Specialties In Instructional Design and What They Do — from teamedforlearning.com
Specialties in instructional design can help both job seekers and hiring managers find the right fit for digital learning courses and programs.

Excerpt:

An instructional designer is anyone who designs and develops digital learning experiences. That may sound straightforward, but within that vague job title nest dozens of specialties. Even more confusingly, instructional designers may also be called learning designers or learning architects. Their work often overlaps with that of instructional technologists and content creators. Specialties in instructional design help both teammates and hiring managers to navigate this evolving position.

Untangling the complexities of the instructional design role can help both job seekers and hiring managers find the right fit. Identifying a specialty can help professionals carve out their own niche in the instructional design ecosystem. Greater clarity around what instructional designers actually do can help team leaders find the right instructional designer for their project.

 

Reimagining the Future of Legal Regulatory Reform (emphasis below from DSC)

Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM EST

The American legal system has been designed by lawyers for lawyers, on the assumption that parties with legal needs will be represented by lawyers. But in more than 76 percent of civil cases in state courts today, at least one of the parties is unrepresented by counsel. The result is a system that is not adequately serving tens of millions of people every year. In response, the regulations that govern legal services are starting to shift in ways that have the potential to transform the legal system so that it better serves the public. Arizona and Utah are leaders in this regulatory reform movement. In this virtual webinar, participants describe the conditions that are driving change, explain Arizona’s and Utah’s innovations, and share their visions for the future of legal services regulation.

For more information, please visit futureofthelegalprofession.org

 

The Triple Threat Facing Generalist Law Firms, Part 2: Legal Tech — from jdsupra.com by Katherine Hollar Barnard

Excerpts:

In Legaltech, a Walmart associate general counsel estimated the product provided a 60 to 80 percent time savings. That’s great news for Walmart – less so for lawyers who bill by the hour.

Sterling Miller, the former general counsel of Marketo, Inc., Sabre Corporation and Travelocity.com, made a compelling case for why law firm clients are turning to technology: In-house lawyers are incentivized to find the most efficient, lowest-cost way to do things. Many law firm lawyers are incentivized to do just the opposite.

To be sure, software is unlikely to replace lawyers altogether; legal minds are essential for strategy, and robots have yet to be admitted to the bar. However, technology’s impact on an industry dominated by the billable hour will be profound.

Also see:

Judge John Tran spearheaded adoption of tech to facilitate remote hearings and helped train lawyers — from abajournal.com by Stephanie Francis Ward; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for this resource

Excerpt:

If you need a judge who can be counted on to research all courtroom technology offerings that can help proceedings continue during the COVID-19 pandemic, look no further than John Tran of the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia.

After the Virginia Supreme Court issued an order June 22 stating that remote proceedings should be used to conduct as much business as possible, Tran offered webinars to help lawyers with the Fairfax Bar Association get up to speed with Webex, the platform the court uses for remote proceedings.

“When Webex has a news release, he’s all over that. He’s already had a private demo. He is one of a small number of exceptionally tech-savvy judges,” says Sharon Nelson, a Fairfax attorney and co-founder and president of the digital forensics firm Sensei Enterprises.

 

AI in the Legal Industry: 3 Impacts and 3 Obstacles — from exigent-group.com

Excerpt:

In this article, we’ll talk about three current impacts AI has had on the legal industry as well as three obstacles it needs to overcome before we see widespread adoption.

Consider JPMorgan’s Contract Intelligence (COIN) software. Rather than rely on lawyers to pour over their commercial loan contracts, the banking giant now uses COIN to review these documents for risk, accuracy and eligibility. Not only does this save JPMorgan 360,000 hours per year in contract review, it also results in fewer errors. One can also look to major law firms like DLA Piper, which now regularly rely on AI for M&A due diligence. At Exigent, we’ve had first-hand experience using AI to support document analysis for our clients as well.

2. Legal departments need to build cross-functional expertise
…bringing greater diversity into the legal department is essential if the efficiencies promised by AI in the legal industry are to be realized.

Fortunately, some legal departments have begun to bring data scientists on board in addition to lawyers. And the industry is beginning to open up to hybrid roles, like legal technologists, legal knowledge engineers, legal analysts and other cross-functional experts. It’s clear that a greater diversity of skills are in the legal department’s future; it’s just a matter of how smoothly the transition goes.

 

Legaltech Careers Guide: roles, organisations and routes into legaltech jobs — from lawtomated.com

Excerpt:

This guide includes our most frequent FAQs and advice based on our experiences and those of others working in legaltech, legal ops, and innovation who made the jump from a traditional lawyer role into this space, or who entered the space from outside of legal.

 
 

 

 

Addendum on 2/14/21:

 

January hiring slips 2.8%; bright spots in U.S. are legal, software and finance — from linkedin.com by George Anders

Excerpt:

If you’re looking for further evidence that U.S. industry is running on two different tracks these days — in which “laptop economy” professions such as legal and finance are doing fairly well, while face-to-face jobs are facing tough times — that message is starkly clear in the latest edition of LinkedIn’s Hiring Report.

For January, the U.S. Hiring Report showed a 2.8% decline from December’s reading, and an overall 7.6% drop from a year earlier. What looks like relatively mild slippage in aggregate turns out to be two trends pointing in sharply different directions once the focus switches to industry-by-industry outcomes.

Three industries remain ahead of their hiring tempo a full year ago, in spite of the overall decline. They are legal (+3.8%), finance (3.4%) and software and information technology (+3.0%).

 

What will the hospital of the future look like in a post COVID-19 world? — from protocol.com by Jeroen Tas and Sean Carney

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

One thing we have realized is that COVID-19 has accelerated three transformational trends that already existed before the pandemic, but are now dramatically reshaping healthcare: the concept of a networked healthcare system, the increasing adoption of telehealth, and the idea of virtual care and guidance. At the same time, we have seen consumers becoming much more engaged in their personal health and that of their families.


From DSC:
Next up…telelegal; and, possibly, more virtual courtrooms.


Also see:

 

AI and the Future of Lawyering & Law Firms – Northwestern Law and Technology Initiative — from youtube.com by Northwestern Law & Technology Initiative as moderated by Dan Linna; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for this resource.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the future of work. AI has the potential to automate and augment many tasks. This transformation is leading to the creation of new roles and jobs to be done. How will AI impact the work of lawyers, legal professionals, and law firms? Our panelists will discuss the future of work, the work of lawyers and structure of law firms, and current uses of AI for legal services today.

Speakers:

  • Hyejin Youn, Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
  • Mari Sako, Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
  • Stephen Poor, Partner and chair emeritus, Seyfarth

Moderator:

  • Daniel W. Linna Jr., Senior Lecturer & Director of Law and Technology Initiatives, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law & McCormick School of Engineering
 

Meet the 27 startups pioneering the Justice Tech market — from medium.com by Felicity Conrad

Excerpt:

I’ve compiled a public database of Justice Tech startups — I hope it’s a useful resource to build community, transparency, and scale access to justice.

Over the last few years, the legaltech market has blossomed. It’s seen both a meteoric rise in the number of legal tech startups, as well as VC funding of those startups, culminating in over $1B of investment in late 2020. This influx is terrific for modernizing the legal services industry, but sadly hasn’t moved the needle to serve the 5.1 billion people globally who lack access to justice.

Rather than waiting for legaltech to trickle down to low-income individuals, a small (but growing) cohort of entrepreneurs are founding technology startups to tackle the justice gap head-on. These solutions are a new breed of legaltech — instead of focusing on modernizing the existing legal services market (i.e. contracts, practice management, legal research, etc.), their goal is to leverage technology to directly scale legal services to the billions of people underserved by the existing market.

 

10 Resolutions for Special Education in 2021 — from gettingsmart.com by Karla Phillips-Krivickas

Excerpt:

Include Students with Disabilities in Definitions of Equity
A hallmark of 2020 education policy has been a laser like focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Rightfully so, however, references to students that have been historically marginalized or disadvantaged too often do not include students with disabilities.

Action:
Ensure all state initiatives, including those led by non-profit organizations, include students with disabilities in definitions of equity.

 

 


Along the lines of technologies’ potential impact on the legal realm — especially Access to Justice (#A2J), see:


Meet the 27 startups pioneering the Justice Tech market — medium.com by Felicity Conrad

Starting with coining the umbrella term “Justice Tech,” we’re developing a common language, a community of folks working in the space, and formalizing the newly-minted Justice Tech market.

Texas Bar and Paladin Partner to Launch Statewide Pro Bono Portal — from lawsitesblog.com by

Excerpt:

A free online portal launched today in Texas is designed to help lawyers find volunteer opportunities and assist residents of the state find help with their legal needs.

The new portal, Pro Bono Texas, was launched as a partnership between The State Bar of Texas and the justice tech company Paladin. The portal provides volunteer lawyers and law students with a centralized location to search and sign up for pro bono opportunities across the state.

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian