Category Archives: AI

Have We Reached Peak Innovation in Legal?

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We are lucky to have Graeme Grovum, Head of Innovation at Corrs Chambers Westgarth from Australia to present on the stage at the inaugural Legal Innovation & Tech Fest in Johannesburg this year. With his deep understanding of legal processes and love of new technologies, Graeme is well positioned to comment and share insights on some of the hottest topics in legal tech right now. Ahead of his presentation on open innovation at Corrs, Graeme shared some of his insights into the current state of innovation in the legal space. … Continue reading →

The New Frontier: Artificial Intelligence & the Implications for Legal

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We are lucky to have Milos Kresojevic, Founder of AI.Legal Labs (UK) presenting at the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest in Johannesburg this year. We caught up with him to hear more about his experience in the legal industry and something he’s particularly passionate about – embracing artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal industry.   Milos, we can’t wait to have you on the stage at the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest this year. Tell us a bit about your journey in the legal space. What do you love about working in this industry?  My major legal journey started with Freshfields and American Express. At Freshfields, I started and co-led their innovation effort. The most exciting aspect of this role has been having the ability to make a significant impact on some of the most complex and largest matters in the world. The ability to “play” with the explosive mix of top-end lawyering and the top-end of technology (AI and ML) is a dream come true. In reality these innovations have resulted in amazing new revenue models and streams for clients, the firm, partners and lawyers. We’ve worked on developing completely new types of legal services and on a completely different scale, not humanly possible. Being a pioneer and part of such the efforts is a privilege and a thrilling experience. For me though, the best part of these new technologies is that they allow for the democratisation of legal services – allowing law firms of any size, as well as society at large to enjoy the benefits. Legal playing … Continue reading →

Law Firms Kick Against Innovation Tech

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Law firms resist change – the only aspect that drives technology change in law firms is the external pressure from their clients, general counsel or legislation. Also, if they get burnt by something that technology could have prevented – like viruses, hacks, email snooping or server crashes. It seems absolutely crazy that law firms would resist innovation that would see their firms providing more efficient services to their clients, so why do law firms fight the changes that would help them down the line? … Continue reading →

Lawyers of the Future: A Word of Caution

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Never mind Latin, do you speak New Law? To stay relevant in the legal world you need to know your AI, from your LPO, ALSP and IG* – A language that I’m guessing wasn’t part of your law degree unless you graduated last year from a South African law school I don’t know about. While the majority of states in the US recognise that a duty of technology competence is part of the professional rules of conduct for lawyers, we’re a long way off from this in South Africa. In 2016 when asked to present on the Future of Law to a major South African university, I accepted their offer of a projector to show my powerpoint presentation, only to be directed to an overhead projector when I arrived. Enough said. … Continue reading →

The 8 Hottest Topics Shaping Legal This Year

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This year sees the launch of the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest in South Africa, the first event of its kind in the country. You might be wondering how the agenda for this event is developed so as to be on point with the latest pressing issues in the industry. It’s down to a unique research methodology that really gets industry professionals speaking their minds and sharing real challenges, plans and trends. A series of roundtable discussions and interviews with legal professionals results in a list of hot topics that have been debated and discussed within the community. It is these topics that will shape the agenda for Legal Innovation & Tech Fest 2018. This Year’s Research This year’s research groups saw over 100 senior professionals from law firms, in-house legal teams and alternative legal service providers getting together for small face-to-face discussion groups facilitated by an industry thought-leader in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Discussions revolved around the challenges and ideas for improvement and innovation in the world of law. Key Themes The following 8 themes emerged from the roundtable discussions as being most important to the legal community: The legal ecosystem, legal business and the lawyer of the future Building the skills and capability for successful innovation Data-driven decision making – what you can measure you can manage The strategy, the ROI and the business case for innovation, change and collaboration Leveraging user experience to drive user adoption Demystifying artificial intelligence, automation and augmentation The vendor conundrum – sales, … Continue reading →