Practice
ABA TECHSHOW Post-Mortem: Not Your Granddaddy’s Legal Tech Conference
March 29, 2017
This year at TECHSHOW, sparks were a flyin’ everywhere, it seemed. New programming, new speakers and new features fueled a high level of energy. Yes, this was the venerable TECHSHOW, where you can still find exhibitors who’ve been there every year since 1986, but the atmosphere felt as fresh and energetic as at any contemporary conference. Credit for this goes to the planning board and its chair this year, Adriana Linares. Not without opposition, Linares pushed through several initiatives...
March 29, 2017
This year at TECHSHOW, sparks were a flyin’ everywhere, it seemed. New programming, new speakers and new features fueled a high level of energy. Yes, this was the venerable TECHSHOW, where you can still find exhibitors who’ve been there every year since 1986, but the atmosphere felt as fresh and energetic as at any contemporary conference. Credit for this goes to the planning board and its chair this year, Adriana Linares. Not without opposition, Linares pushed through several initiatives...
IBM’s Watson Makes New Inroads Into Legal With Discovery, Business Research Offerings
March 28, 2017
IBM's announced expansion of Watson Discovery Service and the launch of Watson Company Profiler looks to further the AI platform's e-discovery and search technology. IBM's artificial intelligence-powered cognitive computing platform Watson has come a long way from its days playing "Jeopardy." Deployed last year for legal professionals as the engine behind legal research platform ROSS , Watson has recently made further inroads into the legal space with the December 2016 launch of Watson Discovery...
March 28, 2017
IBM's announced expansion of Watson Discovery Service and the launch of Watson Company Profiler looks to further the AI platform's e-discovery and search technology. IBM's artificial intelligence-powered cognitive computing platform Watson has come a long way from its days playing "Jeopardy." Deployed last year for legal professionals as the engine behind legal research platform ROSS , Watson has recently made further inroads into the legal space with the December 2016 launch of Watson Discovery...
Microsoft and Google’s Cloud Tools Compete for Attorney Attention
March 25, 2017
As cloud hosting becomes a staple of law firm and in-house legal department technology strategies, a few power hitters have risen to the top of the heap. Perhaps as no surprise, forefront among those top players are Microsoft's Office 365 and Google's G-Suite. Microsoft and Google both offer software alongside data storage in their respective cloud offerings. Support for tool integration and real-time collaboration seem to distinguish one offering from the other. Traditionally, Microsoft's...
March 25, 2017
As cloud hosting becomes a staple of law firm and in-house legal department technology strategies, a few power hitters have risen to the top of the heap. Perhaps as no surprise, forefront among those top players are Microsoft's Office 365 and Google's G-Suite. Microsoft and Google both offer software alongside data storage in their respective cloud offerings. Support for tool integration and real-time collaboration seem to distinguish one offering from the other. Traditionally, Microsoft's...
Pepperdine University Announces Paul L. Caron as Dean of the School of Law
March 18, 2017
Currently associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of law, Caron will formally begin his responsibilities as dean on June 1, 2017. Paul L. Caron has been named the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law. Caron, currently associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of law, will formally begin his responsibilities as dean on June 1, 2017. “Since his first days as a distinguished visiting scholar through his selection as a tenured...
March 18, 2017
Currently associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of law, Caron will formally begin his responsibilities as dean on June 1, 2017. Paul L. Caron has been named the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law. Caron, currently associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of law, will formally begin his responsibilities as dean on June 1, 2017. “Since his first days as a distinguished visiting scholar through his selection as a tenured...
Law Firm MinterEllison Launches JV to Develop Legal AI Technology
March 17, 2017
The MinterEllison project in New Zealand is different in that it is specifically looking at building a legal AI application, most other law firms that have invested in or supported new legal tech have had a more general outlook. Also, this JV is focused on creating just one standalone legal AI business and is not seeking to support start-ups in general or seeking to be an incubator or accelerator to other legal tech businesses.
March 17, 2017
The MinterEllison project in New Zealand is different in that it is specifically looking at building a legal AI application, most other law firms that have invested in or supported new legal tech have had a more general outlook. Also, this JV is focused on creating just one standalone legal AI business and is not seeking to support start-ups in general or seeking to be an incubator or accelerator to other legal tech businesses.
Prof. Richard Susskind on Upgrading Justice
March 16, 2017
Professor Richard Susskind delivered an address at Harvard Law School earlier this month. His talks on the future of law practice are well-known and we have seen many of his predictions already come true. Thanks to Harvard for posting the video. It would have been even better if the camera operator had panned up to give us a glance at his presentation slides. If you are a lawyer and have never listened to Prof. Susskind, you should take advantage of this opportunity. If you have heard him years ago,...
March 16, 2017
Professor Richard Susskind delivered an address at Harvard Law School earlier this month. His talks on the future of law practice are well-known and we have seen many of his predictions already come true. Thanks to Harvard for posting the video. It would have been even better if the camera operator had panned up to give us a glance at his presentation slides. If you are a lawyer and have never listened to Prof. Susskind, you should take advantage of this opportunity. If you have heard him years ago,...
Clifford Chance and Neota Develop MiFID II Toolkit
March 11, 2017
Clifford Chance and Neota Logic have developed an automated client toolkit to help financial institutions assess and address the impact of MiFID II, which comes into force in January 2018 and is one of the most complex and wide-ranging pieces of legislation to come out of the European Union since the financial crisis of 2008. Using Neota Logic’s sophisticated decision tree software, the Clifford Chance application allows firms to filter thousands of pages of regulation and legislation by their...
March 11, 2017
Clifford Chance and Neota Logic have developed an automated client toolkit to help financial institutions assess and address the impact of MiFID II, which comes into force in January 2018 and is one of the most complex and wide-ranging pieces of legislation to come out of the European Union since the financial crisis of 2008. Using Neota Logic’s sophisticated decision tree software, the Clifford Chance application allows firms to filter thousands of pages of regulation and legislation by their...
This Week In Legal Tech: Rating Lawyers By Their Wins And Losses
March 10, 2017
Lawyers will give you any number of reasons why their win-loss rates in court are not accurate reflections of their legal skills. Yet a growing number of companies are evaluating lawyers by this standard – compiling and analyzing lawyers’ litigation track records to help consumers and businesses make more-informed hiring decisions. The latest to do this is Justice Toolbox, a startup that uses data mined from official state court records to compute and display how many cases a lawyer has won and lost...
March 10, 2017
Lawyers will give you any number of reasons why their win-loss rates in court are not accurate reflections of their legal skills. Yet a growing number of companies are evaluating lawyers by this standard – compiling and analyzing lawyers’ litigation track records to help consumers and businesses make more-informed hiring decisions. The latest to do this is Justice Toolbox, a startup that uses data mined from official state court records to compute and display how many cases a lawyer has won and lost...
JPMorgan Software Does in Seconds What Took Lawyers 360,000 Hours
March 9, 2017
At JPMorgan Chase & Co., a learning machine is parsing financial deals that once kept legal teams busy for thousands of hours. The program, called COIN, for Contract Intelligence, does the mind-numbing job of interpreting commercial-loan agreements that, until the project went online in June, consumed 360,000 hours of work each year by lawyers and loan officers. The software reviews documents in seconds, is less error-prone and never asks for vacation. While the financial industry has long...
March 9, 2017
At JPMorgan Chase & Co., a learning machine is parsing financial deals that once kept legal teams busy for thousands of hours. The program, called COIN, for Contract Intelligence, does the mind-numbing job of interpreting commercial-loan agreements that, until the project went online in June, consumed 360,000 hours of work each year by lawyers and loan officers. The software reviews documents in seconds, is less error-prone and never asks for vacation. While the financial industry has long...
Law Society Calls on Law Firms to Embrace New Legal Tech and AI
February 27, 2017
The Law Society of England & Wales has stated that it wants to help law firms adopt the latest legal technologies, including AI, as well as invest in start-ups, in a report published this week titled ‘Capturing Technological Innovation in Legal Services’. The report, which looked at where the current state of legal technology is, gives a broad and eclectic overview of what various interviewees think. But, perhaps the most interesting aspect is the Law Society’s determination to play...
February 27, 2017
The Law Society of England & Wales has stated that it wants to help law firms adopt the latest legal technologies, including AI, as well as invest in start-ups, in a report published this week titled ‘Capturing Technological Innovation in Legal Services’. The report, which looked at where the current state of legal technology is, gives a broad and eclectic overview of what various interviewees think. But, perhaps the most interesting aspect is the Law Society’s determination to play...
