"Hearings will be live-streamed as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit prohibits public access to all locations during non-court weeks." https://t.co/oeQ9iudouy
— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) March 18, 2020
On 03/18/2020,
in future, ideas, innovation, internet, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/15/2020,
in law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, society, United States,
by Daniel Christian
US falls out of top 20 in Rule of Law Index, while global declines continue — from abajournal.com by Debra Cassens Weiss
Excerpt:
For the first time, the United States fell out of the top 20 countries for adherence to the rule of law in an index compiled by the World Justice Project.
The United States dropped to No. 21 in the index, while Spain moved in to the top 20, according to press releases here and here and a summary here. The index is based on national surveys of more than 130,000 households and 4,000 legal practitioners and experts around the world.
On 03/10/2020,
in law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, technology (general), United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Georgetown Law announces two new degrees, including nation’s first “Master of Law and Technology” Program for non-lawyers — from law.georgetown.edu
Classes will start fall 2020 for new program designed to equip technologists, Hill staff, civil society advocates and other professionals with a foundation in technology law and policy
From DSC:
The legal realm will likely need to get rid of that phrase — “non-lawyers.”
On 02/28/2020,
in Access to Justice (A2J), law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, technology (general), tools, United States,
by Daniel Christian
38 states have adopted the duty of technology competence — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi
Excerpt:
In 2012, something happened that I called a sea change in the legal profession: The American Bar Association formally approved a change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in the law and its practice, but also in technology.
More specifically, the ABA’s House of Delegates voted to amend Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1, which pertains to competence, to read as follows:
Maintaining Competence
To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject. (Emphasis added.)
On 02/27/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Daniel S. Christian, data related items, ideas, innovation, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, MBA, presentations, society, staying relevant, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
“Strategy is about folding the future back – it’s not about pushing the present forward!”
Vijay Govindarajan, keynote speaker
at today’s Law 2030 event;
also see the recording here
You can also find video of Day 1 here and Day 2 here.
The PowerPoint slides from each presenter are available at https://www.law2030.org.
From DSC:
The keynote at this morning’s Law 2030 event was done by Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. Vijay offered up a great presentation that reminded me to:
- THINK BIG!
- Establish a sizable possibility gap!
- Have unrealistic goals!
- Don’t limit your future accomplishments with current expectations!
- Strive to live to your potential!
His keynote made me think of this graphic from a while back:
Below is one of the slides from his talk:
Also see the Law2030 hashtag over on Twitter.
On 02/27/2020,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, global / globalization, health, internet, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, privacy, science, society, STEAM-related,
by Daniel Christian
On 02/26/2020,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, communities of practice, computer science, Cost of legal services - including access, Daniel S. Christian, Europe, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, RSS, social media, society, staying relevant, streams of content, technology (general), United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
EU Proposes Strict Regulations for AI — from futuretech360.com by John K. Waters
Excerpt:
The European Union this week unveiled its first proposed regulations for artificial intelligence (AI) technology, along with a strategy for handling personal digital data. The new regs provide guidance around such AI use cases as autonomous vehicles and biometric IDs.
Published online by the European Commission, the proposed regulations would apply to “high-risk” uses of AI in areas such as health care, transportation and criminal justice. The criteria to determine risk would include such considerations as whether a person might get hurt, say, by a self-driving car or a medical device, and how much influence a human has on an AI’s decision in areas like job recruiting and law enforcement.
From DSC:
Here are two other example of AI’s further integration into the legal realm:
Casetext is Automating Litigation — from businesswire.com
Casetext’s new litigation automation technology, Compose, automates substantive legal work — and a substantial number of billable hours
Excerpt:
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Casetext, the legal technology company known for its groundbreaking A.I. legal research platform, today announces a new product that will define litigation automation: Compose. Compose, which automates the first draft of a legal brief, is poised to disrupt the $437 billion1 legal services industry and fundamentally change our understanding of what types of professional work are uniquely human.
UC Irvine School of Law To Integrate Blue J Legal’s AI-Enabled Tax Platform into Curriculum — from businesswire.com
First of its kind initiative aims to prepare graduate students for careers in tax law where AI will be integral to the decision-making process
The joint effort aims to demonstrate why advanced technological integration in higher education is important and how to leverage it, specifically in tax law.
DC: Given today’s pace of change, pulse-checking &putting things on our radars are key.I appreciate the power of “streams of content” 2enhance our personal learning ecosystems. Along these lines, I also like Feedly & subscribing to a variety of RSS feeds.https://t.co/SzvTBMXfQE pic.twitter.com/2FE4dX1skB
— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) February 26, 2020
On 02/22/2020,
in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), change, ideas, law schools, leadership, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, United States, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
It is high time to reform the rules that govern the practice of law — from legalservicestoday.com by Ralph Baxter
Excerpt:
Current regulations create a closed system
The current regulatory model has created a closed legal services system. It limits who can participate in legal services in two fundamental ways.
First, only those who undergo the time and expense of law school and become licensed as “lawyers” are permitted to deliver legal services. It is a crime for anyone to do work that falls within the deliberately vague definition of “the practice of law” unless they have a lawyer license.
Second, only lawyers are permitted to participate in the financial rewards of a law firm. Investment by others is forbidden, as is sharing profits within a law firm with personnel who are not lawyers.
The consequences of these limitations are clear and profound. The first limitation causes the cost of legal service to be much higher than it otherwise would be; it also causes the law firm workforce to have less diverse backgrounds (as other businesses have) resulting in less creativity and agility.
The second limitation limits the capital law firms can raise, which, in turn, makes it harder for them to invest in new processes and technologies. The most successful firms in this closed system command high enough fees that they can generate their own capital. The majority of firms, however, would benefit from greater access to capital. This is particularly acute for firms which serve individuals and small businesses; in these practices the economic stakes of matters are relatively small, warranting lower fees, making the need for outside capital even greater.
Also see:
- To increase access to justice, regulatory innovation should be considered, ABA House says — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds
- How a new program connects Utahns to lower-cost legal advice — from deseret.com by Annie Knox
Utah becomes 2nd state to create more affordable alternative to attorneys - ABA passes access to justice measure after opposition fades — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Sam Skolnick
On 02/21/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, future, game-changing environment, ideas, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Legal technology, today and tomorrow: Don’t get left behind — from law.com by Jenn Betts
Staying on top of these developments is no longer enough to “future proof” your practice or your firm. It is imperative to look forward to avoid falling behind.
Excerpt:
Among other kinds of disruptive AI-powered tools already on the market are:
- Artificial intelligence-enabled document review tools and platforms (which make review of discovery materials quicker and cheaper);
- Artificial intelligence-enabled tools assisting organizations with selecting outside counsel (which promise more data-driven assessments of “fit” between the firm, client and case);
- Artificial intelligence patent search engines (which make patent searching easier and more accurate); and
- Artificial intelligence-powered systems delivering early-stage litigation services, such as drafting answers to complaints, discovery requests and responses, and litigation timelines (which decreases client costs and delivers greater efficiencies).
These tools raise interesting (and largely unanswered) practical and ethical issues relating to the scope of the practice of law, AI disclosure obligations to clients, confidentiality issues regarding client data and the necessity of independent judgment by attorneys.
The pace of development of AI and other advanced technologies is moving at an unprecedented pace.
From DSC:
I agree. The pace of change has changed. It’s now an exponential pace of change. This new pace is having an increasing impact on the legal industry.
On 02/18/2020,
in Access to Justice (A2J), law schools, leadership, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, policy, United States, using teams,
by Daniel Christian
ABA passes access to justice measure after opposition fades — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Sam Skolnik
- New York State Bar Association president lauds “powerfully important moment”
- Vote followed several days of sometimes tense negotiations
Excerpt:
The American Bar Association passed a resolution encouraging state bars to explore innovative approaches to access to justice by voice vote on Monday, after several days of behind-the-scenes negotiations during which its passage seemed unclear.
Proponents of Resolution 115 prevailed in the House of Delegates vote during the ABA midyear meeting in Austin, Texas, in part because they were willing to adjust the proposal’s language to make it more palatable to detractors who had been concerned about its possible impact on legal industry independence. The House of Delegates is the policy-making arm of the ABA, composed of nearly 600 members, two-thirds of whom represent state, local, and specialty-focused bar groups.
Also see:
- To increase access to justice, regulatory innovation should be considered, ABA House says (Links to an external site.) — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds
Excerpt:
The ABA House of Delegates passed a controversial resolution Monday to address the crisis of access to civil justice, encouraging states to adopt regulatory innovations to expand legal services to more Americans. The House adopted Resolution 115 (Links to an external site.) with broad support, even though it had spurred intense debate during the 2020 ABA Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas. The ABA Center for Innovation and four of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility’s standing committees sponsored the resolution. It will encourage U.S. jurisdictions to consider regulatory innovations that expand legal services. - How a new program connects Utahns to lower-cost legal advice — from deseret.com by Annie Knox
Utah becomes 2nd state to create more affordable alternative to attorneys
On 02/18/2020,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, career development, change, changing business models, emerging technologies, engineering, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, programming, UK, universities, using teams, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Deloitte Legal to work with academic tech venture group — from artificiallawyer.com
Excerpt:
Deloitte Legal is to collaborate with Conception X, a nine-month programme designed to train PhD students in technology entrepreneurship and to support them in building ventures based on their original research during their degree.
Conception X accepts applications across several research areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, genetic engineering, blockchain and quantum computing. The first two cohorts, prior to the link-up with Deloitte, have seen the start-ups incorporated by PhD teams collectively raising a total of £5m and generating revenues of £2m.
