Legal Tech

Expert Analysis

• A Law Student's Guide To Thriving As A Summer Associate

  Summer associates are expected to establish a favorable reputation and develop genuine relationships in a few short weeks, but several time management, attitude and communication principles can help them make the most of their time and secure an offer for a full-time position, says Joseph Marciano, who was a 2022 summer associate at Reed Smith.

• How I Owned My Power As An Asian American Woman In Law

  Gibson Dunn's Debra Yang shares the bumps in her journey to becoming the first female Asian American U.S. attorney, a state judge and a senior partner in BigLaw, and how other women can face their self-doubts and blaze their own trails to success amid systemic obstacles.

• Successful In-House Alt Legal Services Start With 4 Questions

  Law firms that are considering creating an in-house alternative legal service provider should focus not on recapturing revenue otherwise lost to outside vendors, but instead consider how a captive ALSP will better fulfill the needs of their clients and partners, say Beatrice Seravello and Brad Blickstein at Baretz & Brunelle.

• How Firms Can Prepare For AI-Based Knowledge Management

  Law firms implementing artificial intelligence tools to help lawyers find answers to administrative questions should remember that poor data integration practices can be costly and time-consuming, and must consider four steps to lay the groundwork, says Bim Dave at Helm360.

• Guiding Principles For Implementing New Legal Technology

  Best practices for adopting new legal technology include considering the details of the organization's needs, assembling an implementation team, integrating the new tool into the workflow and making it as easy as possible for the user, says Kate Orr at Orrick.

• Future Lawyers Expect DEI Commitments Beyond Recruiting

  To attract future lawyers from diverse backgrounds, firms must think beyond recruiting efforts, because law students are looking for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that invest in employee professional development and engage with students year-round, says Lauren Jackson at Howard University School of Law.

• How Law Firms Can Innovate Amid Rising Client Demands

  As clients increasingly tell law firms to integrate new legal technologies, firms should consider service delivery advancements that directly address the practice of law and can truly distinguish them — both from a technology and talent perspective, say members of Axiom Consulting.

• The Case That Showed Me The Value Of E-Discovery Plans

  Robert Keeling at Sidley reflects on leading discovery in the litigation that followed the historic $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger and how the case highlighted the importance of having a strategic e-discovery plan in place.

• What Litigators Can Expect From The Metaverse

  As virtual reality continues to develop, litigators should consider how it will affect various aspects of law practice — from marketing and training to the courtroom itself — as well as the potential need for legal reforms to ensure metaverse-generated data is preserved and available for discovery, says Ron Carey at Esquire Deposition Solutions.

• Series

  The Future Of Legal Ops: Time To Get Serious About Data

  Most corporate legal departments collect surface-level data around their operations, such as costs and time to resolution, but legal leaders should explore more in-depth data gathering to assess how effective an attorney was, how efficiently legal work was performed, and more, says Andy Krebs at Intel.

• Why You Should Leverage AI For Privilege Review

  While many lawyers still believe that a manual, document-by-document review is the best approach to privilege logging, certain artificial intelligence tools can bolster the traditional review process and make this aspect of electronic document review more efficient, more accurate and less costly, say Laura Riff and Michelle Six at Kirkland.

• Tips For Evaluating Machine Learning For Contracts Review

  Law firms considering machine learning and natural language processing to aid in contract reviews should keep several best practices in mind when procuring and deploying this nascent technology, starting with identifying their organization's needs and key requirements, says Ned Gannon at eBrevia.

• Collaborative Tech Will Dictate Future Law Firm Success

  Law firms need to shift their focus from solving the needs of their lawyers with siloed solutions to implementing collaboration technology, thereby enabling more seamless workflows and team experiences amid widespread embrace of hybrid and remote work models, says Kate Jasaitis at HBR Consulting.

• How Dynamic Project Management Can Help Law Firms

  Law firms looking to streamline matter management should consider tools that offer both employees and clients real-time access to documents, action items, task assignee information and more, overcoming many of the limitations of project communications via email, says Stephen Weyer at Stites & Harbison.

• How Firms Can Benefit From Creating Their Own ALSPs

  As more law firms develop their own legal services centers to serve as both a source of flexible personnel and technological innovation, they can further enhance the effectiveness by fostering a consistent and cohesive team and allowing for experimentation with new technologies from an established baseline, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.