.com by Chris Stoken-Walker
Large law firms are using a tool made by OpenAI to research and write legal documents. What could go wrong?

Excerpts:

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.”
…
The technology, which uses large datasets to learn to generate pictures or text that appear natural, could be a good fit for the legal industry, which relies heavily on standardized documents and precedents.

“Legal applications such as contract, conveyancing, or license generation are actually a relatively safe area in which to employ ChatGPT and its cousins,” says Lilian Edwards, professor of law, innovation, and society at Newcastle University. “Automated legal document generation has been a growth area for decades, even in rule-based tech days, because law firms can draw on large amounts of highly standardized templates and precedent banks to scaffold document generation, making the results far more predictable than with most free text outputs.”

But the problems with current generations of generative AI have already started to show.

Meet CoCounsel — “the world’s first AI legal assistant” [casetext]

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.

Harvey is “a game-changer that can unleash the power of generative AI to transform the legal industry” + several other legaltech related items

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

“How will ALSPs use ChatGPT, AI, & other forms of #legaltech?” [Christian] + several other legal-related items

On 02/10/2023, in Access to Justice (A2J), business, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, future, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, trends, United States, by Daniel Christian

The Thomson Reuters Institute’s biennial report found that growth of ALSPs has “dramatically accelerated.” It is up 45% since the last report in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 20% for fiscal years 2020 and 2021…https://t.co/cVNH8dKHRs via @ABAJournal #legal

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) February 10, 2023

DC: It will be interesting to see how ALSPs use ChatGPT, GPT versions 3.5 and above, and other areas of #legaltech

Alternative legal services providers hit $20.6B share of legal market, new report says — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds

Excerpt:

Alternative legal services providers, or ALSPs, have shown accelerated growth and now make up $20.6 billion of the legal market, according to a report published Tuesday.

The Thomson Reuters Institute’s biennial report found that growth of ALSPs has “dramatically accelerated.” It is up 45% since the last report in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 20% for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, according to the report, titled Alternative Legal Services Providers 2023: Accelerating growth & expanding service categories.

ABA panel deals a blow to test-optional push — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

Dive Brief:

The American Bar Association’s policymaking body rejected a plan Monday that would end the requirement that ABA-accredited law schools use the Law School Admission Test or another standardized assessment in admissions.
The ABA House of Delegates voted against the change to the organization’s policy that mandates admissions tests — exams detractors say contribute to middling diversity in legal education. Nearly 600 officials comprise the House of Delegates, which took a voice vote on the plan, meaning a precise count was not available.
However, the proposal isn’t dead. It could be revived and approved unilaterally by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar…

Excerpts:

Every year, 20 million Americans find themselves in state civil courts facing life-altering events such as divorce, child custody deliberations, eviction, and missed bills.

But unlike in criminal courts, where defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation, the same guarantee isn’t afforded in state civil courts. Most people in these courts are low- to middle-income and unable to afford help. They must strike out on their own to blindly navigate byzantine legal protocols.

“The civil justice system is broken in our state courts,” says Utah Law Professor Anna Carpenter, whose research examines state civil courts, the judges who preside in them, and access to justice. She is part of a four-person research team that pioneered a new body of scholarship that analyzes state civil courts.

“I challenge anyone, especially lawyers, to go sit in one of these courtrooms and watch the tragic, day-to-day reality,” Carpenter says. “You’ll see why we believe these courts are the emergency rooms of our justice system.”

The Future of Legal Technology with Gabe Teninbaum

Talking Tech for Solo and Small Law Firms on the Florida Bar’s Legalfuel Podcast [Ambrogi]

On 02/04/2023, in law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, United States, by Daniel Christian

Talking Tech for Solo and Small Law Firms on the Florida Bar’s Legalfuel Podcast — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

When it comes to legal technology for solo and small law firms, I don’t think there’s a topic we didn’t touch on in this episode of the Florida Bar’s Legalfuel podcast. Hosts Christine Bilbrey, director of the Florida Bar’s practice resource center, and Jamie Moore, practice management advisor, asked me about everything from law practice management platforms to password managers to the dark web.

Also see:

There’s a push for young lawyers to practice in rural America — from denver7.com by Diane Duenez

Excerpt:

Richard Moberly is the dean at the University of Nebraska College of Law. When his state saw a lack of rural doctors, the medical college developed a rural training track to set up students in areas of need.

“About 60% of those students ended up going back to those communities. So, we’re hoping for the same,” Moberly said. “A lot of the older attorneys, especially, have worked with the people in that community for a generation and know that, if no one can step in to their shoes, those people are really going to lose out on the services that lawyers provide.”

Future of law: AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court, then came the jail threats. [Metayer]

On 01/31/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

Future of law: AI robot lawyer was set to argue in court, then came the jail threats. https://t.co/C8DtIqtUar

— Estelle Metayer (@Competia) January 28, 2023

ChatGPT/Generative AI within the legal realm: Could this be the case?

On 01/24/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Some of the most expensive legal services are about to become MUCH cheaper.

Some of the most lucrative legal work is about to become a LOT less profitable.

The timeline is going to shock us.

— Zach Abramowitz (@ZachAbramowitz) January 23, 2023

Also relevant/see:

Roundup: Legal tech companies make news early in 2023 — from legaldive.com by Lyle Moran
LiquidText, AbacusNext, Casepoint, Everlaw, Evisort and Exterro announced updates about their legal software businesses.
Top 10 Tech Law Trends for 2023 – Nos. 10-6 — from jdsupra.com

Is your Law Firm Ready for Continued Virtual Legal Proceedings? [jdsupra.com]

On 01/09/2023, in 21st century, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, innovation, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, Metaverse, policy, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Is your Law Firm Ready for Continued Virtual Legal Proceedings? — from jdsupra.com

Excerpt:

For 2023, one trend is obvious: legal professionals prefer remote work. According to an ABA report on the future of the profession, 87% of lawyers say their workplaces allow them to work remotely. And in just a few years, the percentage of attorneys working exclusively in the office has dropped to less than 30%.

Also relevant/see:

The Metaverse: What Is It? How Does It Affect Law Firms? — from by Annette Choti
A new set of legal issues and advertising opportunities.

Excerpt:

Law Firms And The Metaverse
Since the Metaverse is so new, it will continue to develop and change. Distinct kinds of legal issues and implications have not been uncovered yet. The Metaverse will likely create various legal challenges in the future. This creates a new legal landscape for law firms and lawyers.

Those who anticipate the questions and challenges that may arise will be able to take advantage of this new digital market. Here are some ways a law firm can capitalize on the virtual realities of the Metaverse:

From DSC:
My point in posting this item about “The Metaverse” is not to say that it’s here…but to be sure that it’s on your legal radar. There will be enough legal ramifications of AI to last a while, but I would still recommend someone in your firm look at the place of emerging technologies — those techs not only to be leveraged by your firm but also as to what types of legal issues your lawyers will need to be up-to-speed on.

The Difference Between ‘Playtime’ + ‘Production’ for AI + Legal Tech [Wagner]

On 01/05/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), game-changing environment, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, productivity / tips and tricks, society, tools, by Daniel Christian

The Difference Between ‘Playtime’ + ‘Production’ for AI + Legal Tech — from by Jim Wagner, CEO, Lean Law Labs.

Excerpt:

It’s fascinating to see what GPT-3 can do and the possibilities are in some cases nothing short of mind blowing. But before you plan your early 2023 implementation, you may want to exercise a bit of caution. When it comes to using AI in a production environment – i.e., serving real customers with real expectations – you need solutions that deliver reliable results that you can explain to your clients … and potentially to a lot of other stakeholders, including courts and regulatory authorities.

Maybe in 2023 you can also try this line: ‘Dear client / court / regulator, we know it’s hard to believe, but a lot of the time you can rely on what we tell you.’

NOTE: Artificial Lawyer and its Founder are
now on sabbatical during 2023, returning in 2024.

From DSC:
My guess is that they are pursuing some serious, new opportunities involving using AI within the legaltech realm. Time will tell.

94% of Consumers are Satisfied with Virtual Primary Care — from hitconsultant.net

Excerpt from What You Should Know (emphasis DSC):

For people who have used virtual primary care, the vast majority of them (94%) are satisfied with their experience, and nearly four in five (79%) say it has allowed them to take charge of their health. The study included findings around familiarity and experience with virtual primary care, virtual primary care and chronic conditions, current health and practices, and more.
As digital health technology continues to advance and the healthcare industry evolves, many Americans want the ability to utilize more digital methods when it comes to managing their health, according to a study recently released by Elevance Health — formerly Anthem, Inc. Elevance Health commissioned to conduct an online study of over 5,000 US adults age 18+ around virtual primary care.

GPT Takes the Bar Exam — from papers.ssrn.com by Michael James Bommarito and Daniel Martin Katz; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for his tweet on this

Excerpt from the Abstract (emphasis DSC):

While our ability to interpret these results is limited by nascent scientific understanding of LLMs and the proprietary nature of GPT, we believe that these results strongly suggest that an LLM will pass the MBE component of the Bar Exam in the near future.

LLM — Large Language Model
MBE — Multistate Bar Examination

Learning Ecosystems

Working To Incorporate Legal Technology Into Your Practice Isn’t Just A Great Business Move – It’s Required [Williams]

Harvey is “a game-changer that can unleash the power of generative AI to transform the legal industry” + several other legaltech related items

“How will ALSPs use ChatGPT, AI, & other forms of #legaltech?” [Christian] + several other legal-related items

Talking Tech for Solo and Small Law Firms on the Florida Bar’s Legalfuel Podcast [Ambrogi]

Is your Law Firm Ready for Continued Virtual Legal Proceedings? [jdsupra.com]

The Difference Between ‘Playtime’ + ‘Production’ for AI + Legal Tech [Wagner]

Will this also be the case with telelegal-based apps & services in the future? [Christian]

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