Today, Thomson Reuters joined the race to announce its entry into the Large Language Model (LLM) marketplace and what it generally plans to develop in the future. The Company also shared its vision for the future through generative artificial intelligence. Finally, the Company announced a partnership and new plugin with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft’s AI offering. Thomson Reuters states, “This integration will bolster efforts for redefined professional work starting with legal research, drafting, and client collaboration.”

The Thomson Reuters announcement comes on the heels of LexisNexis’ recent announcement of its plans in the space. Other legal vendors like CasetextLiquidText, and others have also jumped in recently.

These announcements—especially by Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis–are a bit unique in the legal marketplace. They are unique in what they are or are not now offering. And they are unique in how they see the implementation of generative AI tools.

But the uniqueness of the LLM tools makes these announcements sound different.

But the uniqueness of the LLM tools makes these announcements sound different. The whole LLM concept seemed to burse on the scent out of nowhere a scant five or so months ago. (Yes, the models existed before then, but the ability of the models to change how we do things was not well known until after November 2022). And the development of the models since then till now has been at 120 mph. Rapid development, exponential improvement, and change are the hallmarks of the models. And we don’t yet know precisely the long-term and short-term impact.

Secondly, how we humans relate to the models is fundamentally
different. Getting to the answer is not a search but a dialogue. It is conversational, much like asking a partner how to approach a legal knot you are trying to unravel. Both these characteristics—rapid and uncharted development and the new way we relate to the model–change how the vendors’ plan, what they say, and how they view implementation.

Integration. Integration. Integration.

In response to a question at the tail end of the Thomson Reuters briefing, David Wong, Thomson Reuter’s Chief Product Officer, emphasized that the goal for Thomson Reuter’s LLM is to bring together the knowledge and capability of the various Thomson Reuters products to answer inquiries. And the lines between the different Thomson Reuters products—Westlaw Edge, Precision, Practical Law Dynamic, Legal Doc Review, Legal Drafting, etc.—will eventually need to be blurred to maximize the abilities of generative AI. The goal, said Wong, is to create a consistent experience.

When I thought about it, I could see the logic behind this. When you ask your partner to help you with a legal problem, you don’t expect them to talk about how they would solve it from one batch of knowledge and ignore other knowledge or experiences they have. Instead, you expect the partner to offer insight from all the sources they may be familiar with. The power and promise of LLMs are that they can respond as your partner should.

There is a difference between LLM responses and pure search responses. It’s the ability of LLMs to understand natural language and then pool knowledge across fields that make them so powerful. So, product lines and siloing will become a real disadvantage as the models evolve.

Did I Mention Integration??

The LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters announcements were similar in another respect. Both are relying on Microsoft to help power their offerings. And that’s not surprising, given how ubiquitous Microsoft is in the legal community. It also reflects that Microsoft sees itself as the key player in legal. Its model is not to offer standalone products. Instead, it plans on being the integrating force that powers what other legal players are offering.

There’s a reason that neither LexisNexis nor Thomson Reuters cozied up with Google, which offers products that could compete with what Microsoft offers. In legal, Microsoft is king and will likely direct where and how the legal tech market goes in the future.

But They Really Didn’t Tell Us Much

A fair amount of criticism has been directed at LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters for offering something, the details of which remain a little sketchy. Details they both say will be developed later. The standard read is that both companies just wanted to jump on the bandwagon. That they just wanted to say something—anything—about LLM offerings, even if they didn’t have much to say. And yes, there may be some truth to that.

The generative AI field is developing at warp speed, and its impact and direction are still murky. So offering something too soon and too detailed may be a big mistake. 

The generative AI field is developing at warp speed, and its impact and direction are still murky. So offering something too soon and too detailed may be a big mistake. The players may be right to proceed cautiously while they assess where LLMs are going, what they can do, and what customers want and expect them to do.

Even Google, which also recently announced a big generative AI initiative, was short on details. What’s funny is that when Google or Apple announces something new and is unclear on the future details, people aren’t surprised and even applaud.

Legal tech vendors, though, have traditionally had to take into account that lawyers expect products to do everything promised. Perfectly and immediately. If the product doesn’t do that, it’s quickly relegated to the trash can. So many of us who comment on the legal tech field may be surprised and a little skeptical about the kind of announcement that leaves details yet to be determined.

Generative AI is unlike anything we have seen before. It will change the legal field in ways we haven’t ever seen

But generative AI is unlike anything we have seen before. It will change the legal field in ways we haven’t ever seen. What it can do and what it will impact are yet to be fully or even partially determined. So promises about the future may be problematic.

Integration will be the name of the game as we shift to a conversational natural language tool. Harnessing that integration across product lines and vendors can’t yet be fully known and will take some creativity.

Perhaps we are seeing how legal tech vendors will approach these new realities generative AI brings.

Last week, I posted on the culture at Casepoint and about its legal hold product. Coincidentally, Casepoint today announced a significant new tool that reinforces my view that it is one of the most client focused legal tech vendor out there

The new Casepoint product is called ChatViewer. According to Casepoint, ChatViewer is product upgrade that significantly eases the review process for chat messages, including those from cell phone conversation apps and enterprise collaboration tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. Using ChatViewer, legal professionals can view, search, sort, and manage chat data more easily than ever — allowing them to reduce review time and discovery-related costs.

Continue Reading Casepoint Announces New Chat Review Feature

NOTE: Last week, I posted on the culture at Casepoint and about its legal hold product. After posting that article, I discovered there were a couple of inaccuracies that needed correcting. The inaccuracies didn’t change my fundamental conclusions about the culture at Casepoint—it’s still alive and well, just like always. I have corrected the inaccuracies in the post below.

Casepoint today announced yet another new product called ChatViewer which I think further reinforces my conclusions. According to Casepoint, ChatViewer, is product upgrade that significantly eases the review process for chat messages, including those from cell phone conversation apps and enterprise collection tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. Using ChatViewer, legal professionals can view, search, sort, and manage chat data more easily than ever — allowing them to reduce review time and discovery-related costs.

Mobile data poses lots of headaches and challenges for eDiscovery and legal professionals and is exploding in volume and complexity. Once again, Casepoint saw a pain point of its clients and came up with a tool to make their work better. I will offer more info on ChatViewer in the near future. But for now Kudos once again to Casepoint.

I recently had a chance to catch up with Matt Hamilton, Senior Director of Sales Engineering, and Amit Dungarani, VP Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives at Casepoint. Casepoint is an e-discovery cloud based provider that claims to offer data-based intelligence and full-spectrum eDiscovery. It includes cloud collection, data processing, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence tools. The platform enables review and customizable productions.

Continue Reading Casepoint Culture Seems Alive and Well
Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash

Tomorrow (May 4) is World Password Day. World Password Day occurs on the first Thursday of May. It was created by Intel several years ago to raise awareness about the importance of stronger passwords and promote better password habits. Passwords are critical gatekeepers to our (and our clients) digital and business records and identities.

Continue Reading Lawyers and Cybersecurity: Security By Obscurity Is Not Security

If a recent Thomson Reuters Report is any indication, lawyers and law firms plan to approach generative AI like they do most technology. Slowly and with skepticism. The Report, entitled, ChatGPT and Generative AI Within Law Firms, came out on April 17, 2023.

Thomson surveyed lawyers in mid-size (30-179 lawyers) to large law firms (more than 180 lawyers). The lawyers were based in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. 

There were some 443 respondents: 62% from mid-size firms and 38% from large law firms. The majority of those answering the survey were from the U.S.

Continue Reading Thomson Reuters Report Reveals Standard Lawyer AI Skepticism
Photo by Stone Hood on Unsplash

Every year about this time, I participate as a faculty member in a training workshop. The workshop designed to teach lawyers how to better use technology in the courtroom, in mediation, or in any setting where they seek to persuade others. We show lawyers of various levels of experience how to use tech to enhance what they are trying to communicate. We limit attendance at the workshop to about 25 people. It’s a 2 ½ day session of intensive training on technology tools. This is followed by the opportunity for each person to give a presentation to the group using the tools about which they have learned.

Continue Reading Technology and Persuasion: It’s All About The Story

Widespread use of generative AI by lawyers and legal professionals will occur when AI tools can be applied to specialized and often private data bases.

There has been a lot of hype about ChatGPT of late, but according to various reports including one by Bob Ambrogi, the legal community’s reaction has been somewhat ho-hum. There are some reasons for that. 

Use of ChatGBT By Legal Professionals

ChatGBT uses a public database–the internet–to derive its answers. At the risk of oversimplification, ChatGPT works by predicting what word will follow another phrase or word. Hence, using all publicly available information to make this prediction could result in some limited or specialized content being missed or misinterpreted. But this specialized content is often needed to answer legally related inquiries. 

Continue Reading Generative AI In Legal Needs Specialized Applications

I came across an article on LinkedIn recently by a former partner of mine. Rob Hickey is an outstanding litigator here in Louisville. While Rob is a defense trial lawyer, his article details some tips for plaintiffs’ lawyers based on his years of experience trying cases and litigating. The article also has some good tips for all of us practice lawyers as well. While there isn’t much about technology here, I applaud Rob for being innovative and courageous to offer helpful advice to the other side of the aisle.

The advice was so good, I reached out to Rob and asked him if I could post his article on my block to which he graciously agreed. I would like to thank Rob. Rob is in the Louisville office of Kopka Pinkus Dolin law firm and concentrates his practice on trucking liability defense, motor vehicle liability defense and general liability defense.

Here is his guest post.

Ten Tips for Plaintiff Personal Injuries From a Defense Lawyer

Continue Reading Guest Post: Ten Tips for Being a More Effective Plaintiff Personal Injury Lawyer (From a Defense Lawyer)

For the first time since I have attended LegalWeek, it didn’t snow. (LegalWeek is the legal tech conference for Biglaw. The products are marketed toward a big law audience). While the lack of snow sounds inconsequential, just as the weather for this LegalWeek was different, we may be on the cusp of fundamental change in the legal industry.

There was lots of chatter and, well, hype about ChatGPT and generative AI. Tools that allow people to ask a question or for a task to be done and get a result. An AI tool that can write articles and memoranda for you. 

And everyone seems to think generative AI is going to change the profession immediately. Many claim that the conversational ability of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools will make it so powerful that it will disrupt the legal industry.

Continue Reading LegalWeek 2023: A Sea Change in the Profession?

Last week, I posted on the issue of whether law schools should be teaching students how to use tools like ChatGPT. After I posted this, James Lau, well known legal tech author, and former Chief Legal Officer, pointed out to me that Open AI, GPT-4 Technical Report, 14 March 2023, states, “In particular, our usage policies prohibit the use of our models and products in the contexts of high risk government decision making (e.g., law enforcement, criminal justice, migration, and asylum), or for offering legal or health advice.” (page 6)

Continue Reading ChatGPT 4: Do Lawyers Know Just Enough to Be Dangerous?