Happy September everyone!
This Week in Review chats about the impact of GenAI on law librarians, AI assistants, legal leadership in AI and CLI's Legal GenAI Summit Day 1 panels sessions (on A2J, professional responsibility and experimentation) - enjoy!
Legal roles transforming – Law Librarian or is it Knowledge Manager or is it…
I’ve been in New Zealand for half of this week – such a beautiful place, it’s always a treat to visit! Huge thanks to the New Zealand Law Librarians’ Association for the invitation and hosting my visit – every legal role is transforming right now and it was a pleasure to chat about the impact of GenAI on the role of law librarians and explore the challenges and opportunities with such an engaged and welcoming group. My top recommendation was to write your job description for tomorrow, today then start working towards it and keep revising it…we took a look at what ChatGPT4 had to suggest there too! Huge thanks again to everyone for having me!
AI assistant world
Two big announcements in the AI assistant world this week – both building on existing tech foundations/functionality, integrating AI and leveraging it to perform tasks more efficiently and help humans work more effectively:
- Open AI’s ChatGPT Enterprise – in their words it “offers enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, customization options, and much more. We believe AI can assist and elevate every aspect of our working lives and make teams more creative and productive. Today marks another step towards an AI assistant for work that helps with any task, is customized for your organization, and that protects your company data.”
- Duet AI for Google Workspace – in their words “[w]e’ve been embedding the power of generative AI across all the Workspace apps. These features help you write, help you organize, help you visualize, help you accelerate workflows, have richer meetings and much more.”
Legal AI leadership emerging - ABA Task Force
The announcement of the American Bar Association Task Force on the Law and Artificial Intelligence was a welcome addition to emerging legal leadership in AI and also emphasized the importance of a national (read here coordinated) approach.
I’ve said for a long time that it’s critical the legal voice be heard often, loudly and clearly in all things AI and, that the focus needs to be not just internal (how it impacts the legal industry) but external too (how it impacts the community). So, it was encouraging to read on the Task Force webpage that its remit will cover “AI and the Profession, AI Risk Management, AI and Access to Justice, AI Governance, AI Challenges – Generative AI, and AI and Legal Education."
There’s no doubt the work of this Task Force will have international reverberations. There’s even less doubt that this is an opportunity for Bar Associations, Law Societies and regulators around the world to collaborate and find practical global solutions to some very big issues, which can then be rolled out nationally and locally.
CLI’s Legal Generative AI Summit (October 24-25)
Speaking of big issues and big solutions…registrations for our Legal GenAI Summit 2023 have been awesome – it’s a little over two weeks since we launched and we’ve welcomed 882 registrants from over 60 countries so far – thank you! As you know this event is online and free – you’ll find registration information here. Full program is here.
We have taken a theme for each of the days of the Summit – Day 1 is the Big AI Issues and Day 2 the Big AI Solutions. In addition to the individual plenaries, we have lots of panels on each Day. Focussing on Day 1, that includes addressing the impact of GenAI on Access to Justice, Professional Responsibility and Experimentation:
- GenAI is another opportunity for us to improve and maybe even solve A2J but, it’s not without challenges, some of which are with the tech – this session will consider the whole picture in discussion with people who really know what they are talking about: Maya Markovich, Executive Director and Co-founder of the Justice Technology Association; Amy Burton, Head of Pro Bono, Mills Oakley and Managing Lawyer, Everyday Justice; Laura Elliott, Pro Bono Senior Associate, DLA Piper; Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor, UNSW Law & Justice; and Noel Lim, Co-Founder and CEO, Anika Legal.
- There’s lots to unpack in the professional responsibility discussion – it runs deep, wide and narrow. It ranges from issues like whether or not the concepts principles and application stand up in the digital age, to the role of regulators in an AI world, and everything in between. We’ll draw on the vast experience of an amazing panel to discuss this: Matthew Dunn, General Manager – Advocacy, Guidance and Governance, Queensland Law Society; Catherine Gleeson, Barrister, NSW Bar Council Member and Deputy Chair of the NSW Bar News Committee; Jeannie Paterson, Professor of Law, University of Melbourne and Co-Director, Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics (CAIDE), University of Melbourne; and Jennifer Shaw, Partner, Bartier Perry Lawyers and Panel Member of the NSW Law Society’s Professional Conduct Advisory Panel.
- It’s hard to imagine how the legal ecosystem can get from here to where we need to go without experimenting in collaboration with clients, traditional and non-traditional partners. We’ll have the opportunity to learn what it takes, what works, and what doesn’t from an outstanding panel of legal innovators: Michelle Mahoney, Executive Director Innovation at King & Wood Mallesons; Gary Adler, Chief Digital Officer, MinterEllison; Danielle Emerson, Senior Legal Transformation Manager, Herbert Smith Freehills; Elliot White, Head of Innovation & Legal Tech Operations, Addleshaw Goddard; and Dom Woolrych, Co-founder & CEO, Lawpath.
Have a wonderful week ahead everyone.
Terri Mottershead, Executive Director, Centre for Legal Innovation at the College of Law