Tag Archives: Legal News

News, Tech, Tech Events

The legal technology landscape in 2024 and AI

Legal Software Suppliers Association members discussion with LSSA CEO Kevin Horlock

2023 saw generative AI take the world by storm, with individual law firms and the legal sector as a whole working to harness and capitalise on the capabilities that AI offers. What is next on the horizon as the sector considers the opportunities and challenges created by innovation?

In the first of a series of legal technology prediction articles LSSA CEO Kevin Horlock and expert LSSA members discuss the impact of AI.

Kevin asks,

“What is the impact of ChatGPT and other AI tools on the legal technology industry? How will this develop in 2024? “

John Flanagan, Head of Product at LEAP replies,

“Those of us of a certain vintage will remember many great sci-fi movies from the 1980s where computers with artificial intelligence have taken over the world and are at war with humans. From the outside AI can seem a risk, but not harnessing its potential is foolish. Where we are with AI is where we were with Cloud 15 years ago – if we as software businesses don’t use it, we will be left behind by those that do.”

John mentions that there are some who suggest that AI is no more than a manifestation of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, in that if you put enough computer processing power behind a question, it will eventually come out with the correct answer. He thinks that this is a misunderstanding of generative AI, which uses highly sophisticated algorithms and machine learning to analyse data to identify patterns and structures to produce coherent and meaningful output.

John adds, “In the legal sector, we will see the introduction of a co-pilot for the work you are undertaking. This co-pilot will digest huge quantities of data for the area of law, look at specific circumstances, reference case law and analyse other data to help you achieve the best outcome for your client.”

Chelsea Goldsby, Operations Director of Osprey Approach thinks that AI tools will inevitably impact the legal sector in the coming years – like most other sectors – enabling teams to produce work and service clients quicker, easier, more accurately and with ensured compliance.

Chelsea comments,

“AI isn’t just about tools like ChatGPT: it can be embedded into existing tools to enable them to work smarter. For SME law firms, it’s about a shift in mindset to be open to change and innovation. A cultural shift is needed to enable firms to take advantage of the AI opportunities as they come, encouraging experimentation, testing theories, and trial and error.

Utilising existing workflow automations, client-facing tools, or document production features – within your case management software for example – is a good start to using tech to your advantage. “

Oliver Tromp, UK Vice President of Action Step, expects that, in 2024, we will see an increase in existing legal technology suppliers leveraging large language models (LLMs) in the obvious areas: document automation, legal research, contract review, chatbots, etc. However, he also expects to see LLMs used in more complex ways such as compliance monitoring and predictive analytics. He thinks that law firms are a wealth of historical information, and the most innovative legal technology suppliers will help lawyers to leverage their own data to improve client service, efficiency and consistency.

Oliver says, “I also expect to see an increase in machine learning, specifically around time recording. Many legal professionals record time every day, and I expect to see time recording solutions become more intelligent and reliable at suggesting time entries based on the work that the lawyer has actually done. It’s also important to mention here that the adoption of this technology will also have a direct impact on security measures law firms take to protect their client and company data.”

Kevin Horlock, CEO LSSA summarises,

“Technological developments in software dedicated to the legal profession are taking great strides, as we see above.  As with all developments, they come with a health warning: protect your data at all costs.  What law firms need is software which meets their needs, both today and for the foreseeable future: in both cases, AI is proving a vital consideration.

We know that selecting the right package can put great pressure on hard-pressed practice-management staff and partners alike: yet that has to be the most important consideration for all law firms.  Get it right and the practice thrives, expands and works together: get it wrong and the practice stutters, loses clients and becomes fractious internally.  Because of all the technological developments we have seen recently, especially in AI, making a firm, initial specification of new or replacement software will continue to be the most important trend in the landscape of legal technology.”

This article is part of a wider discussion between the LSSA and its members about AI, cyberattacks and future trends and challenges in the legal technology sector.

For the full discussion article please visit: https://www.lssa.co.uk/the-legal-technology-landscape-in-2024-ai-cyberattacks-and-other-future-trends-and-challenges/

News

Robertsons Solicitors Announces Four New Directors

Robertsons Solicitors, a leading Welsh law firm, has recently announced the promotion of four new Directors, marking a significant milestone in the firm’s over 100 year history.

Helen Barry, recognised for her expertise in residential conveyancing, and Hannah Magee, distinguished for her reputation in family law, have been promoted to Director roles, reflecting their dedication to client service.

Joining them are William Baird, promoted to the position of Litigation Director, and Tom Sidford, appointed as Commercial Property Director, both acknowledged for their exceptional contributions to the firm’s success.

Director, Chris Barber commented, “We are thrilled to see the growth and accomplishment of these four outstanding individuals. Their promotions reflect not only their individual achievements but also the strength and excellence of our team at Robertsons Solicitors.”

Having established a new office in Newport and secured a victory in the Family Law Category at the Wales Legal Awards 2023, the firm looks forward to the valuable contributions that the recently appointed Directors are set to make, significantly enhancing its ongoing success and growth.

News, North of England

Bridge Law expands team with a duo of specialist solicitors

Bridge Law Solicitors Ltd has announced two solicitors, Jonathan Cass and Gayle Roberts have joined their specialist teams in dispute resolution and property amid an increasing number of new clients at their bases in Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. 

The practice, which was founded in the village of Marple Bridge in 2016 and went on to open a second office in Holmfirth, in 2018 has seen significant growth in the past year – despite an initial lull in enquiries during the first lockdown. 

Joining the firm’s Holmfirth team to establish and grow a full-time litigation and property team at Bridge Law’s Yorkshire practice is Commercial Property and Litigation Solicitor; Jonathan Cass, who has a wealth of experience in commercial property, commercial litigation and agriculture.

Jonathan Cass commented: “I’m delighted to have joined the team at Bridge Law and help to establish the firm’s dispute resolution and property team as a full-time, permanent feature to the Holmfirth office. Previously this has been managed by our Director, Claire Stewart who has worked between Marple Bridge and Holmfirth so it’s an honour to take this on”. 

Consultant Litigation Solicitor, Gayle Roberts, who has previously worked in large city-centre firms and the CPS as a Senior Crown Prosecutor, has joined the dispute resolution team at the firm’s Marple Bridge head office. Gayle’s specialisms span across commercial litigation, injunctions, contentious probate, property adjudications and defamation cases. 

Claire Stewart, Founder and Director at Bridge Law added: “The team and I are thrilled to welcome highly talented solicitors, Jonathan and Gayle to the team. Both share our dedication to excellent client care and each brings with them an exceptional level of skills and passion for their specialist areas, helping to extend our already comprehensive offering to clients.

“We are very grateful to be continuing to grow and welcome new members to the team as, like all small businesses, times were rather uncertain over the pandemic period. However, to our surprise, client enquiries have shot up in the past six to twelve months and we are very grateful for the continued support from clients in our local communities and beyond”. 

Bridge Law pride themselves on their flexible approach to client services. As well as providing services to local clients from their offices in Marple Bridge and Holmfirth, the firm’s early adoption of technology in 2016 to meet client needs for remote appointments has enabled Bridge Law to work on cases across the UK including London and internationally including the Cayman Islands.

Technology

ThoughtRiver Unveils AI-powered Microsoft Word Remediation Tool for Lawyers

ThoughtRiver, the market leader in intelligent legal pre-screening, has announced that its core platform, which standardises the interpretation and review of legal contracts, will now be available on the Microsoft Office platform via a Microsoft World plug-in. The new plug-in will give lawyers and other legal professionals the ability to automatically review and remediate contracts directly within Microsoft Word.

ThoughtRiver’s new plug-in will allow lawyers to quickly insert preloaded comments into the document for business colleagues or counterparties to kick off negotiation or discussion of contracts, while also offering up standard clause suggestions for immediate insertion, helping firms to standardise and speed up the way departments are working on agreements. ThoughtRiver is further enabling seamless workflow via integration with Microsoft Flow and a pre-configured email connector so that lawyers and business users can leverage ThoughtRiver’s intelligence simply by sending an email and receiving the results back via email without ever leaving Outlook. ThoughtRiver’s clients can now also create their own connectors using Microsoft Flow between their own commonly used apps and services to further streamline their personal workflows.

This new plug-in will be demonstrated at the upcoming LegalGeek conference, October 16th, in London, at which ThoughtRiver will have two stands as a Silver Sponsor, and which sees CEO Tim Pullan speaking on the main stage. Pullan commented on his company’s latest product news:

“The power of the plug-in within Word gives lawyers the right tools where and when they need them. There are immense efficiency gains to be recognised. Having been a pre-screening company for several years, we took a step back to work out how we were going to extend ourselves to cover the complete lifecycle, that begins when a contract comes into a lawyer’s inbox, and ends when it goes out to the counterparty or client. We realised that if this was going to fit hand in glove, we had to leave our own environment and go to where the lawyer is in Microsoft Word, in order to have world-class usability for our clients. Understanding how our clients work and being sensitive to that when we design our products is a core part of our success and this plug-in is a clear example of our user focused design.

Pullan continued:

“It’s not just about creating a new bit of interface in Word. This directly impacts our core system and we have made changes to make this work in a simple way for users. Now, the plug-in will allow lawyers to standardise comments when reporting markups to clients or feedback on contracts to their business team colleagues.”

According to Soren Lundsberg, General Counsel for G4S, the world’s leading global, integrated security company and a ThoughtRiver client.

“For in-house lawyers, constant resourcing pressure means that the review of contracts is simultaneously mundane and mission-critical. Now, being able to access ThoughtRiver’s insight and edit contracts directly in something we use every day like Word means that lawyers will be able to work in a more informed, efficient way, increasing their value to the wider organisation. This new plug-in looks like a real game changer, a vital additive to lawyers’ working processes, and based on our review of early versions of the prototype and being allowed to input into the development, we expect that this will help us create a significant improvement in efficiency and quality.

LegalGeek 2019 takes place on Wednesday 16th October at the Old Truman Brewery Shoreditch. Tim Pullan speaks on the main stage between 3.30pm and 4.30pm, with a product demonstration slot on the Law Society stage between 11.30am and 12.30pm.

Industry News, Technology

Identifying the risks amidst the new EU copyright directive

David Ingham, Digital Partner – Media & Entertainment, Cognizant, discusses how the new EU copyright directive could pose problems for online business

Change is afoot across the internet’s copyright landscape. The European Parliament recently passed the controversial Articles 15 and 17 (previously articles 11 and 13), as part of the wider Directive on Copyright, raising concerns across content platforms and tech giants. The directive strives to ensure that the established requirements of universal copyright laws equally apply to the frequently unregulated internet. Whilst these changes now have two years to take effect in EU member states; here we will look at the impact of the most contentious articles in the directive.

What is Article 17?

Article 17 will leave online platforms open to sanctions if they fail to prevent upload to their sites that breach copyright laws. Previously, if a copyright owner found unapproved content online, the platform had to take it down with no damage liability. Article 17 means that they are now liable.

The introduction of this directive initially raised concerns that the internet’s beloved memes were at risk – with a question mark over whether these content types should be preserved as parodies, or whether they would fall victim to the new regulations. Recently, the European Parliament announced that GIFs and memes could continue to be distributed across online platforms; however, there are on-going concerns that these new laws could quash the internet’s free-flow of information not to mention potential issues around freedom of speech and expression. If copyright owners (a.k.a. creators) want their content to be shared and monetised on online media platforms, they will have to make sure that the copyright information is well known and easy to verify by mainstream platforms.

How does Article 15 differ?

Article 15 has the potential to change the entire news landscape. Previously article 11, and often referred to as the ‘link tax’, it will require news aggregators such as Google, or platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook, to pay publishers a fee for distributing news links. Such change prompts the concern that fewer articles would be distributed on these platforms and again, that the free flow of information shared across the internet will be harmed as a result.

For news organisations, the danger is that they would not be able to use these well-known aggregators for distribution, meaning they would need to rely exclusively on their apps and websites, as well as SEO, for ensuring that their content is discovered.

But are content platforms and companies born out of the internet age equipped to adapt to these changes? For many, the answer is surely no. There is no way that manual, human review processes can handle the copious amount of scrutiny required; automated filters will become a necessity for media platforms to identify copyrighted material and avoid infractions. Moreover, some platforms may be forced to alter their approach to uploading content entirely, perhaps replacing the current practice of real-time uploads with delayed processing for verification.

The evolving nature of ‘adapt or die’

Over the next two years, organisations must determine and implement their strategy to address these changes. While many may feel that this is plenty of time to plan their approach, it will come around sooner than you think. The firms impacted should start taking steps to make changes now, as inaction is not an option. However, very few understand all the implications in a way that allows them to assess risks and viable options, make decisions on next steps and then implement those changes.

These firms could, however, break their approach down into three key areas. The first is technology – what internal and client-facing platforms and products will be impacted by these changes? The second is operations – what impact will the new directive have on day-to-day business operations? And finally, legal – what is the potential liability/risk that will be introduced to the organisation once the directive comes into force?

What is clear is that the technology industry – whether household name giants or smaller players – will soon have to put adequate measures in place to adhere to the evolving copyright landscape.