legislatures / government / legal

UpCounsel Crowdfunds $3.3m, Plans IPO + Cuts Legal Costs By 75%! [artificiallawyer.com]

On 12/09/2021, in 24x7x365 access, business, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

UpCounsel Crowdfunds $3.3m, Plans IPO + Cuts Legal Costs By 75%! — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

The last point is how this helps to encourage more crowdfunding in this sector. Ruby Datum the VDR company is also currently doing a crowdfunding, and Clocktimizer was funded in the same way before it was bought up by Litera. So, perhaps we will see more approaches like this. That said, UpCounsel is itself owned by an investment group – along with 1,630 others now, so it’s not a pure-play crowdfunding in its entirety.

This will be watched by the VC world and the legal market in general for signs of whether it is succeeding with its goals.

Also see:

TECHREPORT 2021: Technology Training — from lawtechnologytoday.org by Sofia Lingos

2022 Predictions – The Market View: Part 1

On 12/09/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), game-changing environment, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

2022 Predictions – The Market View: Part 1 — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

What do people want to see happen in 2022? And what do they think will really take place next year? These were the two questions Artificial Lawyer asked a range of legal tech experts from across the market. The quality of responses was so good, and the views expressed so detailed, that this year the 2022 Predictions will be published in two instalments.

Here we go…

We would like to see states across the U.S. tear down regulatory barriers to innovation in legal services. We would like to see human-centred design thinking at the heart of every product, process, and service. We would like to see our community – from law schools to tech companies – advance the cause of access to justice.

What does the legal realm need to know here? [Christian]

On 12/08/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, change, computer science, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, cryptocurrencies, Daniel S. Christian, economics, law schools, Legal operations, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, privacy, programming, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When I ran across the items below, I couldn’t help but wonder…”What does the legal realm need to know here?”

The Ultimate List Of Crypto Lending Platforms — from 101blockchains.com by Diego Geroni

Know The Vulnerabilities And Security Concerns Associated With NFT — from 101blockchains.com by Diego Geroni

Radar trends to watch: December 2021 — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides
Developments in Programming, Quantum Computing, Cryptocurrency, and More

NFT sales reached $27 billion this year — from protocol.com by Nat Rubio-Licht
OpenSea dominated the business.

UNISWAP – Know Everything About The Largest Decentralized Exchange (DEX) — from 101blockchains.com by Diego Geroni

From the Paul Weiss Law Firm: A 2019 whitepaper re: cryptocurrency. | How might the development of cryptocurrencies integrate in with a next-gen learning platform? [Christian]

On 12/01/2021, in Blockchain, business, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, cryptocurrencies, Daniel S. Christian, law schools, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, marketplaces, new business models, online learning, platforms, society, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From the Paul Weiss Law Firm — back from 2019: A whitepaper re: cryptocurrency

Excerpt:

The development and growth of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has implications for many industries, including finance, media, and healthcare. In a series of papers, we will discuss the variety of ways in which cryptocurrencies and blockchains are being used in different fields. This paper, the first in our series of three papers, discusses cryptocurrencies, including how they operate in conjunction with the blockchain and how Bitcoin, the first major cryptocurrency, compares to traditional, fiat currencies.

From DSC:
How might the development of cryptocurrencies integrate in with a next-gen learning platform? Would teams and/or individuals get paid via a cryptocurrency? Hmmm…more learning to do.

It’s interesting to note what Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was trading at in 2017, 2018, and 2019 versus today:

In 2017 alone, Bitcoin’s price rose from $973 in January to $5,856 in October, and skyrocketed towards $20,000 by year end.
By February 2018, however, Bitcoin had fallen below $7,600.
In June 2019, Bitcoin’s price rose to approximately $10,000.

Today:

Here’s what some of the other cryptocurrencies were trading at today:

4 items involving the legal realm — tools, global internships, websites, marketing

On 11/24/2021, in 21st century, career development, change, communications, culture, game-changing environment, global / globalization, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, tools, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Fastcase Unveils NextChapter Docs Form Preparation, Client Management Tools, and Workflow Tools for All Practice Areas — from legaltechmonitor.com by Jaime Houssami

Excerpt:

To that end, NextChapter is soon releasing a Forms Exchange, where seasoned attorneys can upload their form templates to the marketplace for other attorneys to purchase for their own use. “Providing access to pre-built forms designed by subject matter experts will be useful for many of the solo and small firm practitioners,” said NextChapter’s first Forms attorney author Carolyn Elefant.

TechReport 2021: Websites & Marketing — from lawtechnologytoday.org by Allison C. Johs

Excerpt:

The COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to the practice of law–many of which were overdue–including virtual meetings and client conferences, remote document signings, court appearances by Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and more. But according to the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s 2021 Legal Technology Survey Report results on the use of technology in the legal profession, there is still work to be done.

Linklaters launches virtual global business teams internship — from legaltechnology.com by Caroline Hill

Excerpt:

While most law firm internships are focussed exclusively on attracting future lawyers, magic circle law firm Linklaters has launched a virtual global business teams internship programme aimed at 16- to 18-year-old students. The new internship, which will be welcomed by many for shining a light on the key functions that enable a law firm to run and succeed, will help interns to become aware of the wide range of career options available at Linklaters.

Linklaters Internships For 16-18 Year Olds To Cover Legal Ops + Tech — from artificiallawyer.com

TechReport 2021: Cloud Computing [Kennedy]

On 11/18/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, pace of change, trends, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

TechReport 2021: Cloud Computing — from lawtechnologytoday.org by Dennis Kennedy; with thanks to Cat Moon for this resource

Excerpt:

The 2021 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report will be important historically because it gives us the first look at how lawyers responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spoiler alert: we did not see anything like the movement to the cloud we expected in 2020. In fact, the 2021 results might be interpreted as another example of lawyers being late arrivals to technologies widely in use in other professions and businesses.

Nonetheless, we still expect the practice of law to be much more cloud-intensive in the near future than it is now, with courts and clients driving many of the changes. Do you think Zoom meetings, online court hearings, and other forms of online collaboration tools will really go away after what we’ve seen in the pandemic?

In the legal profession, it’s still a much different story. Legal is a lagging industry in cloud use. That said, it is still surprising that even in 2021 the reported use of cloud computing in law practice stayed flat or even declined—despite the pandemic and all the news coverage about Zoom meetings and working from home. This result is difficult to comprehend, let alone explain.

AI bots to user data: Is there space for rights in the metaverse? [Elks]

On 11/17/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, data related items, Facebook / Meta Platforms, innovation, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, Metaverse, platforms, policy, by Daniel Christian

AI bots to user data: Is there space for rights in the metaverse? — from reuters.com by Sonia Elks

Summary

Facebook’s ‘metaverse’ plans fuel debate on virtual world
Shared digital spaces raise privacy, ownership questions
Rights campaigners urge regulators to widen safeguards

Legal education as a key stakeholder in legal services reform (276) [Rodriguez]

On 11/15/2021, in law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, policy, society, by Daniel Christian

Legal education as a key stakeholder in legal services reform (276) — from legalevolution.org by Dan Rodriguez
To date, this highly influential stakeholder has had very little to say.

Excerpt:

The fierce and fascinating struggle underway in the American states over legal services reform brings to the table a large collection of interest groups. These groups include law firms, legal aid organizations, entrepreneurs who might benefit financially from the liberalization of entry rules, and of course the gatekeeper entities, including state bar authorities and the state supreme courts, whose decisions are crucial to the evolution and shape of reform. See Posts 239 (beginning of a four-part series on serious challenges of bar federalism).

The identity of these specific groups may differ from state to state, as the legal ecosystem has contours often tailored to a particular state’s history and objectives, but the configuration of stakeholders has some rather common elements.

What remains somewhat opaque in this robust and interconnected battle over the reform of legal services is the voice of legal educators and the law schools. These are, after all, the places in which future lawyers are educated and professional values are instilled. It is had to imagine a more fertile and opportune time to discuss the ambitions and philosophies of this next generation of legal professionals.

IAALS: “…the importance of retaining some of the virtual proceeding processes put in place during the pandemic.”

On 11/15/2021, in change, ideas, innovation, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

IAALS’ Comment to the Michigan Supreme Court on Virtual Proceedings and Lessons Learned from the Pandemic — from legaltechmonitor.com by Broke Meyer and Natalie Anne Knowlton

Excerpt:

IAALS, a nonpartisan, non-profit research organization, looks at ways to improve the legal system, specifically in the areas of civil justice, family justice, the judiciary, legal education, and the legal profession. IAALS has been monitoring court practices around the country as it relates to policies around virtual proceedings. As part of our Paths to Justice Summit Series, IAALS has held several virtual convenings with a diverse group of experts and stakeholders across the justice systems. From those convenings, IAALS published two issue papers, “Learning from this Nationwide Pilot Project—Reducing the Costs and Delays of Civil Litigation” and “Learning from this Nationwide Pilot Project—Ensuring Access to Justice in High-Volume Cases.” Both papers focus on lessons learned, upcoming challenges, and areas for further research. In this spirit, we hope to provide a broad perspective on the importance of retaining some of the virtual proceeding processes put in place during the pandemic.

After many years of urging reform in these cases, we have witnessed incredible innovation and adaptability in the Michigan court system during a crisis. IAALS and other leaders in civil justice reform have urged many of these reforms—such as remote hearings—for years, and we have now seen these innovations happen on the ground. Michigan should capitalize on the unique opportunity to evaluate and learn from these changes to improve access to justice.

Excerpt from “Use of digital technologies in judicial reform and access to justice cooperation — from HiiL (The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law)

What if students, not just law students, could pursue their passion for change in a way that led to more people, in more places, having access to justice?

On 11/11/2021, in Access to Justice (A2J), collaboration, experimentation, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, by Daniel Christian

#GSWhatIf students, not just law students, could pursue their passion for change in a way that led to more people, in more places, having access to justice?#A2J #justice #lawschools #legaleducation #innovation https://t.co/vly9TSWa8U

W/ thanks to @fpi_pennlaw for the resource

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) November 11, 2021

EPISODE 91: THE INNOVATION4JUSTICE LAB – CREATING CHANGE THROUGH LEGAL EDUCATION AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION — from https://www.cli.collaw.com/

We often think about legal innovation and legal education as being separate and distinct but, what if they weren’t? What if students, not just law students, could pursue their passion for change in a way that led to more people, in more places, having access to justice?

That’s the question that the Innovation4Justice (I4J) Lab asked and is answering today.

Timnit Gebru Says Artificial Intelligence Needs to Slow Down — from wired.com by Max Levy
The AI researcher, who left Google last year, says the incentives around AI research are all wrong.

Excerpt:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHERS are facing a problem of accountability: How do you try to ensure decisions are responsible when the decision maker is not a responsible person, but rather an algorithm? Right now, only a handful of people and organizations have the power—and resources—to automate decision-making.
…
Since leaving Google, Gebru has been developing an independent research institute to show a new model for responsible and ethical AI research. The institute aims to answer similar questions as her Ethical AI team, without fraught incentives of private, federal, or academic research—and without ties to corporations or the Department of Defense.

“Our goal is not to make Google more money; it’s not to help the Defense Department figure out how to kill more people more efficiently,” she said.

From DSC:
What does our society need to do to respond to this exponential pace of technological change? And where is the legal realm here?

Speaking of the pace of change…the following quote from The Future Direction And Vision For AI (from marktechpost.com by Imtiaz Adam) speaks to massive changes in this decade as well:

The next generation will feature 5G alongside AI and will lead to a new generation of Tech superstars in addition to some of the existing ones.

In future the variety, volume and velocity of data is likely to substantially increase as we move to the era of 5G and devices at the Edge of the network. The author argues that our experience of development with AI and the arrival of 3G followed by 4G networks will be dramatically overshadowed with the arrival of AI meets 5G and the IoT leading to the rise of the AIoT where the Edge of the network will become key for product and service innovation and business growth.

Also related/see:

AI’s Smarts Now Come With a Big Price Tag — from wired.com by Will Knight
As language models get more complex, they also get more expensive to create and run. Some companies are locked out.

College costs have increased by 169% since 1980—but pay for young workers is up by just 19%: Georgetown report — from cnbc.com by Abigail Johnson Hess

Excerpt:

The report, titled “If Not Now, When? The Urgent Need for an All-One-System Approach to Youth Policy,” breaks down seven trends that have made it difficult for workers to transition from education to the workforce since 1980.

“Postsecondary education policy has failed to keep higher education affordable even as formal education beyond high school has become more essential,” reads the report. “Today, two out of three jobs require postsecondary education and training, while three out of four jobs in the 1970s required a high school diploma or less. Yet while young people today need more education than ever to compete in the labor market, a college education is more expensive than in the past.”

Also see:

Infographic: What Really Happens to Our Students? — from eab.com by Ed Venit; with thanks to Bryan Alexander for this resource out on LinkedIn
Constructing an Estimate of Outcomes for 100 Students Who Start a Bachelor Degree

The future of the legal industry & practice trends; CLE is broken; paths of the pandemic courts; + other legal-related resources

On 11/08/2021, in Access to Justice (A2J), game-changing environment, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

“Bloomberg Law 2022” Releases Today – Explores Future of Legal Industry and Practice Trends — from legaltechmonitor.com by Jean O’Grady

Excerpt:

BLOOMBERG LAW 2022 SERIES EXPLORES KEY LEGAL TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE YEAR TO COME
Arlington, Va. (November 1, 2021) — Bloomberg Law today announced the availability of its Bloomberg Law 2022 series, its exploration of key issues across four major topic areas – Litigation, Transactions & Contracts, Regulatory & Compliance, and The Future of the Legal Industry – that will shape the legal market in the coming year. The full series, which is issued annually and features 25 articles from Bloomberg Law’s team of legal analysts, is available on a complimentary basis at http://onb-law.com/tXw850GAeS4.

Topic area coverage includes:

Litigation: Developments that will shape the course of litigation in 2022 are examined, ranging from Covid-related employment and contractual issues to emerging trends in antitrust cases and bankruptcy filings.
Regulatory & Compliance: Learn how a heightened enforcement environment will impact everything from return-to-office mandates to privacy and tech industry regulation to potential actions by the SEC and Congress on cryptocurrency.
Transactions & Contracts: Take a look at the forces shaping the transactional landscape and key markets of interest, from trends in M&A and IPOs to the nuanced impacts of new data security laws on contract language.
The Future of the Legal Industry: Hot topics such as diversity & inclusion and attorney well-being and the rapidly expanding areas of law such as legal operations and litigation finance are analyzed.

Also see:

Friday, 3 December, 2021 #SoLI2021 | FUTURES FREQUENCY | Via Zoom (so everywhere + anywhere)
Futures Frequency* is a future-focused workshop designed to expose and challenge our assumptions about the future of work in the legal profession and how we shape it. And empower us to act now to imagine and ideate the future we wish to see.
CLE is Broken (as is our approach to learning/innovation) — from geeklawblog.com by Casey Flaherty
I am getting CLE right now. While typing these words, a CLE audio file is playing in the background on mute. I felt compelled to acquire hard evidence before launching into a tirade. What’s missing from the advertisement is any suggestion I might learn. No mention of quality or relevance. Rather, the repeated, bolded promise of “no final exam” struck me as an assurance there would be no requirement I pay attention—i.e., I could avoid learning anything at all. A promise made; a promise kept.
The Paths of the Pandemic: Courts Must Continue to Innovate and Learn from Rapid Changes — from legaltechmonitor.com by Brittany Kauffman and Brooke Meyer

Moving forward, the pandemic will have lasting implications for our justice system. The immediate focus on keeping the doors of justice open will inevitably shift to growing case backlogs, reduced funding, increased demand for low-cost legal assistance, inequities in access, and deepening concerns regarding public trust and confidence. Our justice system must be ready, but how do we create paths forward to achieve justice for all?

Everlaw Becomes Legal Tech’s Latest Unicorn, with $202M Raise at $2B Valuation — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi
On LawNext: Tech Edge J.D. Director Laura Norris On Giving Law Grads A Competitive Edge in Tech Careers — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi
Emerging Legal Technology Trends in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East — from jdupra.com
Tech Tools that Transform: Modernize your Legal Practice — from jdupra.com

Winners Named for 2021 American Legal Technology Awards [Ambrogi]

On 11/04/2021, in game-changing environment, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, technology (general), telelegal, by Daniel Christian

Winners Named for 2021 American Legal Technology Awards — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi

Excerpt:

Winners have been named for the second annual American Legal Technology Awards, a competition launched last year to honor exceptional achievements in legal technology.

This year, the competition added the announcement of a runner up and honorable mention in each category. A series of videos showcasing the winners in each category will be posted to the ALTA site between now and Nov. 10.

Learning Ecosystems

UpCounsel Crowdfunds $3.3m, Plans IPO + Cuts Legal Costs By 75%! [artificiallawyer.com]

2022 Predictions – The Market View: Part 1

From the Paul Weiss Law Firm: A 2019 whitepaper re: cryptocurrency. | How might the development of cryptocurrencies integrate in with a next-gen learning platform? [Christian]

4 items involving the legal realm — tools, global internships, websites, marketing

TechReport 2021: Cloud Computing [Kennedy]

Legal education as a key stakeholder in legal services reform (276) [Rodriguez]

IAALS: “…the importance of retaining some of the virtual proceeding processes put in place during the pandemic.”

Excerpt from “Use of digital technologies in judicial reform and access to justice cooperation — from HiiL

What if students, not just law students, could pursue their passion for change in a way that led to more people, in more places, having access to justice?

College costs have increased by 169% since 1980—but pay for young workers is up by just 19%: Georgetown report [Johnson Hess]

The future of the legal industry & practice trends; CLE is broken; paths of the pandemic courts; + other legal-related resources

Winners Named for 2021 American Legal Technology Awards [Ambrogi]

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