Law Technology Now

In this rebroadcast episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks shop with Fastcase founder and CEO Ed Walters. Together, they share exciting new developments in legal software and how it’s developed as well as how it can create jobs for lawyers rather than take them away. With the majority of people doing their computing through mobile devices, there is enormous opportunity to provide valuable legal services in new ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young lawyers often seek examples of successful attorneys in their prospective field to get an understanding of the path and work ethic required to be advance. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks with LegalMosaic CEO Mark Cohen about his work history, how tech is transforming the delivery of legal services, and what he sees on the horizon for 2017. Mark A. Cohen is the CEO of LegalMosaic, a legal business consulting company, a Distinguished Lecturer of Law at Georgetown University, and a regular contributor to Forbes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” – HAL 9000 It’s been a long time since 2001 Space Odyssey portrayed HAL (Heuristically ALgorithmic computer) as the sentient machine who locked crewman David Bowman out of the spaceship to prevent being shut down. Since that movie debuted, artificial intelligence has become a reality and, with it, so too have many fears. From piloting planes and driving cars to playing chess and winning on Jeopardy, it appears that AI is actively participating in human endeavors. But what does that mean for us carbon-based lifeforms and our professions? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi discusses artificial intelligence, its uses, and the potential impact on the legal industry with Thomson Reuters Corporate Segment Director and Legal Managed Services General Manager Eric Laughlin. According to Eric, AI will revolutionize the practice of law and provide greater access to it for the masses. He described the upcoming revolution as gradual, with changes going

As new or established lawyers venture out into the legal marketplace, it can be daunting establishing your own firm or promoting your unique business. How should savvy entrepreneurs promote their brand and what skills do they need to be successful? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay and guest host Adam Camras talk with lecturer and entrepreneur Gary Sangha about his keynote speech at the Above the Law Academy for Private Practice conference, his personal journey toward success, and his tips to help new entrepreneurs thrive. Gary Sangha is a serial entrepreneur, attorney, and academic and the founder and CEO of Lit IQ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many attorneys who focus on litigation can find themselves sifting through hundreds of documents that are relevant and vital to the success of their case. Can legal technology improve  efficiency and the practice of law for these lawyers? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi speaks with Allegory Founder and CEO Alma Asay about litigation management and how new software can greatly improve the litigation process. Alma Asay began her career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where her practice focused on complex commercial litigations, and is now founder and CEO at Allegory, a major litigation management tool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With more and more lawyers embracing technology the legal tech sector continues to grow and thrive. What makes this sector different for technologists looking to develop products for the legal marketplace? How can law firms of all sizes leverage this technological boom? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks with serial entrepreneur Gary Sangha and Above the Law Editor Joe Patrice about the upcoming Above the Law Academy for Private Practice Conference, legal tech entrepreneurship, and how law firms can leverage new tech to better tell the story of law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When first entering the legal profession, young lawyers can sometimes feel ill prepared for the everyday rigors of working at a law firm and practicing the law. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay talks with Professor Daniel Martin Katz about the industry’s need for law school curriculums to better reflect the demands of the legal marketplace and his efforts to change the profession by creating a different type of lawyer. Professor Katz is a scientist, technologist, and law professor who applies an innovative polytechnic approach to teaching law to help create lawyers for today's challenging legal job market. Both his scholarship and teaching integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is common within the business world for companies to take inventory of innovations happening within other industries and to adopt the most successful practices to help strengthen their own. However, the legal profession is a sector of the market that has a stigma for being resistant to change and late to adopt new things. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay speaks with Air Canada Labour and Employment Law Assistant General Counsel Fred Headon about the benefits that adopting successful procedures from other industries could bring to the practice of law. Fred Headon is a past president of the Canadian Bar Association. He serves as chair of the CBA Legal Futures Initiative and is the assistant general counsel in-house for the labour and employment law team at Air Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks with Opus 2 International, Inc. CEO Graham Smith-Bernal about his career and the evolution of the electronic courtroom. Graham recalls his early interest in becoming a court stenographer and how at the age of 23 he had the opportunity to establish his company Smith Bernal International. At that time he noticed that the legal industry was driven heavily by precedent and tradition and that he could use technology to establish his company as a service differentiator. Graham was also aware that a lot of lawyers are technophobic, so any software he developed had to be easy to use and with the advent of real time transcription he came up with the idea for LiveNote. He shares that there was a lot of pushback and reticence in the early days, but by exercising the ease of use, increase in efficiency, and leveraging end user feature requests the product became mature as a piece of tech. Graham states that success in any business is about timing and your proc

In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay speaks with reporter and author Charles Duhigg about his new book, “Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business.” Charles emphasizes that a lawyer’s career is predicated upon making choices about how they spend their time and for that reason efficiency is incredibly important. The most productive people, he reveals, are the ones who create routines that allow them to differentiate between busyness and productivity. He encourages leaders to create mental models or visualizations of how any daily transaction will unfold and to make small directed company improvements, or changes to what he calls keystone habits. He continues by providing examples of how this approach, combined with carefully phrasing your proposed change, can lead to greater companywide advancements in the long term. Charles also discusses the importance of having an agile company and explains that the best way to create this culture is to empower your co-wor

If you think the legal industry’s future depends on small and big firms working together, you might be from MaRS. By MaRS, we mean the Canadian-based MaRS Discovery District (originally named Medical and Related Sciences) and its recent project to innovate the legal profession. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay interviews Aron Solomon and Jason Moyse, the co-founders of recent MaRS startup LegalX. Together, they talk about today’s transition from the big firm model of yesterday in favor of more nimble practices traditionally found in smaller firms and startups. Although there will always be a need for Biglaw on large, highly profitable matters, 80% of the U.S. market is priced out of legal services. That unmet need has become a primary driver in sweeping change to the legal industry. So, what do these driving forces mean for the future of law? Monica, Aron, and Jason take turns answering that question with their forecasts of the legal market for the next 2-5 years. Not only will this ne

As the body of law continues to grow, so does the consumer demand for cost effective and efficient legal services. What resources do large law firms and corporations have to help them harness technology to keep pace with this growing trend? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi speaks with Bloomberg BNA Legal Division President David Perla about his career, Bloomberg Law, and how their Smart CodeSM is changing traditional legal annotation. He states that ultimately the company hopes to help lawyers grow their businesses, be better counselors to their clients, and help them be more profitable. David provides an overview of his career, starting with his early days at a large Manhattan law firm, and shares his thoughts on how his particular combination of work experiences prepared him for his current role as Bloomberg BNA Legal Division President. He reflects on how Bloomberg’s ability to leverage technology to help lawyers and law practitioners has improved over the last 5 years and uses thei

The effects of technology on the law can be seen throughout the profession as these innovations are slowly integrated into the legal marketplace. However, has the union of new tech and the practice of law been significantly transformative for lawyers and clients? What factors have hindered the adoption of new technology in the legal sector and what catalysts might be implemented to accelerate the pace of change? In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay speaks with Legal Services Corporation President and CodeX FutureLaw keynote speaker Jim J. Sandman about his 10 reasons the law has been slow to adopt technology and the “levers of power” that might be engaged to accelerate that rate. Jim opens the interview with a brief summary of his time as managing partner at Arnold & Porter LLP, the general counsel for the District of Columbia Public Schools, and his five years of tenure as the president of Legal Services Corporation. He reflects on his CodeX 2016 FutureLaw Conference keynote speech and exp

In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi discusses artificial intelligence, its uses, and the potential impact on the legal industry with Thomson Reuters Corporate Segment Director and Legal Managed Services General Manager Eric Laughlin. According to Eric, AI will revolutionize the practice of law and provide greater access to it for the masses. He described the upcoming revolution as gradual, with changes going from being novel and labeled as AI to becoming routine and regarded as additional tools on various devices. Stay tuned to hear about predictions for legal jobs in the future, why many attorneys and firms support the development of artificial intelligence, and the exciting developments at Thomson Reuters’ Cognitive Computing Center of Excellence, where they are teaming up with IBM Watson to create exciting new products to support the legal industry. Eric Laughlin is the managing director of the Corporate Counsel Segment and general manager for the Legal Managed Services at Thomson Reu

As technology continues to permeate society more and more,companies are exploring how advancements in tech can improve thelegal profession. Many of these institutions are researching waysto make the legal system more efficient for all stakeholdersthrough information technology. Where can lawyers who areinterested in this growth industry learn about the progress beingmade from thought leaders in the field? In this episode of Law Technology Now,host Monica Bay speaks with Stanford Program inLaw, Science and Technology Executive Director Roland Vogl aboutthe upcoming 2016 CodeX FutureLaw Conference. Roland reflects onhis time as a student in The Stanford Program in InternationalLegal Studies (SPILS) and how that path led him to work as anintellectual property lawyer and ultimately a Lecturer in Law atStanford Law School. He then explains the creation of The StanfordCenter for Computers and the Law - CodeX, their growing interest inbig data law, machine learning, and natural language processing inthe law, and the

Many large companies have global business interests that require employees to travel to multiple countries within the same year. However, several of these same companies find it difficult to navigate the shifting rules pertaining to business visas as they cross national boundaries. How can these businesses continue to have a global presence while avoiding the potential pitfalls that can come with frequent international travel? In this episode of Law Technology Now host Monica Bay sits down with Tracker Corp. and Pearl Travel Tech Founder Julie Pearl to discuss how tech can improve the business travel and immigration process. Julie begins by giving insights into her background and why she created her law firm and tech company. This exploration of her history gives way to an analysis of several key issues, such as communicating in real time and understanding requirement differences between countries, that global employers have relating to immigration. Julie then wraps up the conversation with an explanation of

“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.” - Sun Tzu In the time leading up to litigation, many attorneys grapple with the pros and cons of litigation for their clients. It is often difficult to quantify the probability of success or what it will take to get there. In the intellectual property world, an expensive victory can be as devastating as a loss. Fortunately, data analytics are making this process more predictable by offering insights to future results based on information from the past. In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay interviews Lex Machina CEO Josh Becker. Together, they discuss the value of data analytics when it comes to making decisions in litigation. Organizations like Becker’s are able to collect data points that show, among many other things, the historic instances of judges ruling on certain motions, wins vs. losses of opposing counsel, and the length of proceedings. From the perspective of lawyers, this information can help craft arguments to conform

It is an exciting time for legal research. The text-based searches of yesterday are giving way to the interactive visualization of data. What this means is that lawyers will have more control over and increased awareness of their research projects. The visual ability to map out information empowers researchers to understand when enough is enough, thus saving time and reducing the cost of providing legal services In this episode of Law Technology Now, host Bob Ambrogi talks shop with Fastcase founder and CEO Ed Walters. Together, they share exciting new developments in legal software and how it’s developed as well as how it can create jobs for lawyers rather than take them away. With the majority of people doing their computing through mobile devices, there is enormous opportunity to provide valuable legal services in new ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Law Technology Now returns as Monica Bay and Bob Ambrogi bring the show back to the air in an exciting new format. By alternating hosting duties back and forth, the show is designed to provide a different perspective episode to episode. Catch up with our hosts as they discuss their predictions for 2016, ideas for future show topics, and why it’s an exciting time to be practicing law. Despite their shared belief that legal technology is generally good for the industry and increases access to justice, both Monica and Bob recognize that there are pros and cons. Monica warns that lawyers who can’t keep up with innovations may be forced into early retirement whereas Bob debates the liberating versus enslaving effects of constant connectivity. Now that some 20 states are conforming with the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct by requiring lawyers to be competent in technology, it looks like the only way to go is forward. Welcome back listeners! Discussed on this episode: Updates to the Federal Rules of Civi

In the September edition of Law Technology Now, attorney Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of ALM's Law Technology News, interviews Robert Siegel, general partner at Xseed Capital about how Silicon Valley is becoming a hot bed of legal technology startups. With two major Bay Area universities — Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, both with strong synergies among their law schools and computer, engineering, and design departments — innovative law firms and venture capitalists are ready to collaborate, and the sky is the limit, says Siegel. He explains how these dynamics combine to create opportunities for legal technology lawyers and vendors, and financiers, and how collaborations can result in companies like Lex Machina. They are creating technology products that ultimately help not just the legal community (lawyers, government, academia, and business) do better, faster, and cheaper work, but benefit consumers and businesses, as well. And for innovators and entrepreneurs, he offers concrete advice