Ken Grady doesn’t post often enough, but when he does it’s always worth the wait. Don’t miss this thought provoking piece. The Boring Law Firm: The model is dead, may it rest in peace. “Large law firm partners like owning their businesses and running them how they please. Right now, it pleases them to make money with ‘few’ risks. Altering the model suggests risk. We are in a battle over time — can they run out the clock (retire) before they lose the game.” And here are Ken’s latest thought about AI taking lawyers’ jobs.
And here’s a bit more about AI and law firm jobs from Sam Skolnik of Bloomberg Law: Artificial Intelligence Creeps Into Big Law, Endangers Some Jobs. “”Here’s what won’t be going away: sophisticated, face-to-face human interaction between client and lawyer,’ said Tim House, U.S. senior partner for Allen & Overy.”
- If you’re new to this topic, you may find this post by Neil Sahota a useful introduction: Will A.I. Put Lawyers Out Of Business?
Speaking of interesting thought pieces, check out this post from Jordan Furlong about technology, firm culture, portable practices and shopping malls (really!). Law firms’ shopping mall problem.
- This post from myshingle.com is full of interesting statistics regarding the economics of Big Law versus small/solo firms and the implications for technology. The Reason Why Legal Tech Remains the Domain of the Legal Elite: It’s All About The Money.
Here’s a worth-reading post by Rita T. Young, law librarian at K&L Gates (but not representing the firm’s views). As one would expect, well-researched and thoroughly footnoted! AI & the Practice of Law at the Crossroads: Where Are We Going? “Exploring the professional ethics implications of AI in the legal sphere.” “What I do want to talk about are the potential repercussions of the AI you are using now….” “The good news? There is still time to fix things because, if you’re reading this, you’re probably still in practice and your client doesn’t realize what you did because you haven’t either.”
Here’s an interesting post about “HHS receiv(ing) authority to operate the first blockchain-based tool in the federal government.” ““Our goal is actually to leverage and harness all of the data within HHS, which is about $24.8 billion in spend, about 100,000 contracts, about 1 million pages of unstructured data, and provide that information to the 20,000 members of the acquisition workforce in real time at their fingertips so that they can actually make good business decisions,” Jose Arrieta, associate deputy assistant secretary in HHS’ acquisition division, said during a recorded demo of the tool on Dec. 12. “We believe that without blockchain this would not be possible.”
I have posted here many times about the coming of chatbots to the legal space. Here’s Bob Ambrogi’s take on a recent entry from LexisNexis: Chatbots are Coming to Lexis Advance, to Help Guide Your Legal Research.
This piece from Information Age includes links to other interesting content. AI, cloud and security — top priorities for enterprise legal departments.
From Artificial Lawyer:
- AI and A New Way of Looking At Contract Pre-Screening. Post.
Nalytics + Van Doorne Co-Develop Doc Compare Solution. Post.
- Meet Sparqa – Solving the SME Legal Needs Challenge With Tech. Post.
- Meet Evisort, The New AI Platform Set to Rock The $60 Billion Doc Review Market. Post.
From Law Firms:
Jared Applegate of Barnes & Thornburg has some interesting thoughts about law firms use of data internally (and with clients) in this piece: Data Capture Initiatives Can Bring Technology to Scale.
Proskauer Rose: Jeffrey D. Neuburger, Jonathan Benloulou: 5 Factors Asset Managers Should Consider When Evaluating Blockchain (Video). Post.
Kramer Levin: Samantha V. Ettari, Arielle Warshall Katz: Artificial Intelligence In Financial Services: Tips For Risk Management. Post.
Foley & Lardner: Jeffrey A. Soble: Even Insurance Will Be Disrupted By Autonomous Vehicles. Post.
Here’s a summary of Hogan Lovells partner Winston Maxwell‘s comments on Using artificial intelligence to fight hate speech.
Jones Day: Harriet Territt: What General Counsel Need to Know about Blockchain. This two-minute video is one of a series about blockchain from the firm.
Bird & Bird: Dr. Michael Jünemann, Jörg-Alexander Paul: In Focus, Blockchain. “Blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is currently one of the most talked about technologies. Heralded as a ‘game changer’, this technology is disrupting a wide range of industries.” Post.
Kemp Little: Everything you want to know about artificial intelligence. “The rise of AI will present a host of challenges – ethical, practical and legal – and our specialists are involved with their peers in the law and industry in working out the right responses.” Post.
Fenwick & West Life Sciences Group: Michael Esquivel: How AI is Transforming Healthcare: Diagnostics, R&D and Therapeutics. Post.
“Taylor & Associates, a nationally recognized transportation law firm, is pleased to announce it has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), an organization dedicated to developing best practices and standards for blockchain in the transportation industry.” Post.
DLA Piper forms council to drive radical change agenda. “Now we are driving a fundamental change in mindset across our business to embrace radical change and evolve and expand our business through partnering with our clients to help them to succeed in our changing world.” Post.
Post by/about Vendors:
Artificial intelligence for law firms: An interview with Tony Ensinger of Kira Systems. Post.
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Better Legal Insights Through Technology from Gauci-Maistre Xynou. Post.
From the ABA Journal and Ed Walters of Fastcase, AI Practice, Not Promise, in Law Firms. “AI-based analysis of data is just getting started; let’s look at the ways it’s already been implemented.” Post.