Tag Archives: Legaltech

Legal IT

Legal AI and Bias

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Justice is blind, but legal AI may be biased.

Like many advanced technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) comes with its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the potentially negative aspects of AI regularly make headlines. There is a fear that humans could be replaced by AI, and that AI might take our jobs. (As pointed out in a previous article, lawyers are less at risk of such a scenario: AI would perform certain tasks, but not take jobs, as only 23% of the work lawyers do can be automated at present). Others, like Elon Musk, predict doomsday scenarios if we start using AI in weapons or warfare. And there could indeed be a problem there: what if armed robotic soldiers are hacked, or have bad code and go rogue? Some predict that superintelligence (where AI systems become vastly more intelligent than human beings) and the singularity (i.e. the moment when AI systems become self-aware) are inevitable. The combination of both would lead to humans being the inferior species, and possibly being wiped out.

John Giannandrea, who leads AI at Google, does not believe these are the real problems with AI. He sees another problem, and it happens to be one that is very relevant to lawyers. He is worried about intelligent systems learning human prejudices. “The real safety question, if you want to call it that, is that if we give these systems biased data, they will be biased,” Giannandrea said.

The case that comes to mind is COMPAS, which is risk assessment software that is used to predict the likelihood of somebody being repeat offender. It is often used in criminal cases in the US by judges and parole boards. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize winning non-profit news organization. It decided to analyse how correct COMPAS was in its predictions. They discovered that COMPAS’ algorithms correctly predicted recidivism for black and white defendants at roughly the same rate. But when the algorithms were wrong, they were wrong in different ways for each race. African American defendants were almost twice as likely to be labelled a higher risk where they did not actually re-offend. And for Caucasian defendants the opposite mistake was made: they were more likely to be labelled lower risk by the software, while in reality they did re-offend. In other words, ProPublica discovered a double bias in COMPAS, one in favour of white defendants, and one against black defendants. (Note that COMPAS disputes those findings and argues the data were misinterpreted).

The problem of bias in AI is real. AI is being used in more and more industries, like housing, education, employment, medicine and law. Some experts are warning that algorithmic bias is already pervasive in many industries, and that almost no one is making an effort to identify or correct it. “It’s important that we be transparent about the training data that we are using, and are looking for hidden biases in it, otherwise we are building biased systems,” Giannandrea added.

Giannandrea correctly points out that the underlying problem is a problem of lack of transparency in the algorithms that are being used. “Many of the most powerful emerging machine-learning techniques are so complex and opaque in their workings that they defy careful examination.”

Apart of all the ethical implications, the fact that it is unclear how the algorithms come to a specific conclusion could have legal implications. The U.S. Supreme Court might soon take up the case of a Wisconsin convict who claims his right to due process was violated when the judge who sentenced him consulted COMPAS. The argument used by the defence is that the workings of the system were opaque to the defendant, making it impossible to know for what arguments a defence had to be built.

To address these problems, a new institute, the AI Now Institute (ainowinstitute.org) was founded. It produces interdisciplinary research on the social implications of artificial intelligence and acts as a hub for the emerging field focused on these issues. Their main mission consists of “Researching the social implications of artificial intelligence now to ensure a more equitable future.” They want to make sure that AI systems are sensitive and responsive to the complex social domains in which they are applied. To that end, we will need to develop new ways to measure, audit, analyse, and improve them.

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Legal IT

The New Legal Career

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Mark Cohen recently published an interesting article in Forbes Magazine on The New Legal Career. He observed how legal careers have evolved in three significant ways: 1. legal practice is now the delivery of legal services; 2. technology brings lawyers back to basics; and 3. legal delivery presents great opportunities. It’s worthwhile exploring these evolutions further.

Legal practice is now the delivery of legal (and other) services

For centuries, consulting a lawyer was equal to consulting an expert, who could give advice, and perform specific tasks, including legal representation, in his or her field of expertise. In the last few decennia, all of that has changed. Law practices are more and more being run like businesses, and as a result focus more on the delivery of legal services. And their activities are no longer limited to just legal services. As Mark Cohen points out: “legal delivery has been transformed into a three-legged stool supported by legal, technological, and process expertise.” We are dealing with “a structural and process change that involves the interaction of professional expertise, technology and process to leverage and scale the delivery of professional services.”

A while ago Deloitte published the results of its survey on “Future Trends for Legal Services.” One of its key findings was that the market for legal services is moving and growing. Another one was that the expectations that customers had of their legal services providers were evolving and expanding, too. The report concluded that there was a need for a new type of legal service provider.

The same sentiment was echoed in an article, published in May 2017, in Law.com, on “The 12 Core Competencies that Define the Future of Legal Operations”. The author concluded that, these days, the consumers of legal services expect law firms to also be proficient at:

  • Strategic planning;
  • Financial management;
  • Vendor management;
  • Data analytics;
  • Technology support;
  • Alternative support models;
  • Knowledge management;
  • Growth and development;
  • Communications;
  • Global data governance/records management;
  • Litigation support; and
  • Cross-functional alignment.

This implies that the traditional advice that lawyers should develop a singular deep expertise (i.e. an I-shaped profile) is outdated. Instead, lawyers should look to combine a legal expertise with a broader skill set (i.e. a T-shaped profile), which includes effective interpersonal and negotiation skills, business understanding and judgment, and empathizing with and understanding client’s psychological needs.

The Role of Technology

Lawyers have an unprecedented access to new technologies, like law firm management software, eDiscovery, Artificial Intelligence, and others, which are available to assist them in their profession. These technologies enable, i.a., lower cost delivery, budgeting, fee analysis, rapid communication, and understanding companies and industries.

In the last year, there has also been a dramatic proliferation in intelligent legal chatbots, and robot lawyers, which are offering legal services. While these may seem to be competing with law firms, it is worth pointing out that this type of automation takes over certain tasks, not jobs. With the currently available technology, only 23 percent of a lawyer’s tasks can be automated.

The result of these technological evolutions is that they allow lawyers to focus on more essential tasks, like engaging with clients, exercising professional judgment, providing counsel (not just in legal matters but more holistically), engaging in client representation before tribunals, or negotiating key commercial transactions.

The advanced use of technology has another beneficial effect: by increasing efficiency and productivity, Legal Tech helps make the law more affordable, and therefore more accessible.

Legal delivery presents great opportunities

Several of the articles mentioned above showed how law firms are confronted with a new demand for both legal and non-legal services.

Mark Cohen: “The new legal career presents a wealth of opportunity for those that combine practice excellence, ‘contemporarily relevant’ skills (process and project management, marketing, business basics, etc.), and people skills. (…) A proliferation of delivery models, products, markets, and opportunities will result in the creation of new jobs, new collaborative opportunities, and a global marketplace.”

The changing market offers other opportunities, as well. In the last 5 years, e.g., there has been a 484% rise in Legal Tech patents. Worldwide, 579 patents relating to new legal services technology were filed worldwide in 2016, up from just 99 patents in 2012. Many of these were filed by lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs. An interesting article in Entrepeneur magazine, on 14 June 2017, mentions 10 such examples of lawyers who are creating a revolution in Legal Tech:

  1. Haley Altman created Doxly, an automated document and transaction management platform
  2. Noory Bechor founded LawGeex, which specializes in AI contract review
  3. Ned Gannon created eBrevia, which provides contract due diligence and lease abstraction
  4. Michael Mills started Neota Logic Inc, an AI-driven, no-code platform for intelligent automation of expertise, documents and processes
  5. Chrissie Lightfoot founded Robot Lawyer LISA, a Legal Intelligence Support Assistant (AI)
  6. Nehal Madhani started Alt Lega to manage global IP filings
  7. Joseph R. Tiano created Legal Decoder, which provides analytic tools and data to manage costs of outside counsel
  8. Michael Sander founded Docket Alarm, which provides legal search, analytics and litigations alerts for the United States court system
  9. Andrew Arruda co-founded, Ross Intelligence, an AI legal assistant and research tool, leveraging IBM Watson
  10. Noah Waisberg started Kira Systems, which helps enterprises identify, extract and analyze business information from unstructured contracts

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Legal IT

The Mobile Lawyer

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The combination of cloud technologies and mobile devices have profoundly changed the way lawyers work. Over the years, lawyers have started using their mobile devices more and more for professional purposes, while they’re not at the office. Law firms can now be accessible to lawyers and their clients from anywhere, 24/7. While this has led to the emergence of virtual offices, those are still a minority. Instead, what we have witnessed is the rise of the mobile law firms. Unlike virtual offices, mobile law firms still have physical offices but you don’t have to physically be in them to be able to work. Using cloud technologies, they offer the convenience and flexibility to work securely from anywhere and at any time. In 2017, the vast majority of lawyers are telecommuting, or mobile lawyers.

Let us have a look at some statistics from the latest survey published by the American Bar Association:

  • 94% of lawyers reported “regularly or occasionally using a mobile device for law- related tasks at home,” while 91% reported they also regularly use their mobile devices while in transit.
  • 33% of lawyers telecommute at least once a week. Solo and small firm lawyers were the most likely to do so, at 39% and 35% respectively.
  • Surprisingly, mobile devices are the most popular devices used at the office: 70% reported using smartphones, 66% use desktop computers, 51% use laptop computers, and 25% use tablets. (61% of solo lawyers mainly use laptops at work).
  • 40% of lawyers are using specifically legal apps on their smartphones, with legal research apps being the most popular. (Note that these apps exclude the apps that are part of their legal practice management software).
  • 40% also have downloaded general business apps to their smartphones, with document storage apps being the most popular.

A survey by Legaltech News revealed that lawyers mainly use mobile devices for increased productivity and increased flexibility.

The main tasks they perform online are practice management tasks. In 2017, most providers of law firm management software offer solutions that use cloud technologies, allowing lawyers to work from anywhere, 24/7. They use these mobile tools mainly to access their mail, their calendars, their contacts, and their case files. Other popular practice management functions include time tracking, billing, and expense tracking.

Mobile lawyers also use mobile apps for legal research, to store and share documents in the cloud, to work with PDFs, to scan documents and handwritten notes, to dictate and take notes, and to organize and present evidence. Many lawyers also have a legal dictionary on their smartphones.

 

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Legal IT

An introduction to blockchain

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You probably have heard about Bitcoin, and you may have heard about the underlying technology, Blockchain, too. But, if your clients asked you what Bitcoin and Blockchain are, could you explain it to them? In this first of two articles, we’ll explore what Blockchain is. In a follow-up article, we will look what its relevance is for lawyers.

Bitcoin is probably the best-known cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses encryption techniques to a) regulate the generation of units of currency, and b) to verify the transfer of funds. What is important about these virtual currencies is that, unlike regular currencies, they operate independently of any government or central bank. Blockchain is the technology that was developed to make this possible. And the technology has the potential to revolutionise the way we do business.  Some experts even predict that Blockchain will replace the Internet for doing business online. Add to that, that Blockchain technology is not just useful for virtual currencies. Many other uses are possible, including legal ones like self-executing smart contracts.

To understand what Blockchain is, it is necessary to understand why it was created in the first place, and that is to solve the problem of “double spend”. If I go to a bookstore and buy a printed book, the book is physically transferred from the bookstore to me. The bookstore no longer has that copy, I have. And it’s possible for the bookstore to run out of copies. But if I buy an eBook online, things are different. What I get is a copy, and the online bookstore I got it from can still sell an unlimited amount of copies. Digital products can be copied, infinitely. And that creates a special problem for digital currencies. What prevents me from spending one amount of 20 € three times, online? In this example, the bank does: if I go to an online store and spend 20 €, the bank will take that amount off my account and hand it over, often through intermediaries like credit card companies, to the store owner. But the whole purpose of Bitcoin was to be able to operate without any central bank or government. So, how can we make sure one Bitcoin isn’t spent more than once by the same owner? Blockchain is the technology that was invented to solve that problem. The way it is done, is by creating a secure register or ledger that keeps track of all transactions, and of which copies are distributed over a peer-to-peer network.

Blockchain can be described as a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of a distributed data structure and algorithms, which create a decentralized ledger or registry of transactions, which is both permanent / immutable, and secure.

A distributed ledger technology

Instead of keeping one central register or ledger, Blockchain consists of a decentralized network of volunteer-run nodes, each of which keep an identical copy of the register. (The idea was that, to work with bitcoins, you need a bitcoin wallet, and every owner of a wallet should have a copy of the register). Each transaction that is registered gets a timestamp, and the network uses algorithms that ‘vote’ on the order in which transactions occur, and ensures that each transaction is unique.

Blockchain is secure and permanent / immutable

“Once a majority of nodes reaches consensus that all transactions in the recent past are unique (that is, not double spent), they are cryptographically sealed into a block. Each new block is linked to previously sealed blocks to create a chain of accepted history, thereby preserving a verified record of every spend.” (ZDNet). This ‘cryptographic sealing’ uses hash functions and digital signatures that work in one way only. Let’s take an example: on 4 August 2017, at 8:15:0000 AM UCT, wallet X transfers 1 bitcoin to wallet Y. Just as is the case with an online money transfer, this information is structured in a specific way. To that set of data, a one-way encryption is applied, that is irreversible. The result of the encryption is a unique string, let’s say, fictitiously, W(#MD31NAP^FV12. It is impossible to read from that string who paid what to whom. But if X claims he paid Y 1 bitcoin on 4 August 2017, at 8:15:0000 AM UCT, to Y, then the ‘key’ will have to be W(#MD31NAP^FV12. So, if that key is found in the ledger matching that timestamp, it is irrefutable proof that indeed that transaction occurred in that way. If X claims he paid 2 bitcoins, then the key would be different.

Blockchain uses ‘consensus algorithms’ to make sure each transaction is unique, which is needed in case of conflicting data. Because of the algorithms it uses, Blockchain comes as close to being unhackable as currently is possible. And while there have been instances where Bitcoin was hacked, Blockchain itself, i.e. the underlying technology, has not. Still, the consensus mechanism has one inherent risk, which has been called the 51%-problem. The nodes in the network vote by majority. If a hacker would succeed in taking over 51% of the nodes in the network, then he could start manipulating the votes to change records, i.e. replace them by modified ones. It would still be a hard thing to accomplish, extra security mechanisms have been built in. Which leads us to the next item.

Blockchain is permanent and immutable: each block of data in the Blockchain is time-stamped, and can only be added to the chain after the time stamp is applied and verified by the distributed computers across the chain. The practical effect of this is that a block of data can never be changed retrospectively, as all subsequent records would have to be modified as well.

Blockchain has many advantages: its decentralization makes it independent and secure. Because the whole process is managed by algorithms and no human interventions are necessary, the transaction fees are lower, and transactions themselves can be conducted more quickly.

In short, Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt several markets, and lawyers will have to be prepared for that. There already are legal applications for the technology, as well. We will have a look at all of that, in a follow-up article.

 

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Legal IT

The Law Practice of the Future – part 2

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This is the second article in a two-part series that looks at the law practice of the future. It is largely based on the Law 2023 Study (www.law2023.org), which predicted seven evolutions law firms will undergo by 2023:

  • Technologies Will Enable Lawyers to Bill for Real Value
  • Firms Will Develop Offerings That Transcend Jurisdiction
  • Demand for Responsive Institutions Will Create New Markets for Accountability
  • Firms Will Tap New Talent and Enable New Pathways to Practice
  • Information Access/Transparency Will Push Firms to Seek Hyper-Specific Markets
  • Firms Will Launch R&D Departments to Create New Offerings
  • User/Anthropological Research Will Shape Client Experience of Legal Products

The first three were discussed in the first article. In this second article, we’ll focus on evolutions four to seven. Note that the original Law 2023 Study was published two years ago, and that more recent findings have been integrated into this article.

[Part 1 of this article can be found here].

Evolution 4: Firms Will Tap New Talent and Enable New Pathways to Practice

The study found that “all kinds of companies are coming to grips with how they will acquire the skills and abilities they need in a workforce of unprecedented demographic and cultural diversity. Many organizations are also faced with the challenge of rapidly developing capacities they never needed before. Law firms will need to figure out how to hire new kinds of minds and address ongoing value concerns from clients.”

This is one of the evolutions that is already clearly visible. Traditionally, law firms consisted of lawyers, assisted by some administrative aids. Larger firms could have paralegals, accountants and an IT department. Now, it is not uncommon to also find project managers, client service managers, programmers, business analyst, industry advisors, etc. in law firms.

Another new tendency is to find lawyers who no longer are ‘just lawyers.’ On the one hand, there are e.g. scientists, engineers and mathematicians who are switching to the legal sector, and combine their fields of expertise. On the other hand, we are witnessing the emergence of what some call the “T-shaped lawyer”. Traditionally, lawyers had a deep knowledge in one discipline or ‘vertical’ market, i.e. the Law. A T-shaped employee, however, has a wide breadth of knowledge across multiple disciplines that allow them to bring new and innovative ways of thinking to their job. Some Law Schools already offer a curriculum for T-shaped lawyers.

As a result, individuals with a deeper understanding of technology and data, as well as the law, are changing the way the law is done. We can find some examples of that in the fields where AI is being integrated into the law.

Millennials are also changing the legal workplace. They grew up in an ‘always online’ paradigm, where services are available 24/7. More flexibility is required because the work can be performed at any place and at any time. So, they approach their work differently, and that affects the way law firms operate:

  • They prefer to work independently
  • The prefer assignments that can be done from home
  • They don’t care much for the traditional meaning of “work/life balance”
  • They value constructive coaching/mentorship relationships
  • Leadership and professional development opportunities are important
  • They give back

In short, in the office of the future, the employee gets more freedom, but also more responsibility. Law firms that adopt more flexible work practices and pay structures will be best prepared to compete with other industries for the capable people needed to fill these new jobs.

Evolution 5: Information Access/Transparency Will Push Firms to Seek Hyper-Specific Markets

The study found that “clients will have much more access to objective information about the effectiveness of firms and individual lawyers. Public companies in particular will face increasing pressure to rely on firms with the best track records.”

Increased competition on the legal market already pushed law firms to explore niche markets and to build greater expertise in specific fields. What we are witnessing now is that clients get access to all kinds of extra information about law firms like their success rates and effectiveness. This will force law firms to “define and dominate niche markets in which they can credibly claim to be the best. As with other industries, changes to legal markets will increasingly be driven by organizations’ collective ability to produce disruptive innovations, in addition to individual lawyers’ skills and experience.” Which leads us to the next topic.

Evolution 6: Firms Will Launch R&D Departments to Create New Offerings

The study found that “the variety of demands on law firms will lead to a new diversity in the way legal solutions are conceived, packaged, sold and applied. Some of these novel legal products will immediately find vast markets; others could take years to catch on or turn out to be false leads.”

Technology is changing the way that law is being practiced. It is to be expected that law firms will start creating their own R&D departments, either to take the lead or to keep up with the pace in a certain field. These R&D departments may focus on products, services or methodologies, which respond not only in changes in technology on the market, but also to shifts in industry needs and client preferences.

Evolution 7: User/Anthropological Research Will Shape Client Experience of Legal Products

The study found that “a deeper understanding of users’ experience is increasingly becoming the driving force behind the offerings of all kinds of companies. Companies are using data and design to predict consumers’ desires, aiming to appear in their lives before they even know what they want.”

The role of the clients’ experience when dealing with the law firm is becoming an even more important aspect of great customer services than it was before. Just like online retail shops can keep track of what you and other people buy to give you recommendations, technologies are being developed to anticipate the clients’ future needs. This may lead to greater understanding of entire industries, which in turn will allow law firms to approach their clients with new opportunities instead of simply reacting to their problems.

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Legal IT

Lawyers and Tech Competency

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Lawyers and technology often have a strenuous relationship, with many lawyers displaying a distinct reluctance to familiarizing themselves with new technologies. Still, tech competency not only provides a competitive edge, but, by now, for most lawyers it also has become an ethical requirement.

In the US, e.g., the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates formally approved a change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in August 2012. The new text makes it clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in the law and its practice, but also in technology. Following this change, a lack in tech competency could lead to disciplinary action for misconduct.

The new text of Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1, which pertains to competence, now states (emphasis added):

To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

The rule requires lawyers to keep up with the wide range of technology that can be used in the delivery of their services. This means they must stay abreast of the potential risks and benefits associated with any technology they use. It applies, e.g., to Word processing software, email services, security, including safeguarding confidential information, and practice management tools. In some cases, it may even apply to e-discovery or metadata analysis. Casey Flaherty gives the example that a lawyer should probably know how to convert document to PDF, or at least know how to create a document that is completely ready to be converted. In another example, he mentions that a lawyer who is working on a contract with numbered clauses and delegates it to another lawyer should know how to use automatic numbering and cross-referencing.

The competence clause adopted by the American Bar Association is a model rule, which means it must be adopted in a state for it to apply there.  By now, 26 States have done so, and impose an ethical duty of legal tech competence.

As a model rule, each state can implement the rule as it sees fit. In Florida, e.g., this implies, as of 1 January 2017, that all lawyers as a part of their Continuing Legal Education, are required to spend a minimum of three hours over three years in an approved technology program. California, on the other hand, requires lawyers to have knowledge of e-discovery. Indeed, in an age when any court case can involve electronic evidence, every Californian attorney who steps foot in a courtroom has a basic duty of competence with regard to e-discovery.

The rule does not require lawyers to become a technology experts, as they can use the assistance of advisors who have the necessary knowledge. Florida’s competence rule, e.g., states that “… competent representation may involve a lawyer’s association with, or retention of, a non-lawyer advisor with established technological competence in the relevant field.”

Coming back to the example with regard to California and e-discovery, it means that a lawyer in California could face disciplinary action for not properly handling the e-discovery aspects of a case. Robert Ambrogi, in Above the Law, puts it as follows:

That is the key: You need to know enough about e-discovery to assess your own capability to handle the issues that may arise and, if you lack sufficient capability, you can effectively “contract out” your competence to someone else. That someone else could be another attorney in your firm, an outside attorney, a vendor or even your client, the opinion says, provided the person has the necessary expertise. (You cannot, however, contract out your duty to supervise the case and protect your client’s confidentiality.)

By now, two courts have already confirmed that tech competency is required for lawyers. One judge stated that “Professed technological incompetence is not an excuse for discovery misconduct.”

Because of the growing demand for tech-savvy lawyers, several Law School Deans are pushing to add tech to the curriculum. They generally agree that “law schools are a bit remiss in not offering more technology-based training to law students and that they should include legal technology training in the current law school curriculum. The roundtable concluded with the collective position that all law schools in the U.S. owe it to their student bodies to introduce technology-oriented topics into the curriculum in some form or fashion.”

 

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Legal IT

Tips for a successful law firm website

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In a previous article on the new legal consumers, we learned that approximately one in three people in need of legal assistance finds their lawyer by researching them online. A good website plays a crucial role in that. So, what makes a website of a law firm successful? Here are some recommendations by the experts.

User experience

Website visitors are picky and demand a positive user experience, or they’ll just turn away. The following five items contribute to a positive user experience.

Quick load time: your pages should load fast. Research shows that most people are only willing to wait some seconds before they turn away, because they haven’t seen anything yet. Typically, mobile users are less patient than desktop users.

Mobile-friendly: with more mobile users than desktop users on the Internet, having a mobile-friendly website is a must.

Relevant imagery: visitors tend to prefer visually pleasing websites. It is, however, not enough to just have attractive imagery, it must be relevant.

Modern design: lawyers often make the mistake of going for a more conservative design. They forget that the website should appeal to their visitors, and the majority of them prefer modern designs.

Easy navigation: the website users want to find the information they are looking for fast. Easy navigation is therefore a must, too.

Four imperatives to convert prospects

One of the purposes of a website is to convert visitors into clients. In a previous article (on why social media matter), we pointed out that this typically works better if you turn your website visitors into content consumers first, and that social media can play a significant role in that. To convert visitors into content consumers and clients, the texts on your site must be client-focused. They must convey clarity, trust, relatability, and differentiation.

Clarity: lawyers tend to use sentences that are too long, and verbose. Your sentences should be short, clear and to the point.

Trust: what you tell about yourself must convince a potential client that they can trust you.

Relatability: people look to establish relationships with other people they can relate to. If your texts are distant or aloof, a prospective client will look somewhere else.

Differentiation: you have to stand out and explain what makes you different from other lawyers offering similar services.

Pages to include

Your website should include the following pages:

Services: describe the services you offer. Be precise.

Testimonials: prospective clients want to know who the other clients are that you helped, and what they think of you.

A personalized about us page offers an opportunity to profile yourself as relatable, trustworthy and as different from other firms.

A contact form with Captcha: you want people to be able to reach you, but at the same time, you want to keep spammers out.

A FAQ page often is a good idea. The most frequently asked questions usually have to do with how much it will cost. Provide information on how and how much you charge, and for what.

Because they are required by search engines, don’t forget to include a Privacy Policy, and a Disclaimer.

More and more online consumers give preference to websites that offer an online payment facility.

Finally, your website should have site maps for your visitors, as well as for the web crawlers that search engines use.

Recommended page elements

Usability experts recommend including the following elements in the pages:

The header of the pages should include the domain name, your logo, and your tagline (if you have one). Typically, the header will also include the top navigation, as well as the breadcrumb navigation (i.e. the ‘you are here: home > …’ section).

On your page, under the header, you typically want to present a slide show or image. On your home page, you then continue with crucial business information, some testimonials and reviews. Below that, you can list the main features. On other pages than your home page, you present the information that the page is for, and make sure you provide quality content.

At the bottom of the page, you put internal links to other pages on your site.

The footer of your page typically must contain your contact information with special emphasis on your location (people tend to look for a lawyer that lives nearby), and on a phone number. (Some experts recommend putting your phone number in the header). Your footer should also include your business hours, as well as your Social Media buttons.

 

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Legal IT

Some considerations when moving your law firm to the cloud

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Statistics show that 38% of law firms in the US use cloud-based services. 53% does not, while the rest isn’t sure which of the services they use are cloud-based. The cloud services that are being used not only include cloud-based law firm management software, but also other services, like using the cloud for backups, or to share information with customers, etc.

In this article, we will focus on the pros and cons of cloud based law firm management software.

Advantages of using public cloud services

These are the main advantages of moving your law firm to the cloud.

Maximize Internet Security: when you host your own servers, and provide Internet access to them, security is a constant concern. It’s not obvious to always have the latest patches, a perfectly configured firewall, etc. Because it’s part of their core business, external cloud service providers are experts in secure provision. More likely than not, your data will be safer in the cloud.

Reliable Physical Security: Cloud service providers use data centres where a lot of attention is paid to physical security of the infrastructure. Typically, advanced security measures, like using biometrics, are in place to enter the premises.  The chances of losing data because your servers are (physically) stolen are virtually non-existent in the cloud.

Immediate Disaster Recovery: Cloud service providers have Disaster Recovery plans (and the necessary infrastructure) that can be implemented instantly, or on very short notice.

Predictable IT budgeting: when you use cloud-based services, your IT cost is far more predictable, as you typically pay a fixed subscription fee. Add to that, that in most cases, using cloud-based services is cheaper, because you need to invest far less in your hardware infrastructure!

Eliminating IT Distraction and Hassle: keeping your own IT infrastructure up and running can be time consuming. If you use cloud based services, that hassle largely becomes the concern of the service provider.

Inherent Remote Access: the cloud offers constant access, from anywhere, at any time.

Experienced Law Firm Cloud Services: most providers of cloud-based services for lawyers have been on the market for a long time, and have plenty of experience.

Innovation comes as standard with the public cloud: one of the challenges when managing your own IT infrastructure is knowing when to upgrade and when to implement new technologies. When using cloud-based services, you’re staying ahead of the curve, without having to worry whether the technology will cause any problems. Your provider will have tested them out in advance.

Flexibility provides a business advantage: the cloud can provide a law firm with extra flexibility which can be a business advantage.

A survey revealed the following reasons why law firms chose to move their business to the cloud:

  • Easy browser access from anywhere, 68%.
  • 24 x 7 availability, 67%.
  • Low cost of entry and predictable monthly expense, 59%.
  • Quick to get up and running, 49%.
  • Robust data back-up and recovery, 47%.
  • Eliminates IT & software management requirements, 40%.
  • Better security than I can provide in-office, 32%.

Caveats

But there are also some caveats that should be taken into account. When you are using cloud services, not only your IT infrastructure, but also all your data are in the hands of a third party. And you necessarily rely on Internet access to have access to your data. Law firm management software typically is mission critical for a law firm. If your access is interrupted, or if the critical systems that are in the cloud fail, this could cause serious problems, even put a law firm out of business. There also are concerns of privacy and lawyer-client confidentiality: does the staff of the service provider have access to your clients’ data? Security typically is better in the cloud, but a breach typically also has bigger consequences, and service providers for lawyers are preferred targets for hackers. Continuity also is a concern: what happens to your data if the service provider goes out of business, e.g.?

In his article on cloud computing for lawyers, David Canton listed the following issues to consider:

  • how mission critical the system is
  • what the consequences are of a short term and long term outage
  • how confidential or personal the information is in the system
  • can the information be encrypted in transit and at rest
  • how robust the vendor’s continuity plan is
  • the need for the business to have its own continuity plan – such as a local copy of the data
  • how robust the vendor’s security is
  • does the vendor have third party security validation to accepted standards
  • does the vendor’s agreement have provisions that back these issues up with contractual terms and service levels with meaningful remedies

Because of these consideration, there are law firms who explicitly choose to not use the cloud. When questioned, these were the reasons they gave to stay away from cloud services:

  • Confidentiality/security concerns, 63%.
  • Concerns of having less control of your data because it’s hosted by the provider, not on your own server/computer, 54%.
  • Unfamiliarity with the technology, 50%.
  • Concerns of losing access to and ownership of your data, 39%.
  • Cost/effort of switching from your current solution, 31%.
  • Cost of services, 28%.
  • Preference for owning software rather than paying a monthly subscription, 25%.
  • Non-web-based software programs you use are sufficient for current needs, 24%.
  • Lack of professional responsibility/ethics guidance, 24%.
  • Uncertainty over longevity of vendor, 20%.

 

Sources:

Legal IT

Social Media for Lawyers: an Introduction

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In a previous article, we explained why social media matter for lawyers. Lawyers have been slow adopters when it comes to social media, but by now, a clear majority of them have caught on. In the US, 76% of lawyers use social media for professional purposes, and 74% of US law firms are present on Social Media.

What are they using social media for? According to a recently published report, lawyers use social media for several reasons, including career development and networking (73%), client development (51%), but also for education and current awareness (35%), and for case research and investigation (21%).

When it comes to who uses what, the available statistics are not consistent when it comes to the actual numbers, so we’ll use approximations below. The published statistics, however, do all agree on the ranking.

  1. LinkedIn is the most popular network, with approximately two out of three of law firms reporting a presence on LinkedIn. It is the medium of preference for large law firms.
  2. Facebook comes in second place, with, depending on the published data, one third to about half of the law firms saying they have a professional Facebook page. (Up to 90% of lawyers are on Facebook in a private capacity).
  3. Twitter is third in the rankings, with approximately one quarter of firms using it. Of the four main social media, it is the one that is most used for research and current awareness.
  4. Google Plus comes in last, with 10% of firms reporting a Google Plus presence.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the oldest network, and was launched in 2003. It is intended for professional networking. It was the first, and still is the largest “business social network”, meaning that is meant for professionals.

Because LinkedIn’s main goal is professional networking, most lawyers feel comfortable using it. One report states that, in the US, 91% of firms of 100 or more attorneys have a presence in LinkedIn. They are followed by 85% of solo practitioners, 76% of mid-sized firms with 10 to 49 lawyers, and 63% of smaller firms with 2 to 9 lawyers.

On LinkedIn, you can create a profile, which reads like a professional résumé. You can add contacts to build a network of connections. There are sections for skills & endorsements. You can create pages (like a mini website). You can publish a blog and/or articles. You can set up groups where you can have discussions.

LinkedIn comes in a free and a Pro version.

Facebook

Facebook was founded in 2004, and has been open to public at large since 2006. It is the largest social media network: in the fourth quarter of 2016, it had 1.8 billion active monthly users.

On Facebook, as an individual you can create a personal profile, which is not the case for legal entities. Most law firms therefore create ‘Pages’, which are like a mini website on Facebook. Pages can be ‘liked’, and you can invite people to do so. It is also possible to create ‘Groups’ on Facebook, to which you can add people to interact with. Both pages and groups can have posts; you also can add videos, and photos or images, etc.

Interestingly, the most active lawyers on Facebook for professional purposes are solos at 48%, followed by 41% of lawyers from small firms (2-9 attorneys). Mid-sized firms with 10-49 lawyers were next at 22%, with lawyers at firms with 100 or more lawyers coming in last, at only 16%.

Membership of Facebook is free.

Twitter

Twitter was launched in 2006, and is one of the ten most used sites in the world. It is often called the SMS of the Internet. It is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, which are called “tweets.” Tweets are restricted to 140 characters, and, as a rule, can be read by everyone (unless you make them private).

When you sign up to Twitter, you can choose to ‘follow’ other people, which means their tweets will appear in your (news) feed. The idea is to create your own followers who then get your tweets on their feed.

The strength of Twitter, however, lies in the use of so-called hashtags which allow to perform fast searches. A hashtag is a keyword or expression (without spaces!) which are preceded by a #-sign. Using the correct hashtags will make it easy for people who are not followers to find your tweets. If, e.g., you wrote an article on divorce, you could use #divorce and #lawyer as keywords when announcing your article on Twitter.

The largest pool of lawyers using Twitter can be found in mid-sized firms, with 26% maintaining a Twitter account, followed by 25% of solos, 25% of large firm lawyers, and 24% of small firm lawyers.

Membership of Twitter is free.

Google+

Google Plus is an interest-based social network that is owned and operated by Google. It was launched in 2011, as Google’s response to Facebook. Its functionality is fairly similar to that of Facebook: you can have pages and groups, where you can make posts, upload videos (YouTube) and photos, etc.

Membership of Google+ is free.

Other Social Media

Apart from the social media mentioned above, lawyers also use Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, mainly to share images and videos.

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing site that allows its users to share pictures and videos either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms. It was launched in 2010, and acquired by Facebook I 2013. Membership is free.

YouTube is a video-sharing site. It was started in 2005, and bought by Google in 2006. It comes in a free and paid version.

Pinterest is a photo-sharing website where you can organize them in virtual pinboards. Its CEO Ben Silbermann summarized the company as a “catalog of ideas,” rather than as a social network. It was launched in 2010.

 

Sources

Legal IT

Legal Technology Trends for 2017

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It is common, at the beginning of the year, to ponder upon what the year ahead will bring. Several experts have published their predictions for trends we can expect in legal technology, in 2017. So, what are they saying? Generally speaking, they expect lawyers to become more mobile, more collaborative (using the cloud do to do), and more responsive (using social media to engage with clients and potential clients). 2017 is also expected to see a rise in the usage of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and to be the year that E-Discovery goes mainstream. Cybercrime & Cyberwarfare, too, will remain in the news.

Let’s have a closer look at these items.

More Mobile

In 2016, for the first time worldwide, we saw more mobile devices being used online than desktops. This trend is expected to continue. More lawyers will start using mobile apps. They also will start accommodating their mobile clients – and potential clients – more. (We recently published two articles on the subject, where you can find more information).

Cloud

2017 will see a further increase in cloud usage. The could will play an increasingly important role in collaboration between lawyers. Bigger law firms are expected to start using big data analytics. The cloud will also play a significant role in the further development of AI and E-Discovery (see below).

Cybersecurity

Cybercrime will continue to rise, and will continue to become more and more sophisticated. AI will increasingly be used in cyber-protection, as well as in attacks. Experts also expect an increase in cyberwarfare.

Social Media – Business Social

More lawyers will start embracing social media, and as a result they will become more responsive, i.e. engage more with clients and potential clients. More specifically, for lawyers, an increase is expected in the usage of professional or business social media. Some experts foresee an important role for new players (service providers) on this market.

AI

In 2017, AI will continue its rise, and become more omnipresent. The main focus of artificial intelligence in legal tech will remain on Machine Learning. More specifically, AI will continue to push legal technology in the fields of Legal Research (with, e.g., virtual Legal Research assistants), Contract Review, Security, and E-Discovery (see further). One expert also expects AI to be introduced in legal practice management, as well as legal project management, which, in turn could lead to significant advances being made in those fields.

E-Discovery

Last, but not least, 2017 is the year E-discovery is expected to go mainstream. E-Discovery, also spelled eDiscovery, stands for electronic discovery. It refers to the discovery of relevant information in legal proceedings – such as litigation, government investigations, or Freedom of Information Act requests – where the information that is being analyzed is stored in an electronic format. Think, e.g., about the recent example of the FBI analyzing tens of thousands of emails that were leaked by WikiLeaks, in just four days. As more and more information is being stored electronically, E-Discovery is becoming more and more important. In 2017, it is expected to go mainstream.

Experts predict the following trends for E-Discovery in 2017:

  • The increase in social media usage implies that E-Discovery will have to be able to incorporate the analysis of social media information as well.
  • The Internet of Things will also have a serious impact on E-Discovery, as it will have to learn to process the data that are produced by billions of devices. In the US, e.g., there is a murder case where Amazon is asked to give access to the data one of its digital Echo devices (virtual assistants) may have recorded as evidence.
  • Because of these two developments (social media & Internet of Things), data privacy is becoming more important than ever.
  • Machine Learning is expected to become the most important technology for E-Discovery.
  • Cross-border compliance will continue shaping E-Discovery: multinationals, e.g., must comply with laws in several countries. This has implications on what can be stored where, which in turn has its effects on E-Discovery.

 

Sources