legal tech/innovation

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It’s an accepted truism that lawyers and law firms are notoriously slow to adopt technology. With all the publicity surrounding new technology and automation, it’s tempting for law firms and lawyers to rush to some tech—any tech—hoping that technology will somehow miraculously solve all their problems. But it won’t unless the tech adoption is carefully considered and well thought out. Ill-considered tech adoption often has the opposite effect from that which is intended. Poor adoption will sour users on tech in general and further exacerbate the reluctance to use any tech—even that which can help.

But the legal tech field is full of products and vendors, all offering what they trumpet as the be all and end all solution. So how do busy lawyers and legal professionals figure out what and how to adopt tech?

Here are ten tips:Continue Reading Want To Better Integrate Legal Technology? Ten Tips for Successful Selection and Implementation

Several articles have recently discussed the claim by a Google computer scientist that a Google AI system was a sentient being. The scientist, Blake Lemoine, used his interview with the AI program to support his claim that the program appears to have consciousness. If you go by some of the interview responses, I got to wonder whether a lot of lawyers can be considered sentient.

For those who don’t know, sentient refers to the ability to perceive or feel things. The general thinking is that only humans are sentient and in the club. Animals (Dogs? Cats?) are not. Certainly, computers are not.Continue Reading Are Lawyers Sentient?

Well, I did it. Sort of. At the beginning of 2021, I set a goal of posting once a week on this blog. I didn’t hit a post every week, but I ended up posting 52 times for an average of once per week. I hit my goal despite a lengthy hospital stay of someone close in early 2021, a personal bout of breakthrough Covid, and numerous other minor and not so minor setbacks, slights, and ups and downs.

Some posts I know were better than others. Some too long. Some too short. Some made little sense, but some, a precious few, were pretty good, I think.

In retrospect, I learned (or maybe relearned) four things about blogging in 2021.Continue Reading Four Things I (Re)Learned About Blogging 2021

As commentators, we often focus on those who can’t afford lawyers and are thus deprived in a tangible way to access to justice. We often focus on the very sophisticated purchasers of legal services. Large companies, for example, with full in-house legal departments. We often don’t talk about those in the middle: individuals and small businesses who, from time to time, need and must purchase legal services.

These individuals and businesses can afford some level of legal assistance. But they lack the sophistication, knowledge, and financial resources of more significant purchasers. I call this group the Middle. It should come as no surprise that the perceptions of those in the Middle of lawyers and the legal service they get and pay for are pretty poor.Continue Reading Lawyers Are An Alien Herd

LexisNexis today announced its latest enhancement to its Lexis+ platform, Judicial Brief Analysis. Besides the bells and whistles, there are three noteworthy things.

LexisNexis today announced its latest enhancement to its Lexis+ platform, Judicial Brief Analysis. According to the LexisNexis Press Release, Judicial Brief Analysis is designed to quickly identify similarities and differences in opposing filings across multiple documents. It thus can help assess the strengths and weaknesses of the argument on both sides of a matter. It’s an AI-based research tool that can compare briefs and present the analysis in a smooth, impressive dashboard. This elegant dashboard will:

Continue Reading 3 Things About LexisNexis’ New Judicial Brief Analysis Tool That Aren’t Bells & Whistles

On September 14, Law360 Pulse released its annual Glass Ceiling Report. The Report summarizes Law 360’s Survey of women in law firms for 2020. Every time I hear about one of these Surveys, I hope for once, it will reveal some real progress. But they never do: just like the Law 360 Diversity Survey results previously discussed, the Glass Ceiling results are discouraging. Not just discouraging. Embarrassing. It makes me mad. It ought to make us all angry.

Continue Reading Law360 2020 Glass Ceiling Survey: Little Change for Women in Law Firms

The truth is law is just not a client service driven business. And it looks like the pandemic has done little to change that.
Wolters Kluwer’s 3rd annual Future Ready Lawyer Survey came out this week. The Survey seeks to demonstrate how (or maybe how little) the legal profession is evolving. How ready (or how little) the profession is prepared for the future.
 
Lots of data and statistics that  pundits like Bob Ambrogi and Richard Tromans have studied and analyzed and provided their views of what the data all means.  What it shows, particularly in the legal tech and innovation space. Lots of good points here as always.
But one set of non-tech statistics from the Survey caught my eye.(Just like it did with last year’s Study btw). And it has to do with client satisfaction. Here’s what Wolters learned about the attributes clients most value in their outside lawyers—-and how well those lawyers meet their clients’ expectations:

Continue Reading The Wolters Kluwer Future Lawyer Survey: Law Just Ain’t Client Service Driven

The standard advice used to be for lawyers to model their client service after Starbucks. Make the experience and service fantastic. But if the current state of Starbucks service (and that offered by many other businesses) post-Covid is any indication, that’s the worst model for lawyers. A better model: double down on customer service and experience.

I recently had the following exchange with Starbucks support:Continue Reading Lawyers: (Don’t) Be Like Starbucks

Most recognize that cloud computing will be the new norm for lawyers, if it’s not already. But not just because of the usual cited reasons of accessibility, efficiency or security.
 
I chat periodically with David Carns, Chief Revenue Officer of Casepoint, to find out what his company is up to. But also to get his take on what’s going on in the legal tech world.
 Casepoint is an e-discovery cloud-based provider. It offers data-based intelligence and full-spectrum eDiscovery, including cloud collections, and review and customizable productions. It also data processing, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence service. I have written several posts about the company and our chats.

Continue Reading On-Prem v. The Cloud. It’s Game Over

I was pleased to hear the recent announcement that Natalie Kelly, the former Director of Law Practice Management for the Georgia State Bar Association, has accepted the position of Director of Legal Management at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC or Center).

Natalie is one of my favorite people. Since I hadn’t had the chance to talk with her in a while, I reached out to Natalie recently. I wanted to get her thoughts about her new position. We talked about her new job, the SPLC itself, legal tech, and even the responsibility of law firms and law firm leaders to speak out against hate.Continue Reading Natalie Kelly: Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, Enhancing Justice