Legal Tech

Expert Analysis

• Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career

  Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.

• Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use

  ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

• How In-House Counsel Can Prepare For Generative AI Risks

  To safeguard against the many risks posed by generative artificial intelligence legal tools, in-house counsel should work with their information security teams to develop new data security questions for prospective vendors, vet existing applications and review who can utilize machine guidance, says Diane Homolak at Integreon.

• Opinion

  We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds

  Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

• Law Firms Cannot Ignore Attorneys' Personal Cybersecurity

  Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.

• Why Process Management Is Critical To Legal Tech Adoption

  Corporate legal departments looking to implement new technology can avoid hiccups by taking steps to define the underlying business problem and to identify opportunities for process improvements before leaping to the automation stage, say Nadine Ezzie at Ezzie + Co., Kenneth Jones at Xerdict Group and Kathy Zhu at Streamline AI.

• Law Firm Cybersecurity Should Not Get Lost In The Cloud

  A recent data leak at Proskauer via a cloud data storage platform demonstrates key reasons why law firms must pay attention to data safeguarding, including the increasing frequency of cloud-based data breaches and the consequences of breaking client confidentiality, says Robert Kraczek at One Identity.

• Advice For Summer Associates Uneasy About Offer Prospects

  There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.

• How Students Prepping For The Bar Exam Can Leverage AI

  Tools like ChatGPT can help students studying for the bar exam achieve their two main goals — mastering law concepts and topics, and then successfully applying them to the various question formats on the test — but there are still limitations to this technology, including incorrect answers, says Joseph Wilson at Studicata.

• How Law Firms Can Cautiously Wield AI To Streamline Tasks

  Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.

• Opinion

  Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI

  National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.

• 10 Steps To Improve Legal Vendor Management

  Corporate counsel often turn to third-party vendors to manage spending challenges, and navigating this selection process can be difficult for both counsel and the vendor, but there are several ways corporate legal departments can make the entire process easier and beneficial for all parties involved, says David Cochran at QuisLex.

• DoNotPay Cases Underscore Hurdles For AI-Fueled Legal Help

  Recent legal challenges against DoNotPay’s "robot lawyer” application highlight pressing questions about the degree to which artificial intelligence can be used for legal tasks while remaining on the right side of both consumer protection laws and prohibitions against the unauthorized practice of law, says Kristen Niven at Frankfurt Kurnit.

• Strategies To Improve Reporting In The Legal Industry

  The growing demand for analytical data within law firms and corporate law departments — from live case status updates to diversity reports — highlights the need for improvements in legal profession reporting, with increasingly granular industry-standard codes to describe legal tasks being key, says Kenneth Jones at Xerdict.

• Accessible Legal Tech Begins With Empathy In Design

  Legal technology has the potential to eliminate barriers for disabled attorneys navigating their careers and for disabled clients seeking access to justice, but to truly level the playing field, accessible technology must be designed with input from and empathy for the often-underrepresented communities it serves, say Lisa Mueller at Casimir Jones and attorney Haley Moss.