More on the Man Who Wants to Replace Lawyers with Code
This post has been viewed 2,435 times.
The young entrepre-lawyer, Tim Hwang, who Forbes profiled as the man who wants to “replace lawyers with code” (and here) is featured again here as part of the ABA Journal’s “Legal Rebels” column. After graduating from Boalt Hall in 2013, Mr. Hwang spent part of last year working as an associate for Davis, Polk & Wardwell where he tested software that he believes will eventually replace the need to hire lawyers for many routine legal tasks like drafting articles of incorporation, employee contracts and non-compete agreements. Mr. Hwang recently started his own law firm (check out the firm’s attorney profile page – his partners are robots) where he continues to test and develop new legal practice software including an open source program called “Top Gun” that he told the ABA will let associates automate some of their workload so they can spend more time on complex client matters that require a more personalized, bespoked approach. Here’s an excerpt describing some of Mr. Hwang’s plan to automate law practice:
Seeing the possibilities of automation, Tim Hwang is working toward the death of practice-as-usual
. . . .
Once [Hwang] knew his software worked, he set about his real objective. Hwang set up his own law firm that would use technology to automate as much paperwork as possible, freeing up lawyers to concentrate on more complex matters.
. . . .
“Like any other firm, [Hwang’s law firm does] a lot of our work by hand at first and struggle through it so that we can learn the flow of it,” Hwang says. “The idea is to identify things that could be automated.”
One such area is the paperwork related to starting up a company. Hwang points out that drafting articles of incorporation and dealing with intellectual property assignments, employee contracts and nondisclosure agreements are tasks that can be automated; and they make up the bulk of the work the firm is currently doing. Hwang is also releasing software designed to automate document review and filings of initial public offerings.
“We intend to build up our database based on the work we get from clients,” Hwang says. “That will allow us to be more efficient on future projects. We can also charge our clients a flat fee.”
. . . .
And he has one eye toward the future, saying law firms will eventually be mostly automated, freeing up humans to handle complex matters as well as establishing large R&D divisions.
Read original articleTags:
