It is kinda ironic that the first issue of this newsletter is coming on the last day of the year, but since that is the case, it is only fitting that it starts not with introductions but with trend predictions for the New Year.
We could start by saying the legal space is changing but even kindergarten pupils know that every space and industry has experienced changes since COVID and 2020. But most people may not know what is changing or what is driving the change, especially in the legal space?
So to answer that, we’ll start by saying, “The legal space is changing and technology is at the helm of that change”. And it is important that everyone, especially law students, realize that this change is happening fast. Documents, legal research, analysis, court proceedings, legal transactions, billings, literally everything is going digital and will be automated in the near future.
To put this into context, Allen & Overy, a law firm based in London, recently unveiled ContractMatrix, a generative AI chatbot tool that can negotiate and draft up contracts. Businesses, like iManage, have started offering artificial intelligence services to law firms.
Almost every court in America adopted digital platforms to conduct hearings during the pandemic and that hasn’t stopped because according to the National Center for State Courts, judges believe it will be an important tool long after the pandemic because of its potential to save time and money and increase convenience for litigants. Even the physical court proceedings are now being streamed live for public viewership.
According to Fix The Court, the number of federal appeal courts in the US that allowed live-streaming increased from 4 to all 14 courts, from early 2020 to 2023. They also reported that over 880,000 people listened to the audio feed of President Trump’s tax records case in May 2020. And even in Nigeria, the PEPT judgements were live-streamed (despite the court’s refusal to do the same for the hearings, as against global standards).
The Big Question is; Why do they suddenly want Nigerians to watch the judgement from home?
#AllEyesOnTheJudiciary
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You may argue, like the lawyer you are 😁 , that these changes are only temporary and emergency-related; but you'd be wrong because:
The ABA Profile of the Legal Profession recently reported that while only 10% of lawyers say their firms are currently using artificial intelligence tools, 36% of lawyers say that AI tools will be mainstream within the next five years.
Fix The Court also realized that 70% of the people they surveyed would like the live streaming of court cases to continue into the future.
Wolters Kluwer, in a 2020 survey, noted that 76% of legal pros agree that the increasing importance of legal technology will be the top trend to impact their organizations by 2023.
AI Lawyer, DoNotPay, recently won a lawsuit (MillerKing LLC v. DoNotPay Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, No. 3:23-CV-00863) filed against it by MillerKing for practising with a law degree, stressing the fact that technology has come to stay in law.
So you see, legal technology is coming fast and it coming to stay; but what does this mean for the average law student? Why is this newsletter telling you all about this?
This information is reaching you as a law student emergent in the profession, lauding the need for you to acquire tech skills as the approaching years would make it a requirement if one must escape the labour market. In other words, the landscape is changing and your tech use, knowledge, and skills would be as important as your hard and soft skills.
So while you learn how to draft contracts and write briefs and file cases and do legal research, also learn how to use tech and AI to solve those same problems because THE LEGAL SPACE IS CHANGING…
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“The time for ‘Innovation by Press Release’ for law firms is over; it is ‘Do or Die’.”
— Jeroen Zweers