From DSC:
Seeing the functionality in Freehand — it makes me once again think that we need to use more tools where faculty/staff/students can collaborate with each other REGARDLESS of where they’re coming in to partake in a learning experience (i.e., remotely or physically/locally). This is also true for trainers and employees, teachers and students, as well as in virtual tutoring types of situations. We need tools that offer functionalities that go beyond screen sharing in order to collaborate, design, present, discuss, and create things. (more…)
ABA TECHSHOW 2022: Modernizing Court Technology with Judge Scott Schlegel — from legaltalknetwork.com
Judge Scott Schlegel shares essential technology tips for facilitating virtual court.
Description of podcast:
As the pandemic necessitated major tech innovations in the legal system, courts had to work hard to facilitate the continuance of justice. Host Joe Patrice chats with Judge Scott Schlegel about the process of moving to virtual proceedings, how they’re doing now, and what tech was most helpful along the way.
RTO [Return To Office] – Will That Drive Partners (yes, partners) to Parachute Into Virtual Firms? — from lawandmore.typepad.com
There are options. One is joining a virtual firm. Another is launching one. To that startup, they can take both fellow partners as well as associates.
From DSC:
Along the lines of change within the legal realm, also see:
- Goodbye Big Law, Hello Fixed Fees + Legal Tech — from artificiallawyer.com
Those differences can be broadly grouped into three main areas: dumping the billable hour; more use and better use of technology when possible; and operating with far lower overheads.
- Reuters Legal News – No Paywall! No Onepass! Customizable Legal News — from legaltechmonitor.com by Jean O’Grady
- What Does The Metaverse Look Like For Law Firms? — from abovethelaw.com by Jared Correia
The Future of Digital Court Reporting — from legaltalknetwork.com by Tony Sirna, Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson
Tony Sirna gives an overview of the evolution of digital court reporting and the improvement it has brought about in court proceedings.
Also see:
Webinar: What NOT to do in 2022. Legal Tech trends to ignore! — from onit.com
Excerpt:
How can you sort the helpful trends from the hype?
Three experts from Buying Legal, Consilio and Onit recently gathered to discuss just that. Together, they explored the current state of legal tech and AI, how corporate legal departments should function as we enter the new year and which current legal trends are better to avoid.
Read on to learn which legal tech trends you might want to pass on as we enter 2022.
Virtual law firms see 38% jump in recruitment — from personneltoday.com by Adam McCulloch
Excerpt:
In late 2020, 1,355 lawyers worked for such virtual firms, a number that has risen to 1,875 by autumn of 2021. In 2019, 1,272 worked for such firms.
Also see:
- 8 Ways Lawyers Are Getting Together Online This Year — from jdsupra.com
Cisco and Google join forces to transform the future of hybrid work — from blog.webex.com by Kedar Ganta
Excerpts:
Webex [on 12/7/21] announced the public preview of its native meeting experience for Glass Enterprise Edition 2 (Glass), a lightweight eye wearable device with a transparent display developed by Google. Webex Expert on Demand on Glass provides an immersive collaboration experience that supports natural voice commands, gestures on touchpad, and head movements to accomplish routine tasks.
Timnit Gebru Says Artificial Intelligence Needs to Slow Down — from wired.com by Max Levy
The AI researcher, who left Google last year, says the incentives around AI research are all wrong.
Excerpt:
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHERS are facing a problem of accountability: How do you try to ensure decisions are responsible when the decision maker is not a responsible person, but rather an algorithm? Right now, only a handful of people and organizations have the power—and resources—to automate decision-making.
…
Since leaving Google, Gebru has been developing an independent research institute to show a new model for responsible and ethical AI research. The institute aims to answer similar questions as her Ethical AI team, without fraught incentives of private, federal, or academic research—and without ties to corporations or the Department of Defense.
“Our goal is not to make Google more money; it’s not to help the Defense Department figure out how to kill more people more efficiently,” she said.
From DSC:
What does our society need to do to respond to this exponential pace of technological change? And where is the legal realm here?
Speaking of the pace of change…the following quote from The Future Direction And Vision For AI (from marktechpost.com by Imtiaz Adam) speaks to massive changes in this decade as well:
The next generation will feature 5G alongside AI and will lead to a new generation of Tech superstars in addition to some of the existing ones.
In future the variety, volume and velocity of data is likely to substantially increase as we move to the era of 5G and devices at the Edge of the network. The author argues that our experience of development with AI and the arrival of 3G followed by 4G networks will be dramatically overshadowed with the arrival of AI meets 5G and the IoT leading to the rise of the AIoT where the Edge of the network will become key for product and service innovation and business growth.
Also related/see:
- AI’s Smarts Now Come With a Big Price Tag — from wired.com by Will Knight
As language models get more complex, they also get more expensive to create and run. Some companies are locked out.
Winners Named for 2021 American Legal Technology Awards — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi
Excerpt:
Winners have been named for the second annual American Legal Technology Awards, a competition launched last year to honor exceptional achievements in legal technology.
This year, the competition added the announcement of a runner up and honorable mention in each category. A series of videos showcasing the winners in each category will be posted to the ALTA site between now and Nov. 10.
Courts 2021 AWARD WINNER || American Legal Technology Awards 2021https://t.co/9GD2IhdwBS#legaltech #legal #A2J #society #emergingtechnologies #courts #Court #AccessToJustice
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) November 4, 2021
From DSC:
For folks interested in pulse-checking the legal realm out there, below are three items from — or about — Clio this week:
- COVID-19’s Impact on the Legal Industry
- As Its Conference Kicks Off, Clio Announces Its ‘Most Important Product Release Ever’ (and More)
Addendum on 11/1/21:
- Clio Legal Trends Report Reveals How Clients Want to Communicate With Attorneys — from legaltechmonitor.com by
Legal Technology: Why the Legal Tech Boom is Just Getting Started — from nasdaq.com by Casey Flaherty and Jae Um of LexFusion; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for this resource via his Lawtomatic Newsletter, Issue #136
Excerpt:
In quick succession, legal technology finally saw its first IPOs:
With private money pouring into legal tech startups and based on our own conversations inside the industry, we at LexFusion expect more IPOs on the horizon. Thus, a primer on legal tech as a category to watch. This Part I summarizes the legal market fundamentals driving unprecedented investment in enabling tech—much of which extends beyond the boundaries implied by “legal” as a descriptor.
A pivot point appears to be upon us. Considered unthinkable a decade ago, US states and Canadian provinces—following similar reforms in the UK and Australia that have resulted in the first publicly traded law firms—are rapidly creating regulatory sandboxes to expand current rules limiting (a) who can provide legal services and (b) who can own those businesses.
From DSC:
One can see why #AI will become key. “…the projected CAGR for global data volumes is 26%—to pt where ‘the amount of data created over the next three years will be more than the data created over the past 30 years.’ This data explosion complicates even standard legal matters.”
Gabe also mentioned the following Tweet, which is relevant for this posting:
10 trends for legal technology in the 20’s according to @richardsusskind #BLTF2021 pic.twitter.com/a7MpqE8wYA
— Laura Fauqueur ?? (@laurafauq) October 12, 2021