legal reform

How lawyers can unlock the potential of the metaverse — from abajournal.com by Victor Li

Excerpt:

One such firm is Grungo Colarulo, a personal injury law firm with offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Last December, the firm announced that it had set up shop in the virtual world known as Decentraland.

Users can enter the firm’s virtual office, where they can interact with the firm’s avatar. They can talk to the avatar to see whether they might need legal representation and then take down a phone number to call the firm in the physical world. If they’re already clients, they can arrive for meetings or consultations.

Richard Grungo Jr., co-founder and name partner at Grungo Colarulo, told the ABA Journal in December 2021 that he could see the potential of the metaverse to allow his firm to host webinars, CLEs and other virtual educational opportunities, as well as hosting charity events.

Grungo joined the ABA Journal’s Victor Li to talk about how lawyers can use the metaverse to market themselves, as well as legal issues relating to the technology that all users should be aware of.

From DSC:
I post this to put this on the radars of legal folks out there. Law schools should join the legaltech folks in pulse-checking and covering/addressing emerging technologies. What the Metaverse and Web3 become is too early to tell. My guess is that we’ll see a lot more blending of the real world with the digital world — especially via Augmented Reality (AR).

We need to constantly be pulse-checking the landscapes out there and developing scenarios and solutions to such trends

This is another area where the incredibly slow pace of the American legal system is having a negative effect [Christian]

On 10/18/2022, in 21st century, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, copyright/ownership/NFTs, Daniel S. Christian, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
This is another area where the slow pace of the American legal system is having a negative effect. The American Bar Association and the majority of the law school graduates (i.e., those who passed the Bar and have been practicing law in one form or another) for the last 30 years have a lot to do with this situation. They have stimied innovation and have protected their turf — at the increasing expense of the American people.

Online learning has been going on since the late 1990’s, yet the ABA STILL doesn’t let law schools have 100% online-based learning without their special consent.

Artists say AI image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new images — and it’s completely out of their control — from businessinsider.com by Beatrice Nolan

Excerpt:

OpenAI, a company founded by Elon Musk, just made its DALL-E image generator open to the public.
Artists say they work for years on their portfolios and people can now make copycat images in seconds.
But some AI companies argue that the new artworks are unique and can be copyrighted.

People are creating thousands of artworks that look like his using programs called AI-image generators, which use artificial intelligence to create original artwork in minutes or even seconds after a user types in a few words as directions.

Rutkowski’s name has been used to generate around 93,000 AI images on one image generator, Stable Diffusion — making him a far more popular search term than Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Vincent van Gogh in the program.

Several items from the Clio Cloud Conference plus other legal innovation/future-related items

On 10/16/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), blogs / blogging / vlogging, future, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, podcasting, strategy, telelegal, trends, United States, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Many of the items below are from Laurence Colletti’s posting, Clio Cloud Conference – The Big Return

Clio Cloud 2022: Innovation in the Courts with Judge Schlegel — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Judge Scott Schlegel

Episode notes:

The pandemic was a driver for change in justice systems around the globe, but one court’s innovative and inexpensive approach is worth a closer look. Judge Scott Schlegel manages what may be one of the most advanced courts in the United States for delivering justice online. Tune in for his tips on how any jurisdiction in the country can modernize its justice system for under a thousand dollars. Go to https://www.onlinejudge.us/ for all of Judge Schlegel’s recommendations.

Clio Cloud 2022: The Benefits of a Legal Blog — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Teresa Matich, Kevin O’Keefe, and Iffy Ibekwe
Legal blog posts are great tools for building relationships with potential clients because they build trust, credibility, and allow you to create a personal connection with your clients.

LawNext Podcast: What Is Justice Tech? A Conversation with Maya Markovich — from lawnext.com by

Excerpt:

An increasing number of startups are defining themselves not as legal tech, but as justice tech. So what, exactly, is justice tech, who are some of the companies that represent it, and what is the business opportunity they present for potential investors? Our guest this week is Maya Markovich, executive director of the Justice Technology Association, an organization formed earlier this year to support companies in the justice tech sector.

Clio Cloud 2022: Insights from Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti, Joshua Lenon, and Rio Peterson
Amid Inflation, Rising Interest Rates, and Volatile Employment Markets, Clio takes a look at How Global Trends have Impacted Business and Productivity among law firms.

Clio Cloud 2022: What Lies Ahead for Legal with Jack Newton — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti and Jack Newton

Episode notes:

The world of lawyering has surged in spite of the pandemic, but new adversity looms. Fears over inflation, war, hiring markets, and a recession have left many attorneys wondering how to prepare for the coming months. Jack Newton discusses the concept of anti-fragility and its place as a mental model for law firms as they face an uncertain future. Jack outlines how deliberate preparation can help your law firm thrive in the midst of opposition.

Jack Newton is CEO and co-founder of Clio.

Clio Cloud 2022: How Content Creation Can Grow Your Law Firm — from legaltalknetwork.com by Laurence Colletti

Also related, see:

Virtual Courts Are Not Going Away — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Jon David Kelley
As the pandemic winds down, courts are shifting to a hybrid approach that incorporates remote with live proceedings. Jon David Kelley of Kirkland says virtual courts can expand access to justice, but care should be taken to maintain credible representation.

Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report + six other legal-related items

On 10/12/2022, in experimentation, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, platforms, tools, trends, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report
Learn how lawyers are balancing the flexibility of hybrid work, and what clients look for when hiring a lawyer.

Also relevant/see:

Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report Finds Lawyers’ Business Growing But Fees Fail to Keep Pace — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Top law schools have been slow to add women faculty members, research finds — from highereddive.com

Excerpt:

Law schools have increasingly sorted along gender lines, and the makeup of faculties has become a reflection of schools’ student population, according to preprint research published on the SSRN, an open access platform for early-stage research.

Five digital trends to watch in the legal tech sector — from information-age.com by Leanne Aldrich

Excerpt:

Technology is changing the legal sector. The UK government has recently announced that it is investing £4m to modernise the UK legal industry through its LawTechUK programme. The initiative is a part of a drive to keep the UK at the global forefront of legal services..

ILTA’s Annual Technology Survey: Highlights — from legaltechnology.com

What does it take to be a legal technologist? — legalfutures.co.uk

Excerpt:

When the first seeds of the legal technologist role were planted in the early 2010s, they took some time to germinate. A decade later, after a seemingly slow start, there has been an explosion of investment, awareness and new job opportunities in legal technology.

But as this new strand of the legal profession sets its roots deeper in the industry, what exactly does it take to be a legal technologist?

Shearman & Sterling Launches Legal Ops Service In Sign of the Times — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

In another sign of the changing times we are in, leading New York law firm Shearman & Sterling is formally launching a Legal Operations capability. The move follows fellow elite rival Cleary Gottlieb launching Cleary X, its innovation-focused legal delivery arm.

A decade ago many would not have expected New York’s top firms to be that bothered with anything other than high-end legal advisory and disputes work, but the legal world is evolving.

‘Legal Operations by Shearman’ will offer a range of services including legal tech help, data analytics, and inhouse department design, but may work with ALSPs and other groups when it comes to CLM onboarding, with these other providers handling actual implementation and with Shearman focused on the bigger legal ops picture.

#legal #trends #legaltech #lawyers #law #lawschools

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy [Calloquy]

On 10/09/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy — from businesswire.com by Calloquy
Hundreds gathered in Atlanta to celebrate and hear from leading legal innovation voices about The Next Era of Litigation

Excerpts:

The event celebrated the launch of Calloquy’s new virtual legal proceeding platform, which offers distinct usability benefits on a foundation of world-class security and industry-specific videoconferencing technology, including:

The platform’s intuitive design delivers a virtual experience that is akin to conventional legal proceedings, with clearly marked titles for all participants and traditional seating arrangements. The participants in a remote deposition, for example, are organized with plaintiffs on one side and defendants on the other.
Robust collaboration tools, combined with role-based security, ensure that only the right people have access to only the right information—and only at the right time. Documents or comments cannot accidentally be passed to an adversary.
The platform’s integrated case management tools streamline the complex litigation process by enabling meetings and proceedings to be scheduled, exhibits to be managed and transcripts to be created and archived all in one place.

“My goal in starting Calloquy is to help drive ‘the next era of litigation’, which means improving the way all people experience the legal system, from the most high-profile commercial litigator to the most underserved defendant and the lawyer who works pro bono on their behalf.”

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

On 10/04/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), change, changing business models, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, policy, society, United States, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Utah’s reforms offer model for serving low-income and indigent people, report suggests — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds

Excerpt:

The Utah model of reform allowing nonlawyers to offer legal services could be “critical” to serving people who can’t afford them, according to a Stanford Law School study published Tuesday.

The 59-page report by the school’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession offers an early look at how regulatory changes in Arizona and Utah have impacted the delivery of legal services. It also examined who is being served by innovations in those states.

Also relevant, see this upcoming webinar:

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

In July, the Oregon Supreme Court, with the support of the Oregon State Bar’s Board of Governors, approved a proposal to allow licensed paralegals to provide limited legal services in family law and landlord/tenant cases — two areas of law with large numbers of self-represented litigants. In August, the California legislature, after opposition from some lawyers’ groups, prohibited the State Bar of California from implementing, or even proposing, any loosening of existing restrictions on the unauthorized practice of law before 2025, effectively killing a proposal to permit licensing of paraprofessionals to provide limited legal services.

This webinar will explore how and why Oregon and California reached conflicting results and identify lessons learned from both experiences.

Register >>

Also relevant/see:

IAALS Panel Explores Alternative Paths to Legal Licensure — from iaals.du.edu

Redesigning Legal: Redesigning How We License New Lawyers from IAALS on Vimeo.

Also see the following items from Natalie Anne Knowlton (@natalalleycat) on Twitter

A new study shows that Utah and Arizona’s ongoing experiments with loosening attorney regulations are offering lawyers “a host of new opportunities to extend their reach” without triggering an increase in consumer complaints. By @JgreeneJenna https://t.co/IWfpvl8o5G pic.twitter.com/85ruA2K1DN

— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) October 4, 2022

“They may call it innovation; I call it shifting the profits of the legal industry to nonlawyers” – Stephen Younger via @ABAJournal https://t.co/lobRhQonu4

— Natalie Anne Knowlton (@natalalleycat) September 30, 2022

The consequences of our legal pace in the U.S. seems to already be having seriously negative ramifications [Christian]

On 10/04/2022, in change, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, emerging technologies, Europe, future, innovation, internet, IT in HE, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, United States, by Daniel Christian

Also relevant/see the following post I created roughly a month ago:

In the USA, the perspectives of the ABA re: online-based learning — and their take on the pace of change — are downright worrisome.

In that posting I said:

For an industry in the 21st century whose main accreditation/governance body for law schools still won’t let more online learning occur without waivers…how can our nation expect future lawyers and law firms to be effective in an increasingly tech-enabled world?

The pace of the ABA is like that of a tortoise, while the pace of change is exponential

Comprehensive Study of Regulatory Reform Finds It Is Driving ‘Substantial Innovation’ In Legal Services Delivery with No Harm to Consumers [Ambrogi]

On 09/28/2022, in experimentation, ideas, innovation, law schools, leadership, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Comprehensive Study of Regulatory Reform Finds It Is Driving ‘Substantial Innovation’ In Legal Services Delivery with No Harm to Consumers — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

A Stanford Law School study published today of regulatory reforms in Utah and Arizona finds that they are “spurring substantial innovation,” that they are critical to serving lower-income populations, and that they do not pose any substantial risk of consumer harm.

“The evidence gathered in this report shows that rule reforms can spur significant innovation, both in the ownership structure of legal services providers and in the delivery models used to serve clients,” the report concludes.

Also relevant/see the following article form Penn Law’s Future of the Profession Initiative: Law 2030 Initiative/newsletter:

How A Law Prof Is Training Non-Attys As Immigrant Advocates — from law360.com by Marco Poggio

Michelle Pistone, professor at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, saw a bigger opportunity for online technology after using it to reach law students across the country. She realized online tech could be used to remotely train nonlawyers to become advocates for immigrants and even represent them in court, ultimately helping to combat the severe lack of legal representation in immigration cases. “This is a moment in time when we have an opportunity to think about new models for the delivery of legal services,” Pistone said.

Legal technology trends [wolterskluwer.com]

On 09/22/2022, in law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

Legal technology trends – insights from 751 legal professionals — from wolterskluwer.com
Future Ready Lawyer Survey: new and improved legal technology capabilities are driving greater resilience, improved client relations and higher performance for many organizations in the industry across Europe and the U.S. 63% of technology leading law firms report their profitability increased over the past year – more than any other firms.

Excerpt:

Legal technology report

The 2022 Survey identified industry trends across Europe and the U.S. that show:

The increasing importance of technology is escalating across law firms and corporate legal departments;
Technology is a critical factor to legal departments in firm selection and retention; and
The greater use of technology is among the leading changes expected in both legal departments and law firms.

The need for technology as a key driver of improved performance, efficiency and productivity is undisputed. Yet organizations struggle to optimize their use of technology, signaling improvements are still needed in change management and training on new tools.

Also relevant/see:

Legal trends report – the top 5 trends expected to impact most legal organizations — from wolterskluwer.com

Excerpt:

Challenges include complexity of compliance requirements, higher performance expectations, growing talent tensions and the escalated demand of emerging areas such as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).

Also relevant/see:

Why Successful Law Firms Choose Legal Technology — from natlawreview.com

Excerpt:

What it takes to manage a successful law firm has shifted. A firm’s accolades and long-standing tradition are now just a drop in the bucket for prospective clients.

While some law firms still aren’t sold on the use of legal technology, the top-performing firms today embrace legal technology by aligning their business operations with the digital processes that influence their clients’ daily lives. By implementing modern processes these firms experience predictable cash flow, increased visibility, improved productivity, and increased client satisfaction, to name a few.

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA [Ambrogi]

On 09/15/2022, in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), leadership, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA — from legaltechmonitor.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

Bridget M. McCormack, who, as chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, has been a leading voice on modernizing the court and justice systems to expand access to justice, is retiring from the court at the end of this year and in February will become president and chief executive officer of the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR).
…
In recent years, McCormack has become a leading champion of initiatives to enhance access to justice, both within Michigan and nationally.

ABA cleans up accreditation rules surrounding distance education for law schools — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke

Dive Brief (emphasis DSC):

Recent amendments to American Bar Association accreditation standards addressed definitions of distance education, but Leo Martinez, immediate past chair of the ABA Council for the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, says the resolution won’t change much for law schools without waivers allowing them to conduct extra distance education.
The changes, made at the ABA’s annual meeting in August, were meant to clarify language in accreditation standards.
The ABA, which serves as the accreditor for 199 law schools and programs, requires waivers for institutions that want to offer more than one-third of J.D. program credits online. But it remains interested in reviewing distance education.

From DSC:
For an industry in the 21st century whose main accreditation/governance body for law schools still won’t let more online learning occur without waivers…

…how can our nation expect future lawyers and law firms to be effective in an increasingly tech-enabled world?

Here’s the pace of change in the world today:

The exponential pace of change is like warp speed for the U.S.S. Enterprise (Star Trek) or the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon (Star Wars).

Yet here’s the pace that the American Bar Association (@ABAesq) has been taking — and continues to take — at least in the area of supporting online-based learning as well as in developing sandboxes/new methods of improving access to justice (#A2J):

.

It’s high time the ABA did their research re: online-based learning and majorly picked up their pace. Undergraduate online-based education started back in the late 1990’s for crying out loud! (And the number of students taking one or more of their courses completely online has been increasing ever since that time.)

Plus, many law school students are adults who have jobs as well as families. They often don’t have the time nor the money to travel to campuses in order to take part in something that they could have easily accomplished online.

It’s also appropriate to recognize here that the current learning ecosystems out there continue to move more towards hybrid/blended learning models as well as a hyflex model.

The ABA is not serving law school students nor our citizenry well at all in this regard.

“Mixed reactions as ABA considers tossing LSAT mandate” [Bauer-Wolf] + three other items re: the legal industry

On 08/29/2022, in law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, podcasting, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Mixed reactions as ABA considers tossing LSAT mandate — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Comments are pouring in from law professors, students and test prep companies as the association ponders chucking the exam requirement.

Excerpt:

The American Bar Association’s proposal to remove requirements that applicants submit entrance exam scores — notably the Law School Admission Test — has so far drawn a mixed reaction from legal professionals and academics.

Pro Bono Net Launches Redesigned LawHelp.org — from connectingjusticecommunities.com by Jessica Darling

Excerpt:

Pro Bono Net is pleased to announce the launch of the redesigned and expanded LawHelp.org, the national gateway to nonprofit legal aid resources and referrals in the U.S. This inviting and inclusive redesign allows users to more easily find and access help for fundamental legal needs.

LawHelp.org was created to help people without lawyers understand their rights, make informed decisions, and connect to help in their local community. This national platform provides referrals to trusted civil legal aid resources in every U.S. state and territory, including a network of 20 statewide legal information portals developed using the LawHelp platform.

Fantastic podcasts in this list and in the replies. Grateful that @mch_tweets included #HowILawyer. Love being a part of this learning/sharing/storytelling ecosystem! https://t.co/6GHTbLL0Sg

— Jonah Perlin (@JonahPerlin) August 17, 2022

I would highly recommend reading “Assessing America’s Access to Civil Justice Crisis” by R. Sandefur and J. Teufel to understand the data and varied responses to this question: https://t.co/AOcRl2LGrC

— Matthew Burnett (he, him) (@mjburnett) August 26, 2022

Five items related to the legal industry

On 08/26/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, data related items, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, United States, using teams, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Finalists of the American Legal Technology Awards Are…! — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

After receiving 225 submissions across eight categories, the American Legal Technology Awards have today announced the lucky finalists. They include a wide range of companies and individuals, ranging from judges, to law firms, to startups and larger legal tech businesses. So, without further ado, here are the finalists in the table below, with three finalists in each category.

Looking For Trouble And Finding It: The ABA Resolution To Condemn Non-Lawyer Ownership — from professionalresponsibility.fkks.com by Ron Minkoff

Excerpt:

At the ABA Annual Meeting last week, the Illinois State Bar Association (“ISBA”), the New York State Bar Association (“NYSBA”), and several ABA entities sponsored Local Resolution 402 (hereafter, the “ISBA Resolution”) in an effort to stop the entire ABA – if not the entire American legal profession – from permitting non-lawyer ownership of law firms, in any form. The ISBA Resolution read as follows:

Teaching (and Pressuring) Law Professors to Teach Technology – Katie Brown (TGIR Ep. 171) — from legaltechmonitor.com by Greg Lambert & Marlene Gebauer

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In her view, law professors “are required to educate people so that they can go out into the practice and successfully do that. And so beyond just, rule 1.1 with legal technology and having that competency, for us as law schools, I think we have an ethical obligation to be teaching legal technology.” This approach needs to be embedded into the Law School’s culture, because it costs money, time, and effort to do correctly.

From DSC:
Agree. I completely agree.

Understanding The Justice Gap — from medium.com by Kevin Golembiewski

Excerpt:

The law is a language. Pleading, cause of action, discovery, hearsay, res judicata, statute of limitations, civil procedure. To understand and protect your legal rights, you must learn this language and the complex rules that govern it. Or you must find an interpreter — that is, a lawyer. No different than if you were in a foreign country without an interpreter, if you have a legal problem but no lawyer, you cannot advocate for yourself.

That is the reality for millions of low-income Americans, according to a recent study by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). About 50 million Americans have household incomes below 125% of the poverty threshold, and 92% of them do not have any, or enough, legal help for their civil legal issues — issues that range from eviction to domestic violence to disability benefits. Those Americans are stranded in the land of the law without an interpreter.

Litera releases The Changing Lawyer Report 2022 at ILTACON — from legalitprofessionals.com

Key takeaways

The five trends to watch, with some representative data points from the report include:

Allied professionals (process managers, technologists, data analysts, etc.) play a more significant role in supporting law firms and lawyers and enhancing legal service delivery. 83% of lawyers believe that allied professionals make their job easier.
Automation is everywhere, as law firms turn to AI and other technologies to enhance the speed and accuracy of legal processes across all practice areas. 91% of lawyers expect AI-based document review to become a standard part of most M&A due diligence processes.
Technology and data improve client service delivery by providing real-time insights about law firm performance, pricing and budgeting, and work allocation. 78% of lawyers agree that technology helps them offer a better client experience.
Cloud-based solutions are taking over, driven partly by the obvious need for remote and blended workplace access to law firm applications that arose during the pandemic. Leading types of cloud applications that have been moved to the cloud include financial and practice management (64% of firms), document management (53%), portals and intranets (35%), and business intelligence platforms (31%).
Changing work expectations are a significant driver of technology adoption when lawyer recruitment and retention are challenges for law firms. A new generation of lawyers sees technology as a path to better work/life balance. 53% of lawyers ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ with the statement technology makes my job more enjoyable.

#ILTACON22 Day One Roundup [Ambrogi]

On 08/23/2022, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, data related items, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, tools, by Daniel Christian

#ILTACON22 Day One Roundup: News from DISCO, Docket Alarm, LexFusion, Relativity and Reveal — from legaltechmonitor.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

[8/22/22] kicks off the first full day of ILTACON22, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association. Already, the day has brought a slew of news announcements from legal technology companies.

Here is a roundup of news announced this morning.

ABA’s Profile of the Legal Profession for 2022 plus three other legal-related items

On 08/21/2022, in career development, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

ABA’s Profile of the Legal Profession for 2022 — from americanbar.org

Here’s What the Legal Profession Looks Like in 2022 — from legaltechmonitor.com by Laura Bagby

Excerpt:

White, male attorneys continue to make up the majority of lawyers in the U.S., according to the ABA’s Profile of the Legal Profession, an annual report on diversity in the legal profession that was released last month.

However, the number of female attorneys and those from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities is growing, especially among law students and associates.

California Takes Up Law Firm Ownership Fight After ABA Sidesteps — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Sam Skolnik

Excerpt:

The fight to overhaul law firm ownership limits is moving to California after the American Bar Association sided against major changes.

State lawmakers are set to vote before the end of the month on legislation that would allow the California bar to test new legal service models to make them more affordable. An amended version of the bill would still prevent non-lawyer companies from co-owning firms, however, and ban the sharing of legal fees with non-lawyers.

Founded Just Eight Months Ago, Redgrave Data Reports ‘Enormous’ Growth in its E-Discovery and Data Services Company — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

Now, eight months after its launch, Redgrave Data is reporting that it has seen enormous growth, bringing on multiple anchor clients that include some of the world’s largest tech companies — although it is not naming names — and says it plans to establish a “significant presence” in Germany by the end of the year to serve clients there and globally.

Learning Ecosystems

How lawyers can unlock the potential of the metaverse [Li]

Several items from the Clio Cloud Conference plus other legal innovation/future-related items

Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report + six other legal-related items

The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Just Became More Certain with the Launch of Calloquy [Calloquy]

Two neighboring states — Oregon and California — have recently come to different conclusions on whether to license paralegals to provide some legal services.

Comprehensive Study of Regulatory Reform Finds It Is Driving ‘Substantial Innovation’ In Legal Services Delivery with No Harm to Consumers [Ambrogi]

Legal technology trends [wolterskluwer.com]

Bridget McCormick, Michigan Chief Justice Who Has Championed Access-to-Justice Initiatives, Named President of AAA [Ambrogi]

In the USA, the perspectives of the ABA re: online-based learning — and their take on the pace of change — are downright worrisome. [Christian]

“Mixed reactions as ABA considers tossing LSAT mandate” [Bauer-Wolf] + three other items re: the legal industry

ABA’s Profile of the Legal Profession for 2022 plus three other legal-related items

Categories

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