I’m happy to once again by in Las Vegas for the world’s biggest consumer electronics and technolgy show, CES. Like last year, I’m covering the show for Above the Law. Here is my preview of this year’s Show, along with my thoughts on why the Show is so relevant to legal. I wll be offering more insights and analysis as the week goes on!
Why Lawyers Can’t Let Go: Identity, Privilege and The Impact on Clients
To whom much is given, much is required.
Several years ago, my firm held a departure party for me as I transitioned from the full-time practice of law to full-time blogger and legal tech commenter. One of my peers, who I had practiced with for most of my career, walked up to me and said, “I sure wish I could do what you are doing.” I had known this guy most of my career and knew he had the resources to do something else and had expressed the desire to do so several times. So I said, Dave, there’s nothing stopping you from doing the same thing. He replied, I just can’t. Being a lawyer is not what I do, its who I am.
Continue Reading Why Lawyers Can’t Let Go: Identity, Privilege and The Impact on ClientsPrivilege In the Age of Gen AI: Lots of Questions
With any new technology, questions of discovery and privilege inevitably arise. As a recent New Mexico case demonstrates, that’s certainly true of Gen AI.
The Tremblay Case
The case, Tremblay v. OpenAI, Inc., is pending in California District Court. The case involves claims that OpenAI was trained by using plaintiffs’ copyright materials. OpenAI sought to compel the plaintiffs to produce and obtain the prompts and responses the OpenAI tool used in pre-suit testing, including those responses the plaintiffs did not use to support their claims.
Continue Reading Privilege In the Age of Gen AI: Lots of QuestionsBillable Hour Tiers for Associates: Progressive or Lipstick on a Pig?
Bloomberg Law recently reported that the venerable firm Steptoe would allow associates to choose their own billable hour targets. The program will start next year. An associate can choose to bill 2200 hours and receive top pay, or they can opt for 2000 hours and make less, or 1800 hours and make even less. Associates reportedly elect to move to a different tier. Associates are allowed to bill fewer than 1800 hours and have their pay pro-rated accordingly.
Continue Reading Billable Hour Tiers for Associates: Progressive or Lipstick on a Pig?AI Insights for Legal: Ten Key Takeaways from Summit AI New York
As I recently wrote, I attended the Summit AI New York last week (which, as the name suggests, was in New York City). Summit AI is a global conference and exhibition focused on the application of AI in business in general as opposed to legal in specific. The numbers from the 2-day Conference are impressive: more than 4000 attendees, 400 speakers across 11 different areas, and over 100 sponsors and exhibitors.
The Conference has been held for several years. Summit AI is a series of conferences that, in addition to New York, are held in London, Las Vegas, Singapore, and other locations. (There was one law firm with a booth by the way. Foley and Lardner, a full-service lawyer with some 26 offices, had a well-staffed booth and told me they are regular attendees).
Continue Reading AI Insights for Legal: Ten Key Takeaways from Summit AI New YorkThe AI Summit Keynote: Don’t Let the Perfect Be the Enemy: Lessons from NYC’s AI Initiatives
This week, I am attending Summit AI New York. Summit AI is a global conference and exhibition focused on the application of AI in business in general as opposed to legal in specific.
As I have mentioned before, I like attending nonlegal tech conferences because they often yield insights we don’t get in our legal tech cocoon. That was certainly true from the opening Summit AI Keynote this morning.
The Keynote was a fireside chat with Matthew Fraser, the CTO for New York City. I almost didn’t attend the Keynote since I figured it would not yield anything possibly relevant to the law. But I was wrong.
Continue Reading The AI Summit Keynote: Don’t Let the Perfect Be the Enemy: Lessons from NYC’s AI InitiativesHave Big Law Firms Lost Their Cultural Soul?
It’s a common theme among law firm leaders, particularly big law firm leaders, to claim that their firms have some sort of vaunted “culture” that has been painstakingly developed over many years. This incredible culture, the theory goes, imbues the firm with some kind of wonderful familial aura, enabling the firm and its lawyers to respect a time-honored profession.
Based on what I’ve seen lately, I have to largely call bullshit on all that.
Continue Reading Have Big Law Firms Lost Their Cultural Soul?Generative AI and the New Era of Preventive Lawyering
One GenAI legal disruption that’s not talked much about is its potential to head off disputes and problems in advance. Elimination of disputes means less need for lawyers, particularly litigators. I have written about the potential for technology to do just this before. But GenAI and AI have the potential to advance preventive lawyering in ways we haven’t thought of. I learned of one interesting way in a recent conversation with Bruce Kiefer, Vice President of Software Engineering of OpenText.
Continue Reading Generative AI and the New Era of Preventive LawyeringThree Takeaways From NetDocuments’ Inspire 2024: GenAI, One Stop Services and BTW, We Need to Talk
The NetDocuments user conference, Inspire 2024, took place in Atlanta this week. NetDocuments is a sophisticated cloud-based document management system. It offers an end-to-end platform for document and email organization and management. NetDocuments has over 7,000 customers globally.
Three things stood out from the Conference.
- NetDocuments is positioning itself to be a player in the AI, GenAI, and automation market by combining these tools with its document management services platform.
- NetDocuments is positioning itself as a one stop platform for all document management services for customers’ content.
- Most importantly, the tools NetDocuments is offering and will offer in the future provide a glimpse into just how disruptive GenAI will be in the legal marketplace. And how ill-prepared we are for it.
Empowering Lawyer Leadership: K&L Gates and AltaClaro’s GenAI Supervisory Course for Partners. Yes, Partners.
AltaClaro, an innovative provider of interactive, experiential legal training (about which I have written before), recently announced the launch of a new course, Guiding Effective Use of GenAI: A Supervisory Course for Law Firm Partners.
The launch is noteworthy for several reasons. The course is unique in that it focuses not on summer associates or even associates but on partners and senior legal professionals. It’s specifically designed to equip partners and managers in law firms and in-house legal departments with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively oversee the use of Generative AI (GenAI) by everyone on their teams. AltaClaro developed the supervisory course in collaboration with K&L Gates law firm and its AI Solutions group. (Interestingly, according to Abdi Shayesteh, AltaClaro CEO, K&L was AltaClaro’s first client some five years ago).
Continue Reading Empowering Lawyer Leadership: K&L Gates and AltaClaro’s GenAI Supervisory Course for Partners. Yes, Partners.