Should Venture Capitalists Compete with Law Firm Partners and Judges?
January 22, 2017

A partner in a prominent San-Francisco-Bay-area venture capital firm recently told me, “The tech sector is eating the world. ...

Incorporate Technology Because It’s What Your Clients Expect From You As A Professional
January 21, 2017

Times are not changing. Times have changed. If you hit your stride 20 years ago and are doing just fine with your Dewey decimal...

Another Reason Why Law School Enrollment Figures Won’t Recover
January 14, 2017

Demographics tell us that the number of potential students in the typical age group is declining. Undergraduate institutions are already feeling the consequences. We’re next. From the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Daily Briefing (Dec. 15): Most enrollment officers focus on two goals year-round: making enrollment numbers and net tuition revenue. But as the number of high-school graduates declines, it's tougher for colleges to attract enough students and still cover expenses. Here are some...

A Technician in the Robot Revolution
January 8, 2017

The machines have already consolidated their gains in automated industries and are continuing their migration into white-collar work. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing, the “next generation” of computing, will render most paperwork (and pushers of paper) redundant. Even contracts, the bread and butter of most lawyers, will be automated—there are already small-scale examples of self-executing “smart contracts.” In terms of litigation, not only are computers demonstrating...

Is the Law Firm Financial Model Unsustainable?
January 7, 2017

The answer may be yes. From the ABA Journal online: Law firm partners are reaping “soaring” profits amid flat demand for law firm services, creating “an unsustainable model” for law firms, according to the co-founder of a company that developed virtual workplace technology. Writing at Forbes, Mark Cohen says an increasing percentage of legal services are being provided outside of law firms, even as partners are earning more. Law firms, he asserts, “have an unsustainable model that remains...

LegalZoom® Has a New Business Model
January 7, 2017

LegalZoom® which started as a legal document web site based on individual transactions is gradually shifting towards a new business...

Premonition: Motions Analyzer
January 6, 2017

Premonition, the Miami-based Artificial Intelligence company, releases Motions Analyzer, its latest report developed to increase the odds of winning in litigation by showing the win rate of motions in a particular court. By using the World’s largest litigation database, Motions Analyzer determines the best motion to make in developing a data-driven approach to litigation strategy with potentially better legal outcomes. For example, only Premonition knows a change of venue may be the best motion...

Predicting and Analyzing Factors in Patent Litigation
January 5, 2017

Patent litigation is an expensive and time-consuming process. To minimize its impact on the participants in the patent lifecycle,...

The 10 Most Important Legal Technology Developments Of 2016
January 4, 2017

Robert Ambrogi, The 10 Most Important Legal Technology Developments of 2016: 1.  The legal industry gets smart about artificial intelligence.  In my top 10 list last year, I considered it big news that AI had come to legal research in the form of ROSS Intelligence, a startup that uses IBM’s Watson platform to answer lawyers’ natural-language legal research questions. Just as last year closed out, another AI company, Premonition — which says it is applying AI to the largest legal database...

Law School Enrollment Trends Over 40+ Years
January 2, 2017

Useful charts here.  JD enrollment has stabilized, though well below its peak; non-JD enrollment has spiked as law schools...