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What Predicts Law Student Success? A Longitudinal Study Correlating Law Student Applicant Data and Law School Outcomes
May 29, 2016
Despite the rise of “big data” empiricism, law school admission remains heavily impressionistic; admission decisions rely on anecdotes about recent students, idiosyncratic preferences for certain majors or jobs, or mainly the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Yet no predictors are well-validated and studies of the LSAT or other factors fail to control for other factors. The lack of evidence for what actually predicts law school success is especially surprising since, after the 2010s downturn,...
May 29, 2016
Despite the rise of “big data” empiricism, law school admission remains heavily impressionistic; admission decisions rely on anecdotes about recent students, idiosyncratic preferences for certain majors or jobs, or mainly the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Yet no predictors are well-validated and studies of the LSAT or other factors fail to control for other factors. The lack of evidence for what actually predicts law school success is especially surprising since, after the 2010s downturn,...
BakerHostetler Hires A.I. Lawyer, Ushers In The Legal Apocalypse
May 27, 2016
When Jeopardy superchampion Ken Jennings fell to IBM’s Watson, a chill fell over the ranks of white-collar professionals who saw the cold, merciless grip of technology tightening its grip around their hearts just as surely as the steam hammer did in John Henry. Lawyers in particular recognized that the slayer of the Jennings dragon wasn’t destined to stalk syndicated television, making Alex Trebek’s contestant chit-chat, almost improbably, more stilted and awkward. No, Watson was coming for our jobs. As...
May 27, 2016
When Jeopardy superchampion Ken Jennings fell to IBM’s Watson, a chill fell over the ranks of white-collar professionals who saw the cold, merciless grip of technology tightening its grip around their hearts just as surely as the steam hammer did in John Henry. Lawyers in particular recognized that the slayer of the Jennings dragon wasn’t destined to stalk syndicated television, making Alex Trebek’s contestant chit-chat, almost improbably, more stilted and awkward. No, Watson was coming for our jobs. As...
Bryan Garner’s 3 Neglected Keys To Effective Advocacy
May 26, 2016
Here are his three keys: 1. Advocates should use deep issues — that is, multisentence issue statements ending in a question mark by the 75th word. The one-sentence issue should be banned. This might diverge from what you learned in your legal writing class in law school. But it is, as Justice Scalia put it, Garner’s “greatest contribution to advocacy.” According to Garner, the key thing in a case is to frame the issues properly. Yet many lawyers frame issues in a way that’s just...
May 26, 2016
Here are his three keys: 1. Advocates should use deep issues — that is, multisentence issue statements ending in a question mark by the 75th word. The one-sentence issue should be banned. This might diverge from what you learned in your legal writing class in law school. But it is, as Justice Scalia put it, Garner’s “greatest contribution to advocacy.” According to Garner, the key thing in a case is to frame the issues properly. Yet many lawyers frame issues in a way that’s just...
How Artificial Intelligence Helps Lawyers Compete in Today’s Data-Driven World
May 17, 2016
Later in May the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics will host the “CodeX FutureLaw Conference 2016,” a fourth annual...
May 17, 2016
Later in May the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics will host the “CodeX FutureLaw Conference 2016,” a fourth annual...
Towards A More Accurate Listing of Legal Tech Startups
May 15, 2016
A recent post of mine drew a lot of attention for stating that the number of legal startups had nearly tripled in two years. Relying on the Angel List roster of legal startups, I observed that the number had grown from 412 two years ago to 1,094 as of the date of my post, reflecting nearly threefold growth. (Just since my post, another nine companies were added to the list.) Over at Associate’s Mind, Keith Lee did what I should have done. He took a closer look at the Angel List roster. He found...
May 15, 2016
A recent post of mine drew a lot of attention for stating that the number of legal startups had nearly tripled in two years. Relying on the Angel List roster of legal startups, I observed that the number had grown from 412 two years ago to 1,094 as of the date of my post, reflecting nearly threefold growth. (Just since my post, another nine companies were added to the list.) Over at Associate’s Mind, Keith Lee did what I should have done. He took a closer look at the Angel List roster. He found...
Technology: Breaking the Law
May 14, 2016
The widening gap between legal fees and what most companies can afford to pay makes the profession ripe for ‘Uberisation’ One sector, however, has carried on as if technology had never been invented: the law. Lawyers’ working practices “have not changed much since the time of Charles Dickens”, say father-and-son team Richard and Daniel Susskind in their book, The Future of the Professions. Lawyers still provide high-cost customised advice. The highest-earning legal partners preside...
May 14, 2016
The widening gap between legal fees and what most companies can afford to pay makes the profession ripe for ‘Uberisation’ One sector, however, has carried on as if technology had never been invented: the law. Lawyers’ working practices “have not changed much since the time of Charles Dickens”, say father-and-son team Richard and Daniel Susskind in their book, The Future of the Professions. Lawyers still provide high-cost customised advice. The highest-earning legal partners preside...
Avvo CEO Says New Legal Forms Offering Will Help Steer Self-Help Consumers to Lawyers
May 7, 2016
After reporting yesterday on Avvo’s launch of Avvo Legal Forms, I had an opportunity to speak today with the company’s CEO, Mark Britton, who is in Las Vegas, where he is attending Avvo’s annual Lawyernomics conference. After my post yesterday, Ken Adams of the blog Adams on Contract Drafting wrote a post criticizing the new offering as “a real stinker.” That Avvo has the gall to announce this dreck with some fanfare isn’t simply a failure on Avvo’s part. It’s symptomatic of a broader...
May 7, 2016
After reporting yesterday on Avvo’s launch of Avvo Legal Forms, I had an opportunity to speak today with the company’s CEO, Mark Britton, who is in Las Vegas, where he is attending Avvo’s annual Lawyernomics conference. After my post yesterday, Ken Adams of the blog Adams on Contract Drafting wrote a post criticizing the new offering as “a real stinker.” That Avvo has the gall to announce this dreck with some fanfare isn’t simply a failure on Avvo’s part. It’s symptomatic of a broader...
Law Firms, Law Schools Focusing on New Data Analysis Tools
May 7, 2016
Stanford Law School and Sullivan & Cromwell team up for FCPA clearinghouse, while McDermott Will & Emery offers corporate services Law schools and law firms are providing new tools to help clients deal with increasing amounts of data. In one case, Stanford Law School and Sullivan & Cromwell recently launched the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Clearinghouse (FCPAC), a public database that aggregates and curates source documents and provides analytics tools related to enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt...
May 7, 2016
Stanford Law School and Sullivan & Cromwell team up for FCPA clearinghouse, while McDermott Will & Emery offers corporate services Law schools and law firms are providing new tools to help clients deal with increasing amounts of data. In one case, Stanford Law School and Sullivan & Cromwell recently launched the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Clearinghouse (FCPAC), a public database that aggregates and curates source documents and provides analytics tools related to enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt...
Texas Bar President Plans Legal Incubator
May 3, 2016
Dallas lawyer Frank Stevenson hopes to kill three birds with one stone during his upcoming year as State Bar of Texas president. Stevenson plans to guide the state bar to launch a legal incubator for young attorneys who want to serve low- and middle-income Texans. The incubator will aim to provide employment for young attorneys and also address the "justice gap" that occurs when low- and middle-income people can't afford to hire lawyers, he explained. Stevenson said he hopes the incubator will...
May 3, 2016
Dallas lawyer Frank Stevenson hopes to kill three birds with one stone during his upcoming year as State Bar of Texas president. Stevenson plans to guide the state bar to launch a legal incubator for young attorneys who want to serve low- and middle-income Texans. The incubator will aim to provide employment for young attorneys and also address the "justice gap" that occurs when low- and middle-income people can't afford to hire lawyers, he explained. Stevenson said he hopes the incubator will...
Why Embracing AI is in Your Best Interest
May 1, 2016
Artificial intelligence has long been a tool for lawyers to perform their tasks more efficiently. However, the technology has advanced to the point where computers can now perform many of the tasks that were once the exclusive domain of humans. In this month’s Asked and Answered, the ABA Journal’s Victor Li talks to freelance writer Julie Sobowale about how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the practice of law. Julie Sobowale is a freelance journalist and lawyer based in Halifax,...
May 1, 2016
Artificial intelligence has long been a tool for lawyers to perform their tasks more efficiently. However, the technology has advanced to the point where computers can now perform many of the tasks that were once the exclusive domain of humans. In this month’s Asked and Answered, the ABA Journal’s Victor Li talks to freelance writer Julie Sobowale about how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the practice of law. Julie Sobowale is a freelance journalist and lawyer based in Halifax,...
