Getting Smarter at Core Legal Work

Getting Smarterat

Core Legal Work

Marc Lauritsen

College of Law Practice ManagementOctober 2010

Session Overview

• Today’s disruptive innovations• The competitive squeeze• Core lawyering activities and artifacts• Humans and machines• Transformative technologies on three fronts– Document drafting– Decision support – Dispute resolution / Deal making

Susskind’s Ten Disruptive Technologies

• Document assembly

• Relentless connectivity

• Electronic legal marketplace

• E-learning

• Online legal guidance

• Legal open-sourcing

• Closed legal communities

• Workflow and project management

• Embedded legal knowledge

• Online dispute resolution

Technologies with legal substance

• Document assembly• Relentless connectivity

• Electronic legal marketplace

• E-learning• Online legal guidance

• Legal open-sourcing• Closed legal communities

• Workflow and project management

• Embedded legal knowledge• Online dispute resolution

Other lawyers Non-'practice' providers

The Squeeze

PayingWork

Values beyond effectiveness Distinctive lawyering values

Self help systemsLaw ‘factories’

Doc prep services

Form sites

Virtual law firms

Corporate insourcing

Substantive systems

Off shore lawyers Legal process outsourcers

Generic process optimization

Regulatory push back

Venture funded providers Accountants

Funding shortfalls

Resistance to change

Legal Aid

Assistance

Substantive systems

Generic process optimization

Work

Who does the Work (illustrative)

LawyerParalegalClientMachine (now)Machine (potential)

WH

W

WM

W

WM(actual)

WM(possible)

Results

Advocacy

AnalysisAdvice

Decisions

DealsDocuments

“Legal expert systems are so totally dreamy!”

Document Drafting and Analysis

Document preparation services

Online forms

Online automated forms

Online services with lawyers in the loop

Decision Making

Choiceboxing

TIG 2010 29

Deals and Dispute Resolution

http://www.fairoutcomes.com

Recap

• Specialized knowledge tools offer some of the most dramatic opportunities to work smarter

• They resonate with the distinctive forms of legal knowledge and work

• Those tools can also empower people to do some legal work themselves

• When legal work can be done smarter, someone will do it smarter

Other lawyers Non-'practice' providers

The Squeeze

PayingWork

Values beyond effectiveness Distinctive lawyering values

Self help systemsLaw ‘factories’

Doc prep services

Form sites

Virtual law firms

Corporate insourcing

Substantive systems

Off shore lawyers Legal process outsourcers

Generic process optimization

Regulatory push back

Venture funded megaliths Accountants

http://www.mylawyer.com/MyLawyer%20vs.%20LegalZoom.asp