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