Do not conflate legal technology with artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is a broad term that refers to a variety of technologies. Many legal technologies make extensive use of a few branches of artificial technology including one very popular branch called machine learning. Put simply, it is a technological way of analyzing large amounts of data. It uses the analysis to build models, identify patterns, and make decisions without too much input from humans. In terms of understanding its current use in the legal world, it may best to describe those uses in terms of categories. One category is document analysis and document automation which largely refers to reviewing, analyzing, searching, and even drafting of documents. Tasks that fall under this category include document management and review. Companies that come to mind in this area include Relativity, Hotdocs, and ActiveDocs. Another category is legal research – tools like Ross Intelligence, Casetext, and Fastcase. A third category and one that’s gotten a lot of attention in recent years is legal analytics. This category refers to tools that make use of lots of data to predict probable outcomes and risks. Companies like LexPredict and Lex Machina have paved and continue to pave the way in this area.
You do not need legal technology to engage in legal innovation.
Legal technology indeed has led to many innovations within the practice of law. However, many innovations have and continue to occur without the use of legal technology. One such innovation is the application of Lean Six Sigmaprinciples to various areas such as litigation within the practice of law. These principles look at existing processes and procedures and seek to improve them and eliminate waste and inefficiencies through the application of lean and six sigma principles. These principles address reducing inefficiencies and inconsistencies within existing processes. The beauty of these principles is that they are scalable. Legal technology may generate all of the headlines and attention, but non-tech innovations can and often are just as impactful as innovations brought about through the use and/or development of legal technology.
Legal technology is not out to get you or your job. Robots are not about to replace you.
This is a big lesson. There remains so much marketing hype about robots this and robots that. What is important to remember amidst all of the non-stop stories about robotics is that while legal technology may not be trying to replace you (it is technology, after all), legal technology is changing the meaning of what it means to practice law. It also is prompting a rethinking of the skills needed to practice law. What this means is that we, as lawyers, are being asked to learn new skills and add them to our repertoire. Lawyers are also being asked and demanded to think in new ways. To not learn new skills and to engage in constant improvement is to leave yourself vulnerable to becoming obsolete and poorly positioned to provide the level of service expected by clients in today’s world and in the future. The bottom line is that we are not at the point of robots being able to do the entire job of a lawyer. We are at the point where technology can automate parts of what a lawyer typically does, especially those tasks that are repeatable, simple, and routine. Automation can save you time, effort, and allow you to focus on more important and higher risk work. You can determine what these tasks are by looking at your existing processes and examining each step of each process. Which ones are routine and repeatable? Automation should be welcomed. We also are at the point where technology can assist us with the review, analysis and drafting of legal documents. However, lawyers still need to assist technology with performing these tasks. Technology still requires our human judgment and benefits from it.
Collaboration is crucial to the ongoing success of the legal profession.
Collaboration, at its core, is the act of working with others to jointly produce something or create something. Yet, it is far more than that simple statement. It is thinking in terms of teamwork and not in terms of working in a silo. It is working in a cross-disciplinary manner and learning from and about other disciplines.
Effective collaboration demands taking the time to connect with others in your organization, understand their wants and needs, and work with them to develop solutions and improvements. This starts with listening to them. Hearing what they have to say. It also means allowing their experiences, their skills, and their abilities to complement and supplement your own. This is hard for those within the legal profession because historically lawyers have been taught and encouraged to believe that only they know how to practice law, what is required to practice law, and what a good outcome is. This is changing. Not only are the skills needed to practice law are increasing and changing, but so is what it means to practice law and what it means to deliver a good outcome.
The way to deliver business-focused outcomes is to learn from those that are close to the business, to incorporate their feedback, and to make use of their skills and expertise. You do not know it all. You will never know it all. We all need to accept these facts and take them to heart.
Legal tech is really not about the tech itself, but about changing people and changing processes.
Change is not easy. Humans are inherently resistant to change and the legal profession is especially so. When the time for change comes, however, you can help make change easier to accomplish. Focus on your people. When it comes to changing how one practices law, you need to meet your people where they are. This means asking for their input, understanding their needs and concerns, and addressing those needs and concerns. Taking the time to do this will help facilitate a culture supportive of its people and supportive of change. If people are not ready to support the use of legal technology and prepared to engage with it, then whatever legal tech tool you choose to deploy will likely be a) underused, if used at all and b) not as effective as it is meant to be. To truly understand the need to change and what changes are necessary, you need to have a firm understanding of how your existing processes work first and where the roadblocks exist. Blindly applying a legal technology tool to an existing process without taking into consideration how that existing process works first may result in the process not being improved at all. In fact, just the opposite may occur instead.
Note: This piece is adapted from a longer piece from my blog: https://www.colinslevy.com/
This piece was contributed as part of the 2019 Harvard Legal Technology Symposium organized by the Harvard Law & Technology Society. The Symposium was the largest student organized legal technology event in the world. It brought together an interdisciplinary and international community to think deeply about how technology can improve and shape the law.