Author: Josh Lee Page 18 of 23

The World Legal Summit: Informing and Taking Action – Physically and Virtually

On 31st July 2019

In Events, Internet Governance, Lawyers, Legal Innovation, Policy, Regulations

Reading time: 5 minutes

Written by Josh Lee and Aileen Schultz (Founder, World Legal Summit)

The World Legal Summit (WLS) is a 30+ city, 20+ country initiative designed to bridge the gap between legislative understanding and emerging technologies. Part One will occur in physical locations simultaneously across a 24 hour window on August 1, while Part Two will occur between September 6 to 8. The WLS will also provide global networking and remote participation opportunities in a virtual world.

Introduction

Technology and global systems are evolving at unprecedented rates, with humanity now poised at the tip of the exponential curve of technological evolution. There is, however, a lack of incentives to create required legislative and regulatory frameworks for the proper governance and responsible use of such technologies. Further, legal advances in technology governance – typically developed in silos – are not keeping pace with the development of technology. In turn, this creates a governance and trust deficit between emerging technologies, their associated global systems, and the necessary frameworks for a globally sustainable future.

While the legal industry has seen global initiatives to drive technology in legal practice (such as through global events such as the Global Legal Hackathon), the World Legal Summit (“WLS”) tackles the converse challenge of legal and regulatory issues relating to new technology. It is primarily focused on emerging technologies that are global in nature and that are facing complex regulatory challenges. In its inaugural year, the WLS will be focusing on the following three technology categories:

Identity and Personal Governance;

Autonomous Machines; and

Cyber Security and Personal Data.

LawTech.Asia: Strategic Media Partnership with Singapore Academy of Law

By Josh Lee

On 16th July 2019

In Legal Innovation

Reading time: < 1 minute

LawTech.Asia is proud to announce a Strategic Media Partnership with the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL)!

Through this partnership, LawTech.Asia will be qualitatively supported by SAL through its networks, platforms and information, for LawTech.Asia to be the portal on all things law and technology in Asia.

With a proliferation of publications and platforms showcasing legal innovation and technology in the Western Hemisphere, lawyers in the US, UK and the Europe have no lack of sources of information and inspiration to embark on legal transformation.

But what about Asia? This is not a space lacking in innovation – from the blockchain courts in Dubai, legal tech firms in Korea, to Singapore’s Legal Technology Vision, Asia has long been a hotbed for legal industry innovation. There is a need to share this innovation journey with the rest of the world – to let them know that innovation is an essential element of the DNA of Asia’s legal industry.

Commenting on the strategic media partnership, Paul Neo, Chief Operating Officer of SAL shared, “This strategic media partnership with LawTech.Asia is a timely one. It allows us to support a neutral and credible partner in growing and driving thought leadership in law and technology in Asia.”

Huiling Xie, Head of Partnerships & Revenue in LawTech.Asia, said, “We are proud that SAL has chosen LawTech.Asia to be its strategic media partner. This is a testament to the credibility and quality of LawTech.Asia. We look forward to paving the way forward in the law and technology space with SAL, and driving Singapore and more broadly Asia as a hub for innovation in this space.”

LawTech.Asia is proud to embark on this ambitious journey to cover and push the frontiers of innovation in Asia’s legal industry!

The LawTech.Asia Team

Legal Technology and its potential to improve client collaboration

By Josh Lee

On 15th July 2019

In Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 5 minutes

Guest Post By Marc May | Edited by Josh Lee

“Legal technology” (or “legal tech“) a term that is incredibly broad and encompasses any technology or software that is able to improve the provision of legal services. Many a time, the mention of legal tech brings to the minds of lawyers technology that bring internal process improvements, such as improved legal research, contract review or drafting.

However, aside from the promise that legal technology can free up time for lawyers so that they are able to build better client relationships, there are also innovative ways legal technology can help lawyers directly to become more collaborative with clients. Here are two ways legal technology could do so:

Collaborative drafting; and
Automation-as-a-service.

Disruptive Legal Technologies – Is Ethics Catching Up?

By Josh Lee

On 25th June 2019

In Access to Justice, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation, Regulations

Reading time: 6 minutes

Written by Alvin Chen and Stella Chen (Law Society of Singapore)

Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the August 2018 issue of the Singapore Law Gazette, the official publication of the Law Society of Singapore. Reproduced with permission.

In December 2017, DeepMind, a leading AI company, sent ripples through the AI world when it announced that it had developed a computer program (known as “AlphaGoZero” or “AlphaZero”) which learned the rules of three games – chess, Shogi and Go – from scratch and defeated a world-champion computer program in each game within 24 hours of self-learning.¹ What was remarkable about DeepMind’s achievement was the program’s “tabula rasa” or clean slate approach which did not refer to any games played by human players or other “domain knowledge”.² Yet, DeepMind’s program was able to develop an unconventional and some say, uncanny,³ methodology in surpassing current computer understanding of how to play the three games.

Referring to an earlier version of DeepMind’s program (“AlphaGo”) which defeated the (human) world champion in Go in 2016, the legal futurist Richard Susskind considers such innovative technologies to be “disruptive”. In his international bestseller Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future (“Tomorrow’s Lawyers“), Susskind defined “disruptive” as something that would “fundamentally challenge and change conventional habits”.⁴

E-Discovery: Artificial Intelligence & Predictive Coding – Discovering the Way Forward

By Josh Lee

On 7th June 2019

In Artificial Intelligence, Automation, E-Discovery, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 5 minutes

Written by Emily Tan | Edited by Jennifer Lim Wei Zhen, Josh Lee, Maryam Salehijam (Resolve Disputes Online)

Introduction

Cases turn on their facts. Lawyers depend on both the law and the specific circumstances of their client’s case to make a convincing argument for their client. This makes the discovery process, where the available information is sifted through to identify relevant evidence, a crucial step in any case.

However, discovery is by its nature a slow and laborious process. Countless hours are spent digging through documents, emails and other such sources, searching for the key factors which may make or break a case. This “time-drain” has been exacerbated by the digitalisation of work, which has exponentially increased the volume of documents that lawyers have to analyse. In addition, it is typically the junior lawyers who are delegated to do the discovery task — which explains the television stereotype of young lawyers poring over cartons and cartons of documents late into the night.