Just in time for LegalTech: Richard Susskind on the future of information technologies in the legal world
We first met Richard Susskind in 2008 at the launch of his book The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services and then again in 2010 when he was the keynote speaker at the ABA TECHSHOW. We then had the chance of doing a video interview with him at Georgetown Law during Georgetown’s “Law Firm Evolution” conference.
His main points have always been :
1. Deep and rapid technological advances (of the disruptive kind) leading to major threats to various aspects of the traditional law firm business model
2. Relentless connectivity, and the burgeoning electronic legal marketplace
3. The “decomposition of legal tasks” into component parts that can be delegated to various sources: in-sourcing, relocating, offshoring, outsourcing, subcontracting
We had the chance to see him speak again last year at LawTech Camp London, a rather innovative event on law and technology run by Michigan State University which sponsors a new “law laboratory” called Reinvent Law to showcase innovation in the profession.
His latest book is now out in paperback, Tomorrow’s Lawyers, An Introduction to Your Future,… Read more
From the Sundance Film Festival: “Google And The World Brain” – the failed book settlement and the world’s knowledge in the hands of a corporation
Valerie Pelton … a Principal of EAM Capital and its General Counsel … gets to go to all the cool media events. Well, she lived and worked in Hollywood for a number of years so why not? She recently came back from the Sundance Film Festival and said her favorite movie (a documentary) was “Google And The World Brain”. It examines the failed book settlement and questions whether placing the world’s knowledge in the hands of a corporation. Google, can after all, change its mind about levels of access to its scanning project without much oversight.
Note: last last year Google and the Association of American Publishers agreed to a settlement over making digital copies of books, but that settlement did not affect Google’s current litigation with the Authors Guild.
The problem is bigger than Google, with implications for all when major corporations gather intimate information about its customers. Implications aside, that’s what you get in a commerce driven world. She managed to hook up with Casey Newton,a CNET writer and old chum, who wrote a review of the … Read more
Law’s Information Revolution: On the advent of quantitative legal prediction in the professional legal services industry
No, not predictive coding or TAR, again. Well, ok, a little bit. But much more …
The use of quantitative prediction continues to shake up numerous professional services industries by automating or semi-automating tasks previously performed by experts. Professor Daniel Katz of Michigan State University has offered up an analysis of how quantitative prediction is already changing the legal services industry in a piece titled “Quantitative Legal Prediction – or – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Preparing for the Data Driven Future of the Legal Services Industry”.
Although Katz’s analysis focuses on legal services, the trends discussed can be applied to other professional service industries, including tax planning and accounting services. Quantitative prediction promises to automate or semi-automate many core questions asked by professionals and their clients: Do I have a case? What is our likely exposure? How much is this going to cost? Are these documents relevant? What will happen if we leave this particular provision out of this contract? How can we best staff this particular legal matter?
Professor Katz explains the technological developments … Read more