Deep Blue sky thinking: The cutting edge of legal AI

Artificial intelligence is big news once again in law and beyond. Legal Business speaks to leaders in the field of advanced automation to assess what it means for the profession.

> How are you today?
* I’m afraid AI will change the legal profession.
> How long have you been afraid AI will change the legal profession?
* Since I started speaking to AI researchers.
> Can you elaborate on that?
* They were telling me about their latest research.
> I don’t understand you.
* Neither did they, that’s why I wanted to see a therapist.
> Tell me more…

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Applied science and snake oil: AI in practice

The cutting-edge science in artificial intelligence in law is startling, but does the tech currently offered by commercial legal providers match the hype?

It’s a sign of the times: Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) now has its own ‘robot’. In September, the firm announced it had teamed up with tech company RAVN Systems in a deal to use its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, known as the Applied Cognitive Engine (RAVN ACE).

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The i-Team: The client perspective on AI

Pioneering GCs are taking control of legal spend, armed with the latest tech. Can the rest of the in-house community keep pace?

If conventional law firms have been slow to embrace technology – and they have – their counterparts in-house have been barely moving. But in the last five years signs have emerged of ‘early adopters’ in the bluechip general counsel (GC) community who are willing to do more than apply new tools at the margins. The GCs are turning to technology to reshape the way they work.

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More than half of GCs expect AI to reshape their teams within five years

In-house lawyers have been notoriously slow to embrace the tech-backed delivery of legal services, but our survey of more than 600 global legal spend decision makers shows many believe technology will transform the way they work.

More than half of those surveyed expect automated legal services to have a significant impact on the way corporate legal functions serve business within the next three years.

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The right questions – The client view on innovation

In a flagship report last year, we teamed up with BLP to assess the state of innovation in law – and the role of leaders in forcing through change within conservative law firms. We assemble a group of GCs and academics to get the client perspective

Innovation it seems is everywhere and nowhere in the legal industry these days. Given the dramatic upheaval in the global economy over the last six years and an unmistakable shift in in-house legal teams – teams that are increasingly able to take over work being unimaginatively handled by external counsel – providers are at pains to stress their progressive credentials.

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Guest post: Big data and the linguistics of law – how to win cases and influence judgments

With the hue and cry about big data, artificial intelligence and law being accentuated by all the talk around Watson/Ross, I was interested to see this thoughtful, carefully carried out and documented piece of research into the qualities of brief writing before the US Supreme Court from US political scientist Adam Feldman

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Guest post: Why the fuss over Quindell and Slater & Gordon?

OK, the headline is clickbait – kind of. There does, of course, need to be an investigation into Quindell’s financial ‘restatements’, which it admitted earlier this month meant that the 2013 profit after tax of £83m should have been a loss of £68m, and net assets at 31 December 2013 should have been £446m, rather than £668m. That’s a seriously wonky piece of accounting.

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