Above video from Steve Kerr’s statement on school shooting in Texas
From DSC:
Steve Kerr has it right. Powerful. Critically important.
“Enough!” “We can’t get numb to this!”
On 05/23/2022,
in cryptocurrencies, emerging technologies, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, society, the downsides of technology, United States,
by Daniel Christian
U.S. issues charges in first criminal cryptocurrency sanctions case — from washingtonpost.com by Spencer S. Hsu
Federal judge finds U.S. sanctions laws apply to $10 million in Bitcoin sent by American citizen to a country blacklisted by Washington
Excerpt:
The Justice Department has launched its first criminal prosecution involving the alleged use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. economic sanctions, a federal judge disclosed Friday.
On 05/20/2022,
in business, cryptocurrencies, economics, legislatures / government / legal, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Gensler warns as crypto crashes: ‘The public is not protected’ — from protocol.com by Benjamin Pimentel
The SEC chair had sounded alarms about crypto’s risks, and now those risks are in plain sight.
Excerpt:
SEC Chair Gary Gensler warned Congress Wednesday that consumers and investors are vulnerable in an increasingly volatile crypto market now reeling from a sharp downturn.
Citing the recent collapse in the crypto market’s value, Gensler said, “This is a field that is now worth $1.2 trillion. Two weeks ago it was supposedly worth $2 trillion.”
“The public is not protected,” he testified at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the proposed budget for the SEC and the FTC. “They don’t have the disclosures from these entrepreneurs.”
From DSC:
A topic for personal finance courses? Economics courses?
On 05/18/2022,
in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), career development, change, changing business models, generational differences, health, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, tools, vendors, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The Great Resignation: The toll taken on the legal field and what comes next — from abajournal.com by Thomas MacDonald
Excerpt:
The pandemic has reshaped thinking around the value of work. The Thomson Reuters Stellar Performance: Skills and Progression Mid-Year Survey uncovered three specific priorities legal professionals are factoring into their career decisions.
- Balance: Young professionals are more in tune with work-life balance and place a higher value on mental well-being, leisure and other activities outside of work than previous generations.
- Family: A higher percentage of the professional workforce are mothers. Likewise, men are taking a more active role in child-rearing than previous generations, as younger professionals juggle more domestic responsibilities across the board.
- The Long Game: Many Generation X and millennial employees have long since conceded that their retirement will likely come much later in life than their elder counterparts. The prospect of working for an extra decade—or more—has tempered the enthusiasm for grinding away during their formative years.
Also relevant/see the following articles:
8 Legal Experts on the Future of the Billable Hour — from artificiallawyer.com
Excerpt:
Are you still billing by the hour? The reality is that most lawyers are and plenty will still be using it in the year 2032. However, many legal experts agree: the billable hour is under pressure, forcing lawyers to investigate other billing methods as well.
Laura Rosseel, Senior Associate at Cambrian, explains clearly why the billable hour is a topic for discussion: ‘There are countless arguments against working with billable hours. Invoicing based on billable hours puts the risk of both unpredictability in the scope of work as well as potential inefficiency on the client, instead of the law firm that is providing the service.
‘It does not differentiate based on the value of the task at hand, the urgency, or the time of day (or night), with which the task is carried out. Additionally, it is a performance metric for lawyers that favours working more over working better, and the relentless pressure is causing junior and mid-level lawyers to leave their firms.’
Digital exhaustion: Redefining work-life balance — from enterprisersproject.com by Irvin Bishop Jr.
Is your team suffering from the digital exhaustion that so often comes with remote and hybrid work? Consider these strategies to ease the stress
As workers continue to create and collaborate in digital spaces, one of the best things we can do as leaders is to let go. Let go of preconceived schedules, of always knowing what someone is working on, of dictating when and how a project should be accomplished – in effect, let go of micromanagement. Instead, focus on hiring productive, competent workers and trust them to do their jobs. Don’t manage tasks – gauge results. Use benchmarks and deadlines to assess effectiveness and success.
What did we learn at the CLOC Conference? — from zachabramowitz.substack.com by Zach Abramowitz
QR Codes, Outside Counsel Startups Make Great Shirts and Standing Out in a Sea of CLM
Some of the tools/products/vendors Zach mentioned were:
- outside counsel management tools Persuit and JusticeBid
- Justicebid.com
- Legalmation.com
On 05/11/2022,
in 21st century, Canada, change, changing business models, India, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, policy, society, United States, Virtual courts,
by Daniel Christian
Is the virtual courtroom the future of the justice system? — from deseret.com by Zakary Sonntag
Video proceedings have increased court access but raised questions of rights amid case backlog
Excerpt:
The justice system in Utah is straining under the weight of an immense backlog of criminal cases, especially serious felony cases, leaving many defendants to languish in custody as additional filings continue to accumulate.
The buildup began in 2020 after the Utah Supreme Court ordered the shutdown of in-person proceedings in response to the coronavirus, which left attorneys and judges to hash out settlements through a remote, Webex court process.
The pandemic’s impact on the legal sector and what emerging lawyers need to know — from timesofindia.indiatimes.com by Roma Priya
Excerpt:
For aspiring lawyers and law school graduates who have commenced practice recently, one of the best ways to stay relevant is to upskill yourself. Apart from the legal industry-related skills as a lawyer, such as in-depth knowledge about clients, the law, and other subjects, communication skills, problem solving and analytical skills, and tech skills are crucial.
Today, digitally-savvy lawyers are in high demand as technology continues to evolve and progress. And as the Indian Judiciary System gradually acquaints itself with cutting-edge technologies, emerging lawyers must do the same.
About one-fifth of lawyers and staffers considered suicide at some point in their careers, new survey says — from abajournal.com by Debra Cassens Weiss
A new survey of lawyers and staff members hailing mostly from BigLaw has found that anxiety, depression and isolation remain at concerning levels, despite a slight decrease in the percentages since the survey last year.
When is a legal department ready to transform? — from advisory.kpmg.us by Eric Gorman, Kimberly Majure, and Jeff Ikejiri
Explore the catalysts for change
…legal departments that identify and agree on a motive to change, and then are alert for opportunities to act, are legal departments that are ready to transform.
From DSC:
I saw the link to LitSoftware at the posting entitled, Three Lessons In Persuasive Trial Technology (from legaltechmonitor.com by Stephen Embry).. I thought it offered some interesting software:
The Top 3 Legal Technology Trends of 2022 — from lexology.com by Sean Heck
Excerpts:
- Web-Based Contract Management Tools for Remote Legal Operations
- Online, Web-Based Document Editing
- Contract AI With Machine Learning for Intelligent CLM
Litera legal survey shows that technology is driving change in all aspects of M&A practice — from canadianlawyermag.com by Annabel Oromoni
Excerpt:
The global pandemic and the increasing reliance on technology to facilitate remote legal work and collaboration have accelerated the legal profession’s interest in technology-based solutions. A recent survey by Litera, a legal tech company, revealed that technology significantly impacts M&A practices in law firms.
Litera’s survey included insights from over 200 lawyers whose practices focus on M&A in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
David Curle, legal content and research lead at Litera, says the legal profession is fragmented, and Litera sought to receive responses about technology use, adoption, and spending from M&A lawyers specifically.
6 Types of Software for Your In-House Legal Team Needs — from jdsupra.com
Excerpt:
Most legal teams rely heavily on documents and communication for their work, and handling all the related operations may not be as simple as you would like it to be. Unless you change your approach to document management and start exploring tech solutions that improve team efficiency.
Automation software has helped many businesses and departments streamline all or most of their operations and improve their efficiency. The same can be done for a legal team.
In this article, let’s focus on the types of automation software for in-house counsel along with some of the top examples.
Addendum later on 5/11/22:
ANALYSIS: Lawyers’ Top Legal Tech Tools—And Biggest Blind Spots — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Racheal Pikulski, Princess Onyiri, and Lida Ouyang
Addendum later on 5/11/22:
- The ABA is again trying to end LSAT requirements. Will it stick this time? — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
A 2018 push to stop assessment mandates died amid worries for underserved law school applicants, but the accreditor is returning to the idea.
On 05/09/2022,
in Alternatives, business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content aggregration, content development, content repositories, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, curriculum, digital learning, experimentation, game-changing environment, health, higher education, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, policy, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
100 Universities established an OPM, Bootcamp or Pathways partnership in Q1 2022 — from holoniq.com
Bootcamps are directing more resources B2B and B2G, OPMs are growing existing partnerships further and evolving their technology and healthcare programs.
Excerpt:
Higher Education, like the broader economy, is awkwardly emerging from an almost exclusively digital, isolated and stimulus fuelled environment into… well it’s not clear yet. University Partnerships continued to be established at pace through Q1 2022, albeit at a much slower rate than through 2021.
Also relevant/see:
College contracts with OPMs need better oversight, watchdog says — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
Excerpt from Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education should strengthen oversight of colleges’ relationships with companies that help them launch and build online programs, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an auditing agency for Congress.
Addendum on 5/11/22:
- 2021 Global Learning Landscape — from globallearninglandscape.org
On 05/01/2022,
in Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, society, technology (general), tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Remote court transcription technology enables virtual court appearances — from abajournal.com by Nicole Black
Excerpts:
That’s why it’s imperative to make certain remote options are available for all aspects of legal work since doing so is the only way to guarantee the justice system doesn’t come to a grinding halt. One way to prevent that is to take advantage of the virtual deposition transcription tools I discussed in last month’s column. In that article, I provided an overview of virtual deposition transcription products and services that rely on videoconferencing tools and software platforms to facilitate remote depositions.
Another way business continuity has been maintained since March 2020 is via virtual court proceedings. Remote court appearances are now more common since courts periodically shifted to partial or fully remote operations throughout the pandemic. Many judges have become accustomed to and appreciate the convenience of virtual court proceedings, and many expect them to continue even after the pandemic ends.
Because all signs point to the continuation of virtual court proceedings, I promised in last month’s article that I would focus on remote court proceeding options in this column. These include software platforms and artificial intelligence language-processing tools that facilitate remote court proceedings.
Nicole’s article mentioned the following vendor/product:
On 04/27/2022,
in analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, collaboration, data mining, future, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, trends, United States,
by Daniel Christian
2022 Outlook: 6 Legal Trends and Predictions to Have on Your Radar — from jdsupra.com by Vivian Susko
Excerpt:
In January, 2020, we made some bold predictions about what would lie ahead for legal operations in the new decade. Let’s dive back into some of our top forecasts, survey our new landscape, and see which legal trends are currently impacting the industry in 2022. Mitratech expert, Justin Silverman, weighs in on what you can expect to see on the horizon for legal ops.
On 04/21/2022,
in Access to Justice (A2J), adult learning, change, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, education, education reform, Emotion, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, law schools, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods, learning spaces, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, motivation, participation, reinvent, skills, society, sociology,
by Daniel Christian
I Grew Up Believing I Was Dumb. A College Education Behind Bars Healed That Wound https://t.co/PsUZ2LyOxa via @MarshallProj
— Paul Czarapata (@pczarapata) April 21, 2022
Seeing the possibilities, I finally took a chance. I studied English, political science and finite math, and each class I passed deepened my confidence and self-love.
This growing self-love was key to my academic development. Growing up, I didn’t experience much real love, outside of my mother and a few family members. I most often encountered the kind of false love expressed through violence and monetary possessions. College changed the way I thought about myself and others. I worked hand-in-hand with men from all backgrounds to complete assignments, and even taught other students. Before I knew it, I was getting A’s on my essays and solving quadratic equations in math class.
…
When people question why it’s important to educate prisoners, I remind them that to see change, we must support change. We must give individuals the opportunity to see themselves as more than the harm they’ve caused, more than what was once broken within them.
Christopher Blackwell
Also relevant/see:
