Earlier this month, I wrote about an innovative program in Pennsylvania. The program is designed to get younger lawyers more trial and courtroom experience. As part of that program, called Project Litigate, a related Judicial Task Force also is looking at ways to do the same thing. These recommendations include such things as making room for younger lawyers to argue motions in court. Pennsylvania judges have committed to have oral hearings on motions that might otherwise be decided on briefs–if a younger lawyer is involved is one way to do this.

Continue Reading More Judges Recognize the Need for Younger Lawyers to Get Courtroom Experience

One of my favorite podcasts is Legal Speak, produced by Charles Garner. The topics are always interesting. The guests consistently offer thought-provoking ideas and positions.

Last week’s episode was entitled Why There Will Never Be a One-Size-Fits-All Solution to the Remote Work Conundrum. The podcast consisted of an interview by Patrick Smith with Ira Coleman, chairman of the large law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

It’s important at the outset to recognize and commend Coleman and his firm on the remote work issue. Many of his opinions recognized and were sensitive to the needs of lawyers. Many of his views were nuanced and recognize the needs of associates for flexibility in their work lives. Much more than many law firms, he and his firm demonstrate forward thinking and a recognition of new work realities.


But somewhat contrary to the title, Coleman’s position seemed to be that data supports the idea that lawyers (mainly associates) who work in an office somehow perform better. Better than those associates who work more at home. 

Continue Reading Remote Work: Lawyers Can’t Handle the Truth

Steve Schwartz, the lawyer in New York who improperly used ChatGPT recently, was all the news last week. For those who don’t know, Schwartz says he used ChatGPt to prepare a Brief filed with a court. The Brief included some case citations that ChatGPT supplied. The problem was the cases didn’t exit. They were hallucinations.

Photo by ilgmyzin on Unsplash

While many were quick to blame the tech, the real problem was not the tech. It was that Schwartz didn’t check the citations. He didn’t read the cases. I would guess that he wouldn’t have read cases supplied by online legal research. He wouldn’t have read the cases found by manual legal research and cited by his associates in a memorandum.

Continue Reading Judicial Treatment of ChatGPT: Throwing the Baby Out With the Bath?

Like many of you, I watched and listened to the Keynote that kicked off Apple’s World Wide Development Conference on June 5.

Frankly, I was blown away by the introduction of the Apple Vision Pro device. It undoubtedly has some great attributes as a consumer product (gaming, photos, movies, and sports viewing). But in the long run, it also has the potential power to disrupt the business and legal community in perhaps profound ways.

I know; I have heard all the naysayers. People won’t want it. It’s too immersive; it won’t work. It’s just an expensive gadget to supplement what other Apple products— like desktop computers, laptops, and iPads—already to some extent do. And the price ($3599) is just too damn high for a toy to watch movies on.

Continue Reading Vision Pro May Change The Way We Work. Lawyers Too

It’s well known that there are fewer and fewer civil jury trials. Which means less opportunity for younger lawyers to gain trial experience. Given the importance of jury trials to our system, Pennsylvania has decided to do something about it.

I recently listened to a Legal Speak Podcast in which Aleeza Furman interviewed Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue. Justice Donohue talked about a new program she recently helped institute called Project Litigate. The program will create more opportunities for junior lawyers to get trial and courtroom experience and hone their skills. It stems from the sad fact that there are fewer and fewer trials.

I have written before about the dangers of the reduced number of trials. Justice Donohue cited some alarming statistics in Pennsylvania. In 1997 in Pennsylvania some 2116 civil cases were tried to a jury verdict. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, only 706 cases were tried by juries. I suspect that post-pandemic, there will be even less. Pennsylvania is not unique in this regard. Says Donohue, “Younger attorneys need the opportunity to stand up on their feet and present their cause to the judge and jury.”

Continue Reading Pennsylvania Tackles The Dearth of Jury Trials

“It’s a game changer when the game has changed.”

Richard Tromans.

There has been a lot of speculation lately about the significant impact large language models (LLM) will have on the future of law practice. The theory goes that these models will tremendously reduce the time lawyers spend on many tasks. This reduction, in turn, will force lawyers and law firms to rethink the financial business models upon which the firms have primarily been built. Law firms will be forced to change what they do, especially when clients demand it. And many pundits think this sea change will happen quickly.

Richard Tromans, a thought leader in the industry, writer of the blog artificiallawyer and the force behind the well-known and ground breaking Legal Innovators conferences, reccenlyt weighed in on these theories. 

In a recent podcast interview and an excellent subsequent article, he analyzes change in the legal industry and what has to happen for real change to occur. Tromans concludes that change in legal will not come easily. Or quickly. (Tromans is hosting the U.S. version of Legal Innovators conference in San Francisco on June 7-8, at which the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and LLMs on the legal industry will no doubt be a topic of substantial discussion.)

Continue Reading Generative AI and Legal: Its Not a Game Changer Until the Game Has Changed

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
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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