The Queue

Navigating the new frontiers of Generative AI and legal tech innovation

With a background as an academic law librarian, Sarah Glassmeyer has developed a deep appreciation for taxonomies and data management.  Now Senior Analyst at LegalTechnology Hub, Sarah joins this episode to delve into her nuanced view of Generative AI and its impact on legal and legal tech: 

• The preparatory work necessary to surmount challenges in implementing AI in legal contexts 
• How Generative AI democratizes access to legal information, improving access to justice. 
• Trends in law firms developing their own software products
• The role of standardized legal taxonomies, like SALI, in facilitating true collaboration 

Mastering Cybersecurity with Derek Lazzaro

Derek Lazzaro has a diverse background as an attorney turned AmLaw 100 CIO and now CISO at Defensive Networks, where he's passionate about the importance of cybersecurity in today's world and how it should be integrated into the foundation of any system. In this episode, Derek joins Bill to discuss:

• Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and the challenges of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
• The evolving landscape of cyber threats
• Why compliance frameworks are essential but insufficient
• How going beyond compliance is the key to true cybersecurity
• Advice on evaluating vendor security measures and staying ahead in cybersecurity

Data-Driven Legal Evolution

Tom Baldwin discusses the legal industry's transformative journey of data integration and AI adoption, the evolution from gut instinct to data-driven decisions, the critical role of data governance, and how law firms are maturing their data practices:

• Firms want to break their data out of silos to see an integrated picture

• Demand for data-driven insights and improved productivity is climbing

• Firms are investing in data scientists, IT, and innovation groups as they realize the potential competitive pressures due to AI

• KM programs are critical for the effective utilization of AI

• Firms must strike the right balance between AI and traditional processes and technologies and acknowledge that AI adoption will take time and involve a gradual transition.

 

Now is the time for standardization in the age of AI

Featured Guest: Damien Riehl, VP, Litigation Workflow and Analytics Content at vLEX

As a lawyer and consumer of legal technology, Damien was frustrated by the lack of interoperability between vendors and their taxonomies. Damien is now part of the solution with the SALI Alliance.

• Data management is an under-appreciated prerequisite for leveraging generative AI.
• SALI tags allow vendors, law firms, and clients to easily standardize their data for better legal services classification and delivery.
• SALI enables vendors to speak to one another; think of this analogy: you're trying to communicate with someone across the globe, but your telephone doesn't talk to other telephones. Why not get the interoperable phone that talks to everyone's phone? That interoperable telephone is SALI.

All Things ILTACON 2023: An Exclusive Conversation with ILTA CEO Joy Heath Rush

Joy's done it all when it comes to legal - her beginnings working at a solo practitioners' office in Washington, D.C. transformed into working with attorneys and technology, and she's been that ever since. Now the CEO of the International Association Legal Technology (ILTA), Joy is the expert in all things ILTA, and joins Bill on this episode to discuss:

• The excitement of record-breaking attendance numbers for this year

• Exhibit Hall anticipation - what are well-established vendors doing and what will the 29 new startups do

• Exceptional educational sessions covering trending topics in legal: AI, hybrid work and the pendulum swing of how and when we work

• ILTA's growth in developing a dedicated Corporate Law segment to ILTACON, naming its first Board of Directors President from outside North America, and doing more for smaller law firms

• The wonderfully collaborative and sharing environment that is ILTACON and the volunteers, attendees and vendors that make it the annual event everyone looks forward to

 

Thomson Reuters acquisition of Casetext and the future of LLMs in Legal

Damien's 15-year history as a ligation attorney in large law, combined with his love for coding, lends him a unique insight into:
👉 TR's $650M cash purchase of Casetext, a pioneer in the LLM space

👉 The implications of the acquisition in tandem with the sale of Elite and ProLaw: divesting themselves of the business of law and going back to the substance of law
👉 Waves of AI over the last decade and why and how this wave is different
👉 How LLMs will change the landscape of what it means to be a lawyer and the concept of human creativity

Information Governance and Meeting Attorneys Where They Are

Rebecca Sattin has experience working on both sides of the coin. Her background includes several years working within law firms in Southern California and over a decade in legal tech. In this episode of The Queue, she shares her expertise on how law firms of all sizes should manage their information governance, her transition from Worldox to NetDocuments, and what technology she's excited about. Go deeper with Rebecca and Bill on:

• Leveraging the entire discipline of your document management system, which starts with top-down adoption
• The competitive advantages of having an optimized DMS, particularly for smaller firms
• Meeting attorneys where they are: Outlook
• The rise of Teams and Office 365why larger firms have had a more extended transition adopting it

AI is Really About Data Management

Mark Montgomery has been working in R&D on AI for 25 years. Mark is the CEO of KYield, a pioneer in AI, focused on precision governance with KOS, a distributed AI operating system.

 

OpenAI has inspired new possibilities for applications in legal, but not without some serious considerations, including:

• Copyright - enterprise decision-makers have to determine the risk AI poses to their industry, and then access how this technology will be used and managed internally.
• Liability - who is liable for false information that AI puts out? LLMs are difficult to control and spew out a lot of false information.
• Data management - disciplined data management is the key to maximize the value from LLMs.

’Culture of openness’ spurs legal tech innovation and adoption, with Legaltech Hub Partners Nikki Shaver and Jeroen Plink

Former Managing Director for Innovation and Knowledge at Paul Hastings, Nikki Shaver, and Jeroen Plink, former CEO of Clifford Chance Applied Solutions discuss the inception of their platform, LegalTech Hub, and how their experiences shaped the solutions to particular problems they identified in searching and sourcing technology for law firms:

• Having a centralized place for law firms and corporate legal to perform searches on digital tools and knowledge management
• How to implement, advocate, and educate attorneys and legal professionals on legal tech - both new and existing
• The value of integration for efficiency and ROI on existing technology investments

Machine learning and the future of technology for law, with Benjamin Alarie, CEO of Blue J

Co-founder and CEO of Blue J, Benjamin Alaire joins host Bill Bice to discuss the ‘why’ behind Blue J, a predictive tax law software company, and what is driving the future of technology for law:  

• Law is fundamentally about predication; technology intersects at the point of prediction to allow for automation and machine learning 
• How can we leverage technology to make predictions about how tax situations will be treated? 
• We’ll see rapid development in the practice of law because of advances in legal tech 
• The future of legal disputes will rely on an AI to give a prediction of its outcome