Category: Legal Tech

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Legal Tech

You Can’t Take a Taxi Off-Roading

A green taxi cab against a black and white background.

Chris was a client of mine who was in deep, deep trouble. I was brilliant, as usual. Following a period of intense stress for us both, Chris escaped with his business and fortune intact. He paid me handsomely, and without question. Seeing how appreciative he was of my efforts, I took the opportunity to ask him why he never sent me his easy stuff to do. I appreciated the challenging files, but being the greedy lawyer that I was, I also wanted his routine work to keep my juniors and clerks busy billing hours.

read more about which lawyers are going to survive ai “You Can’t Take a Taxi Off-Roading”
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Legal Tech

The Problem With Great Expectations

Bill and Paul sitting on cruise ship.

I am on a slow boat to Tokyo. Over the last few weeks, I have come to know Bill and Paul, both good looking guys in their early eighties. Bill is a pianist and music aficionado. He wears a baseball cap that says, “I’m old, but I’m cool,” which pretty much sums things up for both of them.

read more about the problem with having expectations “The Problem With Great Expectations”
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Legal Tech

Hansel and Gretel in the Age of AI

You will all remember Hansel and Gretel. Abandoned by their stepmother, they left a trail of breadcrumbs to find their way out of the forest. Birds ate the crumbs, and Hansel and Gretel got lost, and eventually fell into the clutches of an evil, cannibalistic witch. Imagine, with me if you will, that AI was around at the time. Had AI trained on those breadcrumbs before they were eaten, it could have produced a map to lead Hansel and Gretel to safety.

read more about cleaning your data for AI “Hansel and Gretel in the Age of AI”
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Legal Tech

What I learned About Artificial Intelligence in the 1990’s

Small floppy disks.
Photo by S J at Pexels.

My firm had a thriving real estate practice in the 1980’s. When the real estate market tanked from 1989 until about 1996, they were not happy times. We did not hire any real estate lawyers in those days.

read more about how using ai is going to change the training required by lawyers “What I learned About Artificial Intelligence in the 1990’s”
Categories
Legal Tech

Chat GPT Promotes Murray Gottheil to Big Law Partner

Murray Gottheil

Career Announcement – Chat GPT is pleased to announce that Murray Gottheil has finally achieved his life-long ambition to be a partner in Big Law!

I was bored this morning so I entered the following prompt into Chat GPT: “Create a biography for Murray Gottheil Canadian lawyer.”

This is what it told me:

read more about nonsense from chat gpt “Chat GPT Promotes Murray Gottheil to Big Law Partner”
Categories
Legal Tech

A.I. is No Substitute for a Determined Soul

Photo Code projected over Woman
Photo by ThisIsEngineering at Pexels.

My wife likes to tell the story of the first file that she worked on for me when she articled for my firm. (Those were in the days when she did what I told her to do, because I was the boss. Things have changed.)

I had her work on a financing file. Back in the day, financing statements under the Personal Property Security Act were typed on a government form, and submitted over the counter.

read more about not using ai as a substitute for competence “A.I. is No Substitute for a Determined Soul”
Categories
Legal Tech

AI: Ask a Stupid Question, Get a Stupid Answer

A young girl in class raising her hand to ask a question
Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva at Pexels.

Martin is a lawyer who has closed many residential real estate transactions. Back when he was starting out, Martin read the relevant statutes and regulations and prepared all the documents himself. For each transaction, Martin drafted a Statement of Adjustments, adding numbers in his head. Eventually he used a calculator, and then a software program. Then, he hired a law clerk and taught her how to do it. Should the situation arise where Martin needs to prepare a Statement of Adjustments manually, he can easily do so, because he knows everything that there is to know about them. When a dispute arises as to the accuracy of a Statement of Adjustments, he can resolve it.

read more about doing legal work without having a strong conceptual understanding “AI: Ask a Stupid Question, Get a Stupid Answer”
Categories
Legal Tech

Death and Other Inconveniences

A skeleton.

This article is about what I want to see from the Legal Tech industry. My basic message is: You technology folks are bringing our profession to its knees. Now we need you to sort out the mess and chart a way out for us. The clock is ticking. Get on with it!  

The article resides on Appara’s website. You can access it here:

https://www.linkedin.com/safety/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fappara.ai%2Fnews-and-insights%2Fdeath-and-other-inconveniences&trk=flagship-messaging-web&messageThreadUrn=urn%3Ali%3AmessagingThread%3A2-Zjc3ZjcyZTYtMzliOS00OTkzLTg2MzMtYjkyNzI5MTU4ZmZmXzAxMA%3D%3D&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_messaging_conversation_detail%3BPqfBAfhDSzyi%2Bw%2FVj1tSNw%3D%3D

Categories
Legal Tech

Goldilocks and the Three Bears of Artificial Intelligence

Three Teddy Bears


It is virtually certain that every lawyer with real intelligence who plans to stick around the profession for at least another five years is going to use artificial intelligence in their practice. (Unfortunately, so will every lawyer without real intelligence, but that is a topic for another day.)

read more about how to go about adopting ai “Goldilocks and the Three Bears of Artificial Intelligence”
Categories
Legal Tech

It’s Deja Vue, all Over Again

A decrepit house.

In the mid-90’s, someone called a recession, and everyone showed up. We had one lawyer who did nothing but enforce mortgages for a Bank.  I was a junior partner who fancied myself as a business promotor, and I suggested that we use the slogan, “[name of our firm],  kicking more people out of their houses in Peel Region than any other law firm.”  For some reason, the senior partners did not agree.

read more about questions law firms should be asking about human resources and legal technology “It’s Deja Vue, all Over Again”