Uncategorized

Subscribe to Uncategorized via RSS

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 Casetext, LiquidText, and others have also jumped in recently.Continue Reading Big Legal Tech Embraces LLMs and Generative AI: Three Big Take Aways

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

possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash

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?