I will be creating a series of blog posts on the following topics as I have attended various events this Autumn which revolved around the exciting yet new focus of legal tech and AI. This is for my own understanding but also thought it would be useful to share my findings with others and to ensure that we can make use of the resources available (there is so much out there!):
Legal Tech
Fintech
AI
Bitcoin
Smart contracts
Cryptocurrency
Social media
The pace of change is definitely increasing (!) Lawyers must stay up to date and to help us do that, legal tech or law tech has initiated several efficient methods which lawyers have (or may not have…) embraced in the workplace.
As a definition, law tech can be seen as:
managing risk whilst providing operational excellence, and
supporting or replacing traditional methods of deliverance of legal services to improve such services within the justice system
It is not just the legal industry interested in technology.
The benefits of LawTech may include:
increased efficiency, productivity and growth
reduced costs
better outcomes for clients and organisations
For litigants, the court system is also embracing technological change, with a shift towards electronic filings, e-bundles and video hearings.
The technological innovations that allow law firms to improve their efficiency and lower costs to clients can’t be taken analysed in isolation. Too often, firms invest in the latest shiny new tech – only to be disappointed with how it’s used by its lawyers (or not); how it’s integrated into the rest of the firm’s process management systems (or not).
Types of legal tech
Various firms are using different types of tech within their firms or created for their clients:
Document management platforms – firms have replaced such systems over the past 12 months with products such as iManage Cloud and NetDocuments, with more firms to join the club!
Automation of drafting of legal documents, using products such as ContractExpress or Servant
Time recording is the system that has most commonly been replaced over the past 12 months, with firms using new products, including Intapp Time and Expert Time.
Firms are more likely to provide on a mobile basis to their fee-earners.
Document review – the Luminance technology reads and understands contracts and other legal documents in any language, finding significant information and anomalies without any instruction. Trained by legal experts for use in practise, this technology is founded on pattern recognition and machine intelligence
Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence tools – this enables firms to detect patterns in data and then apply them to new data, to ‘learn’ what the outcome should or should not be – something which is particularly useful to due diligence and has the potential to save thousands of human hours on a single project.
Use of Technology
I attended the series of LegalCheek Autumn events and one common theme was tech. In the Legalcheek’s Commercial Awareness Question time, the panel discussed the use of technology:
David Regan, director of labour & employment at Squire Patton Boggs: whether the use of tech is a disrupter or an effective tool depends on what you use AI for example, process automation which increases profits, this will make it an effective tool
Michael Luckman, intellectual property partner at Gowling WLG: AI is not just a process, it will replace some of the tasks as a junior lawyer as it can do it faster and it will be programmed to make judgements but computers will ‘not take over’
In the Legalcheek’s technology and business panel discussion at Herbert Smith Freehills, the lawyers engaged in a brilliant discussion around various topics which included AI, smart contracts and law firms as businesses:
Jamie, a trainee who started his own website at the age of 14, before choosing to start his legal career. He brings a tech side to his law and sees the two as merging so embrace tech, lawyers!
Kushal is a senior associate who recently joined the firm’s digital group and shared a great insight into her journey. She shares 4 tips to keep you going as a transactional lawyer:
Multitasking
Thinking on your feet
Being adaptable
Being curious
Matthew is an innovation facilitator who works directly with the lawyers, staying up to date with tech and law. Looking back, he wishes he didn’t stay in positions for longer than he had but currently enjoys what he does and the impact it has.
On whether LawTech will replace lawyers or not, the Law Society has stated that it does not believe that LawTech will ever replace lawyers. The provision of legal advice requires a solicitor to best meet the client’s needs. Technology can enable lawyers to spend more time practising law, rather than engaging in more routine or less efficient tasks, and this is to be welcomed.
Personally, I don’t agree that technology will replace lawyers; it may replace specific mundane tasks but it will never have the empathetic side of ‘humans’ and empathy is needed as legal service providers. Having said this, this is something that clients will need to understand as they may request a reduction in costs although ‘some’ time has been saved and not a complete replacement of the services lawyers have done in drafting and negotiating on their behalf, for instance. I also do agree that law and tech are merging and so lawyers should embrace this.
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