legal reform

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

CEO Roundtable With Ari Kaplan: Legal services and legal tech CEOs reflect on 2022 & offer perspectives for 2023 [Kaplan]

On 12/24/2022, in funding / grants, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

CEO Roundtable With Ari Kaplan: Legal services and legal tech CEOs reflect on 2022 and offer perspectives for 2023 — from abajournal.com by Ari Kaplan

Also see:

Legal Services Corporation Awards $4.6 Million in Technology Grants to 29 Legal Aid Organizations — from lsc.gov

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON—The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) announced today that it is awarding 33 Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) to 29 legal services providers totaling $4,679,135. These organizations will use the funds to leverage technology in delivering high-quality legal assistance to low-income Americans.
…
Grant recipients have used this funding to enhance cybersecurity, build educational platforms, strengthen program capacity and support the work of pro bono attorneys. Successful TIG projects are often replicated by organizations around the country, creating wide-reaching impacts.

A Debate on Nonlawyer Participation Part II: Ralph Baxter Explores the State Bar Obligation to Improve Access to Justice — from legaltechmonitor.com by Natalie Anne Knowlton

Excerpt:

Stephen Younger argues against nonlawyer ownership on the grounds that it would threaten the independence of the legal profession and would not solve the access to justice crisis. In contrast, Ralph Baxter offers a pro-reform perspective, arguing that reforms are necessary to meaningfully address the access to justice crisis—and that state bar association inaction on these issues constitutes a dereliction of duty.

In part one of this two-part IAALS blog series, we explored Younger’s argument in “The Pitfalls and False Promises of Nonlawyer Ownership of Law Firms.” This piece details Baxter’s opposing perspective as set out in “Dereliction of Duty: State-Bar Inaction in Response to America’s Access-to-Justice Crisis.”

Top 4 legal technology news stories of 2022 — from abajournal.com by Nicole Black

In the meantime, looking back on the top legal technology news stories is a great way to identify key trends that hint at what’s to come for lawyers and their clients in 2023 and beyond.

The Top 10 Law & Tech Stories of 2022 Countdown – 1. The Next Era of Litigation — from jdsupra.com

Attorneys and their client are looking for a more secure, more familiar, more intuitive, more efficient virtual environment than the mass-market videoconference platforms that were hastily deployed during the pandemic.

ABA Lawyers Broadly Support Remote Depositions — from lexology.com

Excerpt:

Eighty-eight percent of lawyers responding to a recent American Bar Association survey said they prefer the use of remote depositions in their practices. Another 93% supported the use of remote technologies for all pretrial hearings.

The survey results are further evidence of the rapid and profound transition toward wider use of remote technologies in the legal profession.
.

.

“NextGen Justice Tech: What regulatory reform could mean for justice tech” [Sonday] + other legal-related items

On 12/22/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, copyright/ownership/NFTs, emerging technologies, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

NextGen Justice Tech: What regulatory reform could mean for justice tech — from thomsonreuters.com Kristen Sonday

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

One year in, the Utah Supreme Court had approved 30 companies, including those that created initiatives to provide individuals help completing court forms and receiving legal advice via chatbot.
…
The ruling is monumental because it allows legal professionals to provide guidance on completing legal forms that might be applied to other areas of law, including through online tools that can reach exponentially more individuals.

“By ruling in favor of Upsolve, the Southern District of New York… established a new First Amendment right in America: the right for low-income families to receive free, vetted, and accountable legal advice from professionals who aren’t lawyers,” said Rohan Pavuluri, Upsolve’s Co-Founder and CEO.

UChicago Medicine partners with legal aid lawyers to offer legal help to victims of violence — from abajournal.com by Debra Cassens Weiss

Excerpt:

The University of Chicago Medicine is working with Legal Aid Chicago to embed lawyers at the system’s trauma center in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood to help victims of violence.

Legal AI: A Lawyer’s New Best Friend? — from legaltechmonitor.com by Stephen Embry

Excerpt:

The real question AI poses for the legal profession, says Susskind, is to what extent machines can be used to reduce uncertainty posed by problems. The fundamental question, says Susskind, is thus what problems lawyers are currently trying to solve that machines can solve better and quicker. The lawyer’s job in the future will be to focus on what clients really want: outcomes. Machines can’t provide outcomes, only reduce the uncertainty surrounding the potential outcomes, according to Susskind.

What Does Copyright Say about Generative Models? Not much. — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides

Excerpt:

Ultimately we need both solutions: fixing copyright law to accommodate works used to train AI systems, and developing AI systems that respect the rights of the people who made the works on which their models were trained. One can’t happen without the other.

‘Complicit bias’ and ‘lawfare’ among top new legal terms in 2022 — from abajournal.com by Debra Cassens Weiss

Excerpt:

“Complicit bias” tops a list of new legal terms and expressions in 2022 compiled by law professors and academics who are on a committee for Burton’s Legal Thesaurus.

Law360 has a story on the top new terms and their meanings. According to the story, “complicit bias” refers to “an institution or community’s complicity in sustaining discrimination and harassment.”

Law360 listed 10 top legal terms, including these:

Why 2023 Will Be The Year of AI + My First Music Video — from legallydisrupted.com by Zach Abramowitz
ChatGPT Did Not Write This Song

#ChatGPT is the future of #legaltech https://t.co/CzG5uNWAur #breathless cc @LexionAi

— Zach Abramowitz (@ZachAbramowitz) December 21, 2022

After playing with in for the past 24 hours, I believe #ChatGPT is going to change the world, including the world of law and legal education. Ignore it at your peril. #AI #innovation #legaltech

— Gabe Teninbaum (@GTeninbaum) December 3, 2022

More interesting results from #ChatGPT. I entered the same prompt about a bicycle accident twice — once bracketed by clear messaging that I was looking for legal advice, once without that messaging. Check out the differences. pic.twitter.com/BJJiGjAvs6

— Jordan Furlong (@jordan_law21) December 6, 2022

Example resources:

Trends in legal technology post-pandemic — by Caroline Boudreau Sweeney
Trends in Legal technology — by CIOReview

Also see:

PODCAST EPISODE 369: USING SPACED REPETITION FOR YOUR LAW SCHOOL AND BAR EXAM STUDIES (W/GABRIEL TENINBAUM)

In this episode we discuss:

Some background on our guest Gabe Teninbaum, and why he’s passionate about spaced repetition
The theory behind spaced repetition and how it works in practice
Using spaced repetition to memorize material as a law student
How early in your study should you start using the spaced repetition technique?
Does learning with spaced repetition as a law student help lay the foundation for bar study?
How you can use the spacedrepetition.com website for your law school and bar exam studies

Seriously, #ChatGPT is going to change everything about how people gain access to legal information and guidance. Look at this. pic.twitter.com/BkxZlMxB9o

— Jordan Furlong (@jordan_law21) December 2, 2022

Speaking of technology and the law, also see:

Out today! Catch the latest episode of Talk Justice for a look at creative ways to connect people with legal professionals and resources– by bus, kiosks and even a kayak! https://t.co/wApNohRJw3

— Legal Services Corp. (@LSCtweets) November 29, 2022

Holding Court Outside the Courtroom — from legaltalknetwork.com

Host: Molly McDonough, Legal Talk Network Podcast Producer and Founder of Molly McDonough Media, LLC.

Guests:

Dori Rapaport, Executive Director at Legal Aid Services of Northeastern Minnesota
David Estep, Supervising Attorney at Legal Aid of West Virginia
Honorable Jeanne M. Robison, Salt Lake City Justice Court Judge

A Guide to Solar Jobs for the Previously Incarcerated [Zagame]

On 12/06/2022, in career development, change, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, society, sociology, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A Guide to Solar Jobs for the Previously Incarcerated — from ecowatch.com by Kristina Zagame; with thanks to Elisa Andrew for this resource

Elisa writes:

As you know, employment and education are two of the biggest barriers to successful re-entry for formerly incarcerated people. At the same time, clean energy employers consistently cite a lack of skilled, qualified workers as their primary barrier to market expansion. There’s a huge opportunity for solar to pave a pathway to stable employment for those looking to re-enter the workforce.

That’s why our EcoWatch team created a comprehensive guide on how those who were previously incarcerated can get training in the industry through existing solar programs and apprenticeships:

A Guide to Solar Jobs for the Previously Incarcerated
https://www.ecowatch.com/solar-jobs-for-formerly-incarcerated.html

Excerpt:

Formerly incarcerated people continue to face huge obstacles in finding stable employment. According to a recent report, roughly 60% of people released from federal prison are jobless. Research also suggests that those who did find jobs were given no job security or upward mobility.

Mass incarceration is a crisis in this country much like climate change. While many seem aware of it, not enough action has been taken to rectify the situation. Meanwhile, controversy, stigma and misinformation surrounding the issues spread as fast as West Coast wildfires.

But what if climate action could become the key to helping those formerly incarcerated re-enter the workforce?

Learning Ecosystems

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]

CEO Roundtable With Ari Kaplan: Legal services and legal tech CEOs reflect on 2022 & offer perspectives for 2023 [Kaplan]

A Guide to Solar Jobs for the Previously Incarcerated [Zagame]

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