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The Technology Challenge: enhance access to law without replacing legal reasoning

The Technology Challenge: enhance access to law without replacing legal reasoning. Gareth Dickson Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP. Introduction. “Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software” “The End of Lawyers?”

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The Technology Challenge: enhance access to law without replacing legal reasoning

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  1. The Technology Challenge: enhance access to law without replacing legal reasoning Gareth Dickson Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP

  2. Introduction • “Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software” • “The End of Lawyers?” • “If you see a threat to your business, and it’s not very good – in five years it will kill you.” • The challenges for technology: • Presentation of legal data • Creation of legal data and reliance on it • Making of predictions from legal data • Moore’s Law?

  3. Henry Ford “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”

  4. The Presentation of Legal Data • Not yet comprehensive, but a good start • Pay walls have led to innovative solutions • Search engines • Intelligent or interactive search • “Available to all” versus “accessible to all”

  5. The Creation of Legal Data and Reliance On It • Creation of reliable content is expensive and time-consuming, individuals need it to be commoditised • Which jurisdiction does it apply to? • When was it written? • Why is it high up the rankings? • Who wrote it?

  6. On the Internet… On the Internet, nobody knows you’re not Mark Deem

  7. Predictions from Legal Data • Law not exempt from the Big Data revolution • Self-affirming and self-defeating predictions can have undesirable consequences for lawyers and individuals • What about understanding? Nuance, caveats, totality of circumstances • Authority vs. philosophy vs. tactics

  8. Leonardo da Vinci “Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory”

  9. Moore’s Law “The number of transistors on integrated circuits for the same price doubles every year” i.e. “If you see a threat to your business and it’s not very good - in five years it will kill you.” Christopher Reeve: “At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.”

  10. Considerations on Moore’s Law • Funding • Business models • Role of the Law Society and insurance companies • The Little Big Band

  11. Data vs. dating • eHarmony “Ignore all of those cynical lawyer jokes: 1. Quoting your date will make you sound smarter: “My boyfriend is a lawyer and he says…” 6. Your date will stand up for you, even when you’re wrong. 7. Lawyers are often invited to interesting social events. Most of them include an open bar. 10. Lawyers have good memories – or at least good note-taking skills.”

  12. Conclusion • Lawyers are experiencing a bit of an identity crisis • What is the technology challenge for us? • Access to law and justice? • Our response to technology? • If all else fails, apply “reasonableness”! • Finally, don’t forget the importance in law of the human element, and let’s look forward to the future and the opportunities we will find there

  13. Thank you Gareth Dickson Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP GDickson@edwardswildman.com http://www.edwardswildman.com/GDickson Twitter: @GarethDickson

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