Pilot projects using AI in legal world produce mixed results, but still promising: legal tech panel — from canadianlawyermag.com by Zena Olijnyk
Canadian Legal Tech Summit attendees hear of challenges, benefits of AI as ‘hype’ continues to grow
Excerpt:
A pilot project designed to test the potential of artificial intelligence tools at McCarthy Tétrault LLP showed that certain types of applications for the legal profession seemed to work better than others, panellists told attendees to the recent Canadian Lawyer Legal Tech Summit.
“I would say that the results were mixed,” David Cohen, senior director of client service delivery for the firm. During the panel, moderated by University of Calgary assistant professor Gideon Christian, Cohen spoke about a pilot of about 40 lawyers from different practices at the firm who used an AI platform with only public data.
The group [testing the platform] said it needs to get better before we start using this for research,” he said. However, he said, when it came to tasks like generating documents, reviewing 100-page cases “and summarizing and analyzing them,” the AI platforms did much better.
What are the top legal technology trends in 2023? — from legalitprofessionals.com
Excerpt:
To help with this, our Client Success Team have summarised the eight key legal technology trends in the market, as well as the themes discussed at recent legal technology events and conferences including the British Legal Technology Forum and iManage ConnectLive Virtual 2023, both of which we were proud to sponsor.
On a somewhat related note, also see:
Designing the Law Office of the Future — from workdesign.com by Deborah Nemeth
Deborah Nemeth of SmithGroup shares how inspiration from higher education and hospitality can help inform the next evolution of the law office.
101 creative ideas to use AI in education, A crowdsourced collection — from zenodo.org by Chrissi Nerantzi, Sandra Abegglen, Marianna Karatsiori, & Antonio Martínez-Arboleda (Eds.); with thanks to George Veletsianos for this resource
As an example, here’s one of the ideas from the crowdsourced collection:
On a somewhat related note, also see:
Merlyn Mind launches education-focused LLMs for classroom integration of generative AI — from venturebeat.com by Victor Dey
Excerpt:
Merlyn Mind, an AI-powered digital assistant platform, announced the launch of a suite of large language models (LLMs) specifically tailored for the education sector under an open-source license.
Designing courses in an age of AI — from teachinginhighered.com by Maria Andersen
Maria Andersen shares about designing courses in an age of artificial intelligence (AI) on episode 469 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.
With generative AI, we have an incredible acceleration of change happening.
Maria Andersen
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:
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:
7 reasons to get rid of the law degree — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Requiring a law degree for bar admission imposes unfair burdens on new lawyers and blocks innovation in legal education. Here’s what we can do instead.
Excerpt:
Hey there, legal sector participant! Do you feel that law school is too expensive? That law students graduate too heavily in debt and deeply stressed? That legal education seems impossible to reform? That the whole lawyer development and bar admission system in general is an enormous hot mess?
If so, you’re like thousands of others who’ve grown massively frustrated with the profession’s broken-down approach to developing new lawyers. But I’m here with some good news! There’s a simple and straightforward path to resolving these and many other problems with legal education and bar admission.
We start by getting rid of the law degree.
Now, hold on, let me be clear — I don’t mean kill the law degree itself. That would be crazy.
No, I mean, let’s get rid of the law degree as a mandatory element of the lawyer licensing process. Law schools should continue to offer whatever sort of degree programs they like — but legal regulators and bar admission authorities should no longer require everybody who wants to be a lawyer to get one.
From DSC:
I need to think on this further, but Jordan could be onto something here…
A better pathway to lawyer licensing — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
No law degree; a single knowledge exam; training in legal, business and professional skills; and a term of supervised practice. This is how we do it.
Excerpt:
Previously here at Substack, I provided a pretty comprehensive takedown of the law degree requirement for lawyer licensing. It generated a ton of fascinating and gratifying feedback, here and especially at LinkedIn, with a few objections but mostly a lot of support.
Of course, it’s easy to criticize legal education — fun, too — but look, most people in the legal profession already know all the problems with the law degree, and complaining about it is kind of a vacuous pastime. What I’m really interested in here is a bigger and more important question: How does — how should — someone become a lawyer?
PART THREE! ?
Viewed by over 35 million people! ?
The following is the next installment of:
“Things ChatGPT can do right now that (maybe) you no longer need to pay lawyers for!”
Negotiating a Lease Agreement
[*Please see the disclaimers at the end*] pic.twitter.com/Z0xYMFhlyW
— SMBAcquisitionAttorney (@SMB_Attorney) April 23, 2023
No better way for Judges to learn about both how AI could improve courts and the risks of AI (e.g., deepfakes) than to experiment with it.
Check out the AI avatars that @Judgeschlegel created: https://t.co/UqbJ2PHA09#AI4Law#Law4AI— Daniel W. Linna Jr. (@DanLinna) April 24, 2023
Going to court without a lawyer? DIY law is on the rise — from cbc.ca by Yvette Brend
Self-representation saves money, but the larger cost is high, say justice-access advocates
Excerpt:
Most reported feeling the justice system was “unfair,” and many described a sense of “the odds being stacked against them.”
Advocates say the rising number of lawyer-free litigants is problematic. The legal system is meant to be adversarial — with strong lawyers on each side — but the high rate of self-representation creates lopsided justice, pitting an untrained individual against a professional.
‘Legal Tech Lists’: 3 Things Your CRM Should Do For You — from abovethelaw.com by Cady Darago
How you can go beyond merely storing information.
Exploring the Hottest Legal Tech Startups in Europe — from legalreader.com by Amy Hollow
Europe is quickly becoming a hub for legal tech startups, offering innovative solutions to the legal industry.
Excerpt:
Europe is home to some of the most innovative legal tech startups in the world. Here are five of the hottest ones:
Keep Up With Today’s Legal Tech (Or Be Left Behind) — from legaltalknetwork.com by Joy Murao and Tony Sipp
In this podcast:
Legal Operations and Generative AI: Preparing for a Sea Change — from jdsupra.com
Excerpt:
AI will likely make lawyer’s jobs easier (or, at least, more interesting) for some tasks, however the effects it may have on the legal profession could be the real legacy of the technology. Schafer pointed to its potential to improve access to justice for people who want legal representation but can’t get it for whatever reason.
Fresh Voices on Legal Tech with Natalie Knowlton — from legaltalknetwork.com by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell
EPISODE NOTES
Technology has become the main driver for increasing access to justice, and there are huge opportunities for legal service providers to leverage both existing and emerging tech to reach new clients. Dennis and Tom welcome Natalie Knowlton to discuss the current state of legal services, the justice gap, and ways technology is helping attorneys provide better and more affordable services to consumers. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends.
New report on ChatGPT & generative AI in law firms shows opportunities abound, even as concerns persist — from thomsonreuters.com; via Brainyacts #43
Excerpt:
The survey, conducted in late-March by the Thomson Reuters Institute, gathered insight from more than 440 respondent lawyers at large and midsize law firms in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The survey forms the basis of a new report, ChatGPT & Generative AI within Law Firms, which takes a deep look at the evolving attitudes towards generative AI and ChatGPT within law firms, measuring awareness and adoption of the technology as well as lawyers’ views on its potential risks.
The report also reveals several key findings that deserve special attention from law firm leaders and other legal professionals as ChatGPT and generative AI evolve from concept to reality for the vast majority of the legal industry participants. These findings include:
‘Legal Tech Lists’: 5 Lawyer Tropes That Were Upended By Legal Tech — from abovethelaw.com by Jared Correia
These common fictitious scenarios would be solved by technology.
Excerpt:
There are lots of tropes related to lawyers and law firms that frequently show up in works of fiction. The thing is, those tropes are tropes because they’re sort of old; they’ve been around for a long time. Now, however, modern technology can solve a heck of a lot of those issues. So, for this edition of the “Reference Manual of Lists,” we’re going to relay a trope, offer an example, and talk about how legal tech actually fixes the problem today.
The Future of Generative Large Language Models and Potential Applications in LegalTech — from jdsupra.com by Johannes Scholtes and Geoffrey Vance
Excerpt:
If you made it this far, you should by now understand that ChatGPT is not by itself a search engine, nor an eDiscovery data reviewer, a translator, knowledge base, or tool for legal analytics. But it can contribute to these functionalities.
In-person vs. virtual ADR — How to choose? — from reuters.com by Eric Larson
Excerpt:
April 20, 2023 – Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a common technique parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party, offers several unique benefits over traditional litigation. It is typically more cost-effective, confidential and generally a preferred method to resolving disputes. As a result, counsel and their clients often view ADR as a no-brainer. But the once simple decision to engage in ADR is now complicated by whether to proceed in-person, virtually or with a hybrid approach.
ChatGPT: A Lawyer’s Friend or Ethical Time Bomb? A Look at Professional Responsibility in the Age of AI — from jdsupra.com by Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates, & Woodyard
Excerpt:
The emergence of ChatGPT comes with tremendous promise of increased automation and efficiency. But at what cost? In this blog post, we’ll explore the potential ethical time bomb of using ChatGPT and examine the responsibility of lawyers in the age of AI.
The 2023 Global Sentiment Survey — from donaldhtaylor.co.uk by Don Taylor
Excerpt:
This year’s Global Sentiment Survey – the tenth – paints a picture that is both familiar and unusual. In our 2020 survey report, we noted that ‘Data dominates this year’s survey’. It does so again this year, with the near 4,000 respondents showing a strong interest in AI, Skills-based talent management and Learning analytics (in positions #2, #3 and #4), all of which rely on data. The table is topped by Reskilling/upskilling, in the #1 spot for the third year running.
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VR & robotics could be the future of medical training — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
FundamentalVR is partnering with Haply Robotics to provide more realistic VR surgical simulations.
Also relevant/see:
Building a bridge to justice from the other side — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Our professional-centric approach to resolving unmet legal needs hasn’t worked. Maybe it’s time we empowered the people who are already there.
Excerpts:
Given all that, I think it’s time we tried a demand-side approach instead — one that doesn’t require us to licence and deploy more legal services professionals, but instead focuses on and empowers those who are already dealing with people’s unmet and unrecognized legal needs.
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So if we’re not looking for legal professionals, who are we looking for? If we take a user-centred, needs-focused approach, we’ll find ourselves looking for someone who’s familiar to and trusted by the vulnerable people with unmet legal needs, who’s walked with them, earned their confidence over time — “someone who looks like them, understands their situation, and are trusted members of their community.”
These individuals are already present in the lives of people with unmet legal needs. They’re community activists, librarians, hospital employees, teachers, social workers, homeless advocates, therapists, food bank employees, members of a religious order, financial counsellors, mental health clinic staffers, juvenile case workers, and many others.
GPT-4 is already disrupting the legal sector but what does it mean for your legal practice? I spoke a few ChatGPT experts. Thanks @scottastevenson @computational @DanLinna @lawdroid @tweetatpablo @colinlachance #legaltech #lawtwitter https://t.co/7Ecq71cRwa
— Julie Sobowale (@JulieSobowale) March 27, 2023
Also from Julie Sobowale, see:
Also re: legaltech, see:
Also re: legaltech, see:
Law has a magic wand now — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Some people think Large Language Models will transform the practice of law. I think it’s bigger than that.
Excerpts:
ChatGPT4 can also do things that only lawyers (used to be able to) do. It can look up and summarize a court decision, analyze and apply sections of copyright law, and generate a statement of claim for breach of contract.
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What happens when you introduce a magic wand into the legal market? On the buyer side, you reduce by a staggering degree the volume of tasks that you need to pay lawyers (whether in-house or outside counsel) to perform. It won’t happen overnight: Developing, testing, revising, approving, and installing these sorts of systems in corporations will take time. But once that’s done, the beauty of LLMs like ChatGPT4 is that they are not expert systems. Anyone can use them. Anyone will.
But I can’t shake the feeling that someday, we’ll divide the history of legal services into “Before GPT4” and “After GPT4.” I think it’s that big.
From DSC:
Jordan mentions: “Some people think Large Language Models will transform the practice of law. I think it’s bigger than that.”
I agree with Jordan. It most assuredly IS bigger than that. AI will profoundly impact many industries/disciplines. The legal sector is but one of them. Education is another. People’s expectations are now changing — and the “ramification wheels” are now in motion.
I take the position that many others have as well (at least as of this point in time) that take the position that AI will supplement humans’ capabilities and activities. But those who know AI-driven apps will outcompete those who don’t know about such apps.
