Legal Innovators Assemble! Great Speakers for London in November — from artificiallawyer.com
The Legal Innovators UK conference will take place on 8 + 9 November, and we are already assembling a fantastic group of speakers from across the legal innovation ecosystem.
The two-day event comes at a time of potentially massive change for the legal market and we will be bringing you engaging panels and presentations where leading experts really dig into the issues of the day, from generative AI, to the evolution of ALSPs, to law firm innovation teams in this new era for legal tech, to how empowered legal ops groups and pioneering GCs are taking inhouse teams in new directions.
Virtual law firm Scale absorbs Texas IP firm in first acquisition — from reuters.com by Sara Merken
Aug 1 (Reuters) – Virtual law firm Scale said [on 8/1/23] that it has brought on small Texas intellectual property firm Creedon in the first of what it hopes may be a series of acquisitions.
James Creedon and two other attorneys from his firm have joined Scale, a Silicon Valley-founded law firm where lawyers work entirely remotely.
Scale, which debuted in 2020, is among so-called “distributed” or virtual firms that use technology to operate without physical offices and embrace a non-traditional law firm business model.
The lawyers are leaning into AI — from alexofftherecord.com by Alex Su
Despite all the gloom and doom, corporate legal and law firms are both embracing generative AI much more quickly than previous technologies
When I first heard law firms announcing that they were adopting AI, I was skeptical. Anyone can announce a partnership or selection/piloting of an AI vendor. It’s good PR, and doesn’t mean that the firm has truly embraced AI. But when they create their own GPT-powered tool—that feels different. Setting aside whether it’s a good idea to build your own vs. buy, it certainly feels like a real investment, especially since the firms are dedicating significant internal resources to it.
Today I’ll discuss why generative AI is diffusing across law firms much more quickly than expected.
Leading your law firm into the Gen AI Era — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Lawyers are embracing its promise. Clients want to reap its rewards. Here are three ways your firm can respond to the immense disruption and extraordinary opportunity of Generative AI.
- Move fast to implement project and client pricing.
- Prepare to hire fewer associates and to rethink partnership.
- Establish a fresh approach to developing future law firm leaders.
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Above resource via BrainyActs — who mentioned that the QR code takes you to this survey. Just 3 simple questions.
Q1: Agree/Disagree: Artificial Intelligence (AI) won’t replace lawyers anytime soon. Lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who do not use AI.
Q2: Agree/Disagree: Non-lawyers should be allowed to have an ownership interest in a law firm.
Q3 Agree/Disagree: Trained non-lawyers should be allowed to advocate for parties in lower courts.
Generative AI In The Law: Where Could This All Be Headed? — from abovethelaw.com
Findings from a new Wolters Kluwer / Above the Law survey.
To get a sense of what the legal industry predicts, Above the Law and Wolters Kluwer fielded a survey of 275 professionals from March to mid-April 2023. We asked about AI’s potential effects in varied areas of the legal industry: Will it differentiate successful firms? Which practice areas could be affected the most? Could even high-level work be transformed?
From DSC:
I thought this was a really good idea from Dan Pontefact: “Why Experienced Employees Should Write Letters to New Team Members”
Excerpt:
Regardless of their age, an individual who is fresh to the team is given between five and ten pieces of advice from a more seasoned employee in the form of an email or letter. These tidbits of knowledge are what these seasoned professionals wish they had known when they first joined.
This is more than just a welcome; it’s a guide, a primer, offering an insider’s view of the organization and fostering a sense of camaraderie from the very beginning.
Presenting to the Association of University Architects — from darcynorman.net by D’Arcy Norman, PhD
Excerpt:
Recently, I had the absolute pleasure to be invited to co-present at the 67th Annual Association of University Architects Conference, conveniently hosted this year in Calgary, and even more conveniently having one day’s sessions housed within the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Our Vice Provost Teaching and Learning, Dr. Leslie Reid, was invited to share her experience in leading the Taylor Institute, and she brought in Dr. Natasha Kenny and myself to round out the session.
In planning for the session, we decided early on that we didn’t want to do A Presentation™. There would not be slides and slides of text, and no bullet points. We wanted to tell stories, and to learn from the ~100 expert university architects from across North America about how they approach the challenges we’ve faced in the last few years.
We broke the storytelling portion of the session into 3 parts:
- Universality: Building for all or building for some (Leslie)
- Planning: Tension between form and function (Natasha)
- Flexibility: How to be flexible about flexibility (D’Arcy)
AI21 Labs concludes largest Turing Test experiment to date — from ai21.com
As part of an ongoing social and educational research project, AI21 Labs is thrilled to share the initial results of what has now become the largest Turing Test in history by scale.
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Corporate legal departments see use cases for generative AI & ChatGPT, new report finds — from thomsonreuters.com
New legal tech tools showcased at CLOC 2023 — from legaldive.comRobert Freedman
Innovations include a better way to evaluate law firm proposals, centralize all in-house legal requests in a single intake function and analyze agreements.
Guest post: CLOC 2023 – Key insights into how to drive value during changing economic times — from legaltechnology.com by Valerie Chan
Excerpt:
Typically, Legalweek has always been focused on eDiscovery, while CLOC was focused on matter management and contracts management. This time I noticed more balance in the vendor hall and sessions, with a broader range of services providers than before, including staffing providers, contracts management vendors and other new entrants in addition to eDiscovery vendors.
One theme dominated the show floor conversations: Over and over, the legal operators I talked with said if their technologies and vendors were able to develop better workflows, achieve more cost savings and report on the metrics that mattered to their GC, the GC could function as more of a business advisor to the C-suite.
AI is already being used in the legal system—we need to pay more attention to how we use it — by phys.org Morgiane Noel
Excerpt:
While ChatGPT and the use of algorithms in social media get lots of attention, an important area where AI promises to have an impact is law.
The idea of AI deciding guilt in legal proceedings may seem far-fetched, but it’s one we now need to give serious consideration to.
That’s because it raises questions about the compatibility of AI with conducting fair trials. The EU has enacted legislation designed to govern how AI can and can’t be used in criminal law.
Legal Innovation as a Service, Now Enhanced with AI — from denniskennedy.com by Dennis Kennedy
Excerpt:
Over the last semester, I’ve been teaching two classes at Michigan State University College of Law, one called AI and the Law and the other called New Technologies and the Law, and a class at University of Michigan Law School called Legal Technology Literacy and Leadership. All three classes pushed me to keep up-to-date with the nearly-daily developments in AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs. I also did quite a lot of experiments, primarily with ChatGPT, especially GPT-4, and with Notion AI.
Emerging Tech Trends: The rise of GPT tools in contract analysis — from abajournal.com by Nicole Black
Excerpt:
Below, you’ll learn about many of the solutions currently available. Keep in mind that this overview is not exhaustive. There are other similar tools currently available and the number of products in this category will undoubtedly increase in the months to come.
Politicians need to learn how AI works—fast — link.wired.com
Excerpt:
This week we’ll hear from someone who has deep experience in assessing and regulating potentially harmful uses of automation and artificial intelligence—valuable skills at a moment when many people, including lawmakers, are freaking out about the chaos that the technology could cause.
Send in another victim of industrial disease — from jordanfurlong.substack.com
The legal profession is drowning in psychological and emotional distress. One change, right now, could help save the next generation of lawyers from the flood.
Excerpt:
But don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a problem just at Paul Hastings or in the AmLaw 100. It’s everywhere. Mental distress and emotional anguish are endemic throughout the legal profession, driven by pathologies inextricably intertwined with our malignant cultural impulses and exploitative business models. And it’s getting much worse, very fast.
Take a deep breath, and then work your way through this list of findings from seven separate reports into the legal profession’s state of mental and emotional sickness:
- Massachusetts: 77% of lawyers reported burnout from their work; almost half thought about leaving their job. 40% considered leaving the profession entirely due to stress. 7% experienced suicide ideation in the weeks before the survey.
- California and DC: Lawyers were twice as likely as the general population to experience thoughts of suicide, and those with high stress were 22 times more likely to have such thoughts.
- Midsized law firms: Nearly 3/4 of lawyers, paralegals and administrative professionals at midsized law firms report feeling stress, burnout, or being overwhelmed in the past year.
- Canada: 59% of legal professionals report psychological distress. 56% report burnout. 24% say they’ve experienced suicidal thoughts at least once since starting practice.
- UK: 62% of lawyers have experienced burnout as a result of their work in the last year. 57% put “an unmanageable caseload” at the top of their list of stressors at work, followed by a lack of work/life balance (42%).
- In-house counsel: Legal department lawyers face burnout and attrition internally, and supply chain issues and high inflation externally. “The environment legal departments are operating in now is an extremely challenging one.”
- Law students: Over 75% reported increased anxiety because of law school-related issues; over 50% reported experiencing depression. A majority reported experiencing anxiety (77%), disrupted sleep (71%), and depression (51%).
Every one of the percentages laid out above is higher for new lawyers, higher for women, higher for visible minorities, and higher for members of the LGBTQ+ community. And all but one of these reports were released just in the first two months of 2023.
From DSC:
One of the enormous surprises that I learned about while working at a law school (from 2018-2021) is the state of mental health within the legal industry. It’s not good. Beware!
Students in college — or to anyone who is thinking about entering law school and then practicing some area of law — get educated on things. Talk to lawyers of all kinds — especially in the area(s) that you are thinking of going into.
Then go forward into your decision with your eyes wide open. Know that you will need to put up some serious boundaries; if you don’t do that, you too may suffer the consequences that many lawyers have had to deal with.
I caught up with an old college friend of mine a year or so ago. He was absolutely exhausted. He was emotionally at the end of his rope. He was the owner of his own law firm and was working non-stop. He didn’t want to disappoint his clients, so he kept saying yes to things…to almost everything in fact. He later got out of owning his own firm — thank God — and went to work for an insurance company.
Furlong: Law school curricula and bar admission programs in every jurisdiction should be upgraded, starting today, to include significant instruction to aspiring lawyers about the deadly serious threats to their lives and health posed by choosing a legal career.
I just want to pass this along because I don’t think many younger students realize the state of mental health and stress within the legal field. And while you’re reflecting on that, you should also pulse-check how AI is impacting the legal field. Along these lines — and also from Jordan Furlong — see:
- In the post-AI legal world, what will lawyers do?
Legally trained generative AI will “free up” lawyers by taking away millions of hours of work. The profession’s future depends on what comes after that.