‘Human-in-the-loop’ solutions will comprise 30% of new legal tech automation by 2025: Gartner — from thelawyermag.com/au/ by Lucy Saddleton
Excerpt:
“There’s little question that growth in legal work is outstripping growth in legal headcount, and on the surface, this can make advanced automation solutions appear very attractive to legal leaders,” said Zack Hutto, director, advisory in the Gartner Legal & Compliance practice. “The question is whether the legal department has the capabilities required to customize and configure advanced machine learning systems, which will be needed to enable them to handle the unique scenarios and frequent exceptions that come about in this type of work.”
Legal work is outstripping growth in legal headcount
After years of writing about the launches of other companies’ #legaltech products, I am proud to announce one of my own: the LawNext Legal Technology Directory, which we hope will become the market’s most trusted source for finding and evaluating products. https://t.co/ABavTdolQ1 pic.twitter.com/Yd7d3V5v7i
— Bob Ambrogi (@bobambrogi) February 15, 2022
Utah’s Certified Advocates Partners Program Made Possible by Regulatory Sandbox — from iaals.du.edu by Maddie Hosack
Excerpt:
In Utah, victims of domestic violence and stalking no longer have to navigate the process of obtaining a protective order alone.
For individuals who cannot afford or otherwise don’t want to hire a lawyer, victim advocates are able to tell victims which protective order to apply for, how to correctly fill out forms, and what they should expect in court. This legal advice was solely the purview of lawyers before Utah’s regulatory sandbox opened, and fortunately, victim advocates are now permitted to provide this critical help.
Text-Message Reminders from Courts Could Become the Norm in Colorado — from legaltechmonitor.com by Maddie Hosack
Remote Work Helps Law Firms Recruit And Retain Talent — from abovethelaw.com by Jordan Rothman
Even attorneys who have worked in the legal profession for years or decades may not wish to apply for a job with strict in-person work expectations.
Why Practice Management Software Is Now Table Stakes For Law Firms — from abovethelaw.com
You, too, can be working less and making more. Here’s how. In this episode, Jared Correia welcomes five guests to discuss case management software in the legal space: Joshua Lenon from Clio, Dr. Cain Elliott from FileVine, Matt Spiegel from Lawmatics, Tomas Suros from AbacusNext, and Karrtik Rao from Moxtra.
Excerpt:
The group discusses the most compelling feature-based arguments for adopting case management software (8:09). Then, they talk about how law practice management better connects lawyers and staff (19:38). They also cover how law practice management software can implement lead management features (27:31), before finishing up by reviewing how case management software can be used to leverage workflows (30:46).
The DOJ’s new crypto enforcement team has a boss — from protocol.com by Benjamin Pimentel
Veteran prosecutor Eun Young Choi will lead the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team
RTO [Return To Office] – Will That Drive Partners (yes, partners) to Parachute Into Virtual Firms? — from lawandmore.typepad.com
There are options. One is joining a virtual firm. Another is launching one. To that startup, they can take both fellow partners as well as associates.
From DSC:
Along the lines of change within the legal realm, also see:
Those differences can be broadly grouped into three main areas: dumping the billable hour; more use and better use of technology when possible; and operating with far lower overheads.
Higher Ed Dive’s 2022 Outlooks — from highereddive.com by Higher Ed Dive Staff
Here are the trends and questions facing higher education that we’re watching, from enrollment pressures to key court cases and for-profit colleges’ future.
Excerpt:
In the first few weeks of the new year, we looked ahead at important trends to watch and questions to ask for college administrators — and any other leaders who care deeply about the higher education sector.
These 2022 outlooks offer a chance to step back and take stock of issues that will be with us through the year. We gathered them here for you in once place.
A Legal Minority Report — from abovethelaw.com by Olga V. Mack
Each of the following is a viable and exciting career path for anyone passionate about the law.
Excerpt:
This means it takes a firm stance against legalese, trying to make contracts engaging and readable — something that they rarely are. The creativity of legal design allows for infographics and “cheat sheets” of terms and terminology, using language with which the “audience” is familiar. It is a revolutionary approach to the law.
The US is testing robot patrol dogs on its borders. Should we worry? — from interestingengineering.com by Loukia Papadopoulos
Bow-wow just got darker.
However, we can’t shake the feeling that their deployment is creating a dystopian future, one we are not sure is a completely safe one especially if the dogs are trained to operate autonomously. That is a capability we are not sure the robots yet have. Will this be the next stop for border control? If so, how can we trust machines with rifles? Time will tell how this situation evolves.
A2J Tech in the US: #LSCITC Part I — from law-tech-a2j.org by Roger Smith
Excerpt:
Get to my age and you develop a pretty high intolerance level for conferences – online or off. You get more intolerant; more arrogant about what you think you know already; more easily bored; more demanding of content, presentation and presenters. But I am a longtime fan of the Legal Services Corporation’s annual technology conference as the best I attend in a year, see an example from 2019. And this year’s event, currently half completed, is no exception. This is consistently a premiere event. As delegates, we have done two online days with two more to come later this week. It may be far too soon to evaluate themes but early enough to highlight some of the more striking content.
Also see:
From DSC:
I post the following item because I’ve often wondered how law schools should best handle/address the area of emerging technologies. It’s not just newly-minted lawyers that need to be aware of these technologies’ potential pros and cons — and the developing laws around them. It’s also judges, legislators, politicians, C-Suites, and others who need to keep a pulse check on these things.
Hermès Sues NFT Creator Over ‘MetaBirkin’ Sales — from by Robert Williams
The French leather goods giant alleges trademark infringement and dilutive use of its iconic Birkin name.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The complaint, which was first reported on The Fashion Law, raises questions about how trademark protections for real-world items will be enforced in the digital realm as commercial activity heats up in the metaverse. Brands including Balenciaga and Nike are experimenting with virtual fashion. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs (unique digital assets authenticated using blockchain technology), depicting fashion items have sold for millions in recent months.
SKILLS 2022 – Recap — from legaltechmonitor.com by Greg Lambert
Excerpt:
Last Thursday, a group of some 400 legal knowledge management professionals came together for the Strategic Knowledge & Innovation Legal Leaders Summit (SKILLS) conference. Oz Benamram asked me to pull together a 20 minute recap of all of the presentations that day, and share it with the 3 Geeks’ readers. So, here’s about a 20-minute recap of the 20 presentations for that day. Enjoy!!
So the biggest challenge I see is, is structural, and as much as the business model works pretty well for about right now. But it doesn’t necessarily work great for where we’re going.
Jason Barnwell
Also see:
UN fails to agree on ‘killer robot’ ban as nations pour billions into autonomous weapons research — from robohub.org by James Dawes
Excerpt:
Autonomous weapon systems – commonly known as killer robots – may have killed human beings for the first time ever last year, according to a recent United Nations Security Council report on the Libyan civil war. History could well identify this as the starting point of the next major arms race, one that has the potential to be humanity’s final one.
The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons debated the question of banning autonomous weapons at its once-every-five-years review meeting in Geneva Dec. 13-17, 2021, but didn’t reach consensus on a ban. Established in 1983, the convention has been updated regularly to restrict some of the world’s cruelest conventional weapons, including land mines, booby traps and incendiary weapons.
