Technology and Digital Transformation in the Legal Industry

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[Music] Este panelists and valued participants good  morning and good afternoon and warm welcome   to our webinar on technology and digital  transformation in the legal industry I'm   truly delighted to see such a diverse and engaged  audience joining us from various corners of of the   legal and Technology sector I am Gopi mamidi the  moderator for today's webinar I have been an it   professional for just under 40 years over the  past 7 years at CB I played a significant role   in introducing new technology particularly in  the intersection of cloud Technologies and the   practice of law my goal has been to better serve  our clientel by providing them with tools that   simplify and enhance their productivity in today's  rapidly evolving world the legal industry is not   immune to the transformative power of technology  in fact it is the Forefront of adopting Innovative   digital solutions to streamline operations  enhance efficiency and better serve clients   with the Advent of large language models like  chat GPT the Le legal landscape is undergoing a   profound shift one that is reshaping the way legal  professionals work collaborate and deliver legal   services for the next 1 hour we will embark on  an insightful Journey exploring the intersection   of law and technology and delving deep into the  strategies Trends and opportunities that Define   this Dynamic landscape our esteemed panelists who  bring a wealth of knowledge and experience will   guide us through this exciting Terren our focus  in the webinar will be on achieving operational   efficiencies via automation of billing filing  documents with courts receiving and delivering   Court not notices so that we can leverage  paralegals for additional respons possibilities   we have a panel discussion that promises to  provide you with valuable insights and actionable   takeaways whether you're a legal professional  seeking to leverage technology for a Competitive   Edge or technology Enthusiast interested in the  legal sector transformation there something here   for everyone before we dive into our discussions  I'd like to express our gratitude to our   distinguished panelists without whom this event  would not be possible I'd also like to acknowledge   our sponsors and partners for their support  so without further Ado let's embark on this   exciting journey together exploring the ways in  which technology is reshaping the legal industry   and forging New Frontiers of posibility to kick  things off I will now introduce to our first   keynote speaker who will provide valuable insights  into the importance of digital information in the   legal World Larry Swain our first panelist the  virtual floor is yours please introduce yourself   thank you Gopi um Larry Swain with rapid legal  and Rapid legal is uh a litigation support service   provider that's been in in business for more than  30 years providing support for attorneys and law   firms related to litigation support processes  getting core documents filed service process   document research Etc uh rapid legal is one of  the first litigation support companies to go   online in the early 2000s when we saw the the  future and the possibilities of the internet   and brought to uh law firms across California the  ability to submit orders online and that was very   timely because as uh soon after courts across  the state began adopting electronic filing uh   and that's really has taken hold over the last 10  years and uh rapid legal has tried to stay at the   Forefront of offering online web-based solutions  to uh law firms and Attorney Services I myself   have been with the company for 10 10 of the last  25 years that I've been working in technology um   and before that served seven years in the US Navy  and to my my role at rapid legal is to look at how   do we extend our Solution by integrating with  other technology providers who are also serving   law firms uh to help automation across all aspects  of running the business of a law firm and getting   that done so thank you Gopi I'm happy to be here  thanks Larry for that introduction I mean uh good   to know that you have solid experience in this  area uh I will switch to our other panelist Dan O   day uh please introduce yourself Dan uh thank you  Gopi so yeah Dan O day uh co-founder of ecfx uh   we automate the processing of the Court notices so  you can say a little bit uh we pick up uh the kind   of uh things that rapid legal help create um what  we do is we download those uh notices we store   them in the DMS we distribute them to the team  so individuals don't have to uh we've only been   around for uh four and a half years now uh and we  launched the product in uh 2020 we do have a quite   a steam Client List I'm very proud of uh I've been  illegal since I was 16 years old I started out   as a court Runner because uh I could drive a car  right and so um I went on to be a pargal I I did   practice law I had my law license in California  but realized that the actual practice law was very   evic serial so I ended up in legal technology at  a company that some people may know called Elite   that became part of Thompson Reuters uh and I have  had various roles and but I have been involved   since the age of 16 when I first started putting  p C's into a law firm in legal technology uh for   my entire career so thank you very much W that's  amazing I mean you've been in technology for so   long and you've done a wide variety of roles  that's awesome so um I will uh start with my   first question for today which will kind of uh be  an excellent starting point uh to to continue with   our discussion in this in this uh webinar so Larry  uh first question to you what changes do you think   have occurred in the last 40 20 years uh that are  encouraging humans to take a switch to automation   what work are humans doing today that can be  used as a basis for comparison well we've seen   an awful lot um I will focus on one thing that  Dan can relate to the days of the Court Runner   are soon coming to an end um what what I think  what we've really seen that's primarily impacted   uh law firms and particularly the courts is the  idea of moving documents electronically um gone   are the days of the wet you know print out the  document put a wet signature on it and hand it   to a clerk uh by adopting e filing we've seen  uh courts Embrace online documents electronic   documents they're using that to automate their  own systems so that's really I think um what's   been transformative and that really sets the stage  uh what's happened over the last 10 years sets the   stage for what can happen over the next 10 years  as more information documents payments are moved   electronically it's going to bring all kinds of  efficiencies and opportunities across the across   the legal technology space and uh so switching  over to Dan do you also agree with Larry that   uh there has been a significant Improvement in  the way legal professions work today in the last   20 years there have been a lot of changes that you  have seen yeah I I would say that while um I would   agree 100% that the move to electronic document  transfer and electronic documents has finally   taken hold in legal after 30 years of attempting  this and they've been talking about paperless   offices not quite since I started they started  talking really seriously about going paperless   in law firms late '90s early 2000s um and I think  with the Advent of electronic filing and a number   of things that that at least in litigation there  is a lot less physical paper um for for certain   uh no doubt about it that's been a transformative  change uh we see of course the related change in   the ecovery process it used to be just plain  old document production right and so um these   been Monumental changes that have allowed for  Automation in ways that um didn't exist uh 20   years ago to your question yeah and uh ecfx do you  um also automate uh several processes in this uh   legal industry we did so we're essentially what  people outside of leg will call robotic process   automation or RPA but we're specialized in doing  that around Court notices so as Court notices come   in we're parsing them analyzing them uh figuring  out what documents need to be downloaded where   they need to be stored who's on the team that  needs to be notified and sending those out uh   to those individuals uh We've also integrated with  various uh federal agencies uh and the ITC finra   people like that so um it's really anywhere that  you have some sort of repetitive process around   email we can essentially automate it for a law  firm right and Larry what about your compan I   mean are you automating and uh do you see uh  scales in uh productivity gains there when you   do the automation the way uh we e file now yeah  absolutely so our our primary um um benefit to to   law firms and attorneys is to allow them to take  documents that they're creating electronically and   get those documents handled in whatever litigation  step they're they're at if they're fining a new   case or if they need uh other parties served we're  able to accept those documents electronically   route them to the court electronically if the  court does so if not have a runner uh there are   still some out there um take them to the court  have parties served so we've allowed the the law   firm to take a lot of that work off their plate um  and not have to send people or have Runners come   to their office which has really dramatically  improved the timeliness and responsiveness of   getting those litigation steps completed uh  as well as help to honestly reduce the cost   uh you see dramatically dramatic cost reductions  for the law firms by moving to where the courts   have adopted electronic filing saves a lot of  time and saves a lot of money and uh what are   some typical challenges you face when you try to  introduce this process in law firms I mean have   you seen any and what kind B that's yeah a great  question there's there's always challenges um when   adopting technology I like to uh I'm one of those  people who always love to run out and and find out   something that's brand new or try something brand  new quite often um and particularly when you're a   business or you're running a law practice you want  to make sure that uh everybody's on the same page   if you have some people doing one thing and other  people's doing something a different way whether   that's using different vendors using different  software platforms uh consistency of execution   I think is one of the biggest challenges um  in change uh people naturally we all resist   change of some sort um so but what we find is I  think once the the team at a firm is on the same   page they're they're conscious and recognize the  benefits to be had and they can work through uh   any issues or assembling blocks to get themselves  uh moving forward um right and uh Dan how about   your offering do you see challenges in introducing  uh your technology into law Firs yeah we do see   some initial challenges sometimes it depends on  the firm's culture a lot and and whether or not   they're embracing especially the administrative  staff um it's taking a lot of time you know the   administrative staff have often times uh feelings  about how they do their work uh and today they're   downloading documents perhaps and naming them in  a certain way and two individuals in the same firm   may have two different ways to name documents  because they feel that's the best way to do   it and the firm comes in with a solution like  ours and even though we can and often do save   them multiple ways they often want to in Institute  with our software a standard right and so they'll   say okay we're going to this standard and now  we're going to do everything the same way in all   matters across all litigation and that change  can be resisted sometimes by the by the staff   who will want to go in and rename things they'll  want to move things around and stuff uh so we run   into that issue the other thing we do is we shed a  light sometimes on um people who are not actually   compliant with the system so a lot of our value  proposition is risk management and it is sometimes   the case and some firms and a few of our clients  where not every case was being tracked properly   some attorney may have made a prohawk appearance  in some jurisdiction and just be managing the case   himself and his admin and no one else in the  firm knows about it uh we often identify those   and bring those to the Forefront and so there's  a period of um data reconciliation if you will   of what's really going on and how many of these  cases are actually being properly tracked right   and is the resistance at a attorney level or at a  paralal level or it it it kind of percolates all   right across the board uh the attorneys love it so  the partners the attorneys love it there's there's   almost no resistance because now they're getting  uh you know the work product faster consistent   format 100 almost instantly weekends holidays they  love it uh it's almost always at the staff level   where the staff uh had a certain way of working  right right right okay and Larry is that what   you see as well um do younger attorneys take to  technology faster than and the older ones quite   obviously I guess but uh do you see a resistance  in taking on your technology in a lot of them if   they're primarily older attor in there we we  do as as Dan said you know we're we're humans   and we get used to doing something a certain way  and we find something that works for us so when   change is are forced on us or are pushed on us  I should say uh it can be harder uh what we what   we've seen particularly around um our business  and filing documents with the courts is where   the courts are driving the change that I think the  the attorneys that are resisting it or the staff   that are resisting realize that that they have  to change um and so now it becomes how can you   adopt technology and change your processes um in  a way that's going to work for you and I think one   of the key things that that rapid legal has all  always been about is is supporting our customers   through those changes so a lot of times you know a  court wants the documents submitted electronically   but they don't want you to call them if you have  a problem so uh so our our emphasis on supporting   our customers helping them through those changes  helping get questions answered uh has been also   really helpful for those who resist that kind of  change to know that they're going to have someone   by their side to help them through it that we've  seen that to be very beneficial right and are   there any limits to the automation you're doing  or um is there any advantage of collecting a lot   of data over the automations and being able to  analyze and do things better I mean do you have   examples of that um we do I think one of the one  of the key um as as the courts are adopting um   electronic documents there are a whole Associated  set of data that are going to come with that um   information about the case information about fees  um we've seen some law firms take advantage and   reach out to us say how can we we get the fees  that we're paying uh for the services and paying   to the courts into our accounting systems so  we can do auditing across vendors we can get   more normalized cost structures uh predictable  cost instructors across our different vendors   uh that are providing services for us so what  we'll what we see is that as the um automation   continues to take hold more and more things are  done electronically there's more information   available to now uh aggregate that and make better  decisions make better decisions about cases make   better decisions about the business of running  a law firm uh all of those elements right and   then uh do you see something similar we we do  similar to what Larry's experienced uh we give   them insight into something they don't have  Insight today if you go into your typical law   firm uh of any size and by I mean like 10 or more  lawyers and you say well how many court notices   do you get in a month they'll have no idea it's  it's like right uh it's distributed you know uh   it it varries by case and so oftentimes uh when  they put the product in they are usually shocked   by the number of notices and we duplicate so we  remove uh duplicates so four people get it we   we narrow it down to one notice um and the volume  is often three to five times higher than they had   imagined uh that they had and you know they just  didn't know it was so distributed and you know   and then they can see they can say oh actually we  have a ton of work in New York you know or oh our   our Hawaii office we have a client who found out  that their Hawaii office had as many uh filings   as their New York dark office which surprised them  right um and so yeah you can often shed light into   areas that they uh they just don't have the data  today to see right and uh are companies generally   aware of different types of automation available  or is there um a lag between technologies that are   getting created and automation that are getting  created and what people know and what law firms   know uh done there's definitely a lag uh a lot  of people said I had no idea a software like   yours existed had I known it I would have gotten  it years ago um there's often a you know I have   to deal with the court so the Court's making them  aware they have to eile it is requiring it they're   now dealing with these emails but it doesn't  always it's not intuitive to say oh is there   another tool to help me now that the Court's  gone electronic to complete this process or to   tie it all together right and I'm sure Larry's  experienced this same thing yeah definitely I   I I would say there there's I mean I find this  in my own you know work practice in my personal   life as more and more stuff happens electronically  and gets automated that means there's more stuff   coming at you that you need to keep up with um and  so so sometimes um you know you you have to deal   with a problem like submitting a large number  of transactions or processing a large number   of Court notices and is there something out there  that can help me a lot of people won't even know   um there are always the early adopters that are  going to be out there trying things first and a   lot of times it's as those Technologies mature  and more more people begin to use them then   more people hear about them uh and then they can  bring their benefits and U in general what other   automations are available outside of eiling and  cot notices are you uh uh do you integrate with   other uh similar ilar Services as well D do  you have so we integrate with case management   systems and with document Management Systems uh  and what we're seeing is workflow automations in   those systems so oftentimes our software will  trigger a workflow perhaps the document needs   to go to a reviewer often needs to go to a doting  or calendaring team and uh those workflows will   be triggered based on tags that we put into the  metadata on the document uh some products have   like hashtag Concepts uh that allow them to sort  and distribute documents uh we have firms that   can set a reviewer field to a certain value so  you know this individual reviews it on this case   and another individual reviews it on another case  um and so we are really in the middle uh grabbing   the data out of the existing case system and then  pushing it either to document management or case   management system with additional metadata to keep  the workflow going and then those systems have   their own built-in workflows so that's a excellent  operational efficiency there right there when   you receive a court notice and you've created an  automated workflow that takes care of uh the the   following steps and that's that's very useful to  know yeah and uh lar what about your case do you   integrate with other systems and how do you uh add  to productivity with eiling yeah we do um we're   seeing the same thing uh as Dan mentioned about  uh doc Management Systems obviously that's where   a lot of the documents will start right a document  can't be filed until it's created so we're seeing   interest and we're developing Integrations so  to help streamline the creation of the document   and then the filing of the document and as Dan  mentioned they're automating the the return of   the Court notices U so that's one area the other  area that I mentioned earlier was around expense   management and accounting um we're seeing a  lot of interest from some forward-thinking   law firms that that are recognizing there's  there's efficiencies to be gained as all the   expenses become digitized to get that information  back into their uh accounting systems so they can   build their clients uh or make make sure that the  the appropriate fees are getting put into their um   case summaries or um keeping track of what's been  paid what's been reimbursed um what what do they   you know are owed by their customers so really  helping the cash flow uh through the law firm   by gaining efficiencies and accuracies and and you  know the other thing we talk of a lot we've talked   a lot about Automation and improving efficiency  but what's really important to a law firm is risk   management making sure that you know a key notice  from a a case that's an important case doesn't get   missed uh time time frames where documents need to  be filed don't get missed fees um you know you can   you can easily wipe out your profit margin if you  don't get reimbursed for the court fees that you   have to pay so so risk management is also uh an  important part of automation as well yeah Larry   thanks for me yeah no thanks for reminding  me because we also do billing integration as   well uh and uh and absolutely um the other thing  that uh we we do for some firms is we give them a   stub time entry to remind them to enter time for  reviewing the document so we can say okay okay   sent you this document you should have you should  have reviewed it how much time did you spend on   it so you don't forget to record that right and  um how do you compute Roi from the service you   provide then I mean how does is there a is there  a way you can justify to your customer that hey   you you pay us so much for subscript subscribing  to a service and you will get this money back in   X number of days I mean how do you justify the ROI  are uh customers yeah so we we actually have hard   Roi which is not which is not common uh because  what we do is we save non-billable time of Staff   members so Denton has saved we have a white paper  where Denton has saved over 19,000 at the time of   the writing 19,000 19,000 man hours person hours  at the time of the document produced it's over   20,000 something hours now of real time because  they had people they could they had time motion   they knew it was like 8 to 20 minutes to process  one of these they saw how many came through they   got a dashboard now with all the data right  which they didn't have before and they can   calculate it that is the number one reason people  usually purchase the software I can tell you that   they the real benefit and the real stickiness  of the product goes to Larry's risk management   point because they're like oh now we we're not  missing anything like if the partner off hiking   in the Himalayas we're still getting the notices  and we know to re act to it right it doesn't get   lost anywhere and that allows the the GCS to sleep  at night and is probably more important to client   retention than even the the hard Roi right right  right that's a great point I mean uh and lar you   did bring up the risk management card sorry excuse  me that that is something very important for uh   these law phones not to miss notices and then yeah  and uh where do you how do you compute Roi uh um   Larry is there um sure yeah our we don't have  as many examples of hard Roi but the um where   we see value where we add a lot of value is as I  mentioned before if you have to eile in a document   do it with a firm you know that's going to help  you um so answer your questions help reach out   to the court or the Court's technology vendor if  there's an issue um stand up for you and represent   you um so that's what we see while the the there's  been a industrywide Roi as I mentioned as the cost   of getting documents filed in the courts have gone  down um the value ad of uh a lot of the businesses   like rapid legal is a level of support that we  can provide you uh and then um on the back end   uh where we've done billing Integrations and and  helped with the cost control there's definitely   Roi that have been had by law firms there just  getting a handle on understanding and making sure   that expenses are reimbursed uh costs are covered  those kind of things right and is eiling mandated   across California or uh it is only for certain  types of cases uh it it varies across the state   um more and more uh counties uh are mandating so  the typical life cycle is a court will shift to   electronic filing they'll Implement an electronic  filing system and they'll make it optional and   then they they will um start to then make it  uh required mandatory for certain case types   or they will it'll be required by all law firms  and attorneys and they'll only make exceptions for   self-represented um case parties but uh we've  seen a lot of the big counties uh Los Angeles   County Orange County Santa clar County Riverside  County um are really moving quickly U so we've   seen now that I think across the state about  2third of the counties in California are have   you filing activated and uh that covers more than  80% of the the case so it's definitely it's it's   a mature technology and it's being adopted across  the state uh there's only a few uh smaller courts   that haven't adopted yet but uh before we know  it it'll be 100% coverage right and Dan do you   see uh courts in your area um send notices only  by email electronically are there courts that do   that now or we're not there yet well the federal  courts have been there for many years actually   the federal courts have been there uh a long time  they're all eservice through the Pacer system uh   and we've seen some states Go 100% electronic  um again maybe making exceptions for prosay or   or certain things but otherwise 100% electronic  uh New York States on a single system uh it does   vary uh greatly by state um whether it's a state  level system or or a county level system and that   tends to be based on the very simple question of  where does the budget for the technology reside   and based on where the budget resides is where  the tech solution resides right so that's usually   how it works right and in California what is the  situation it's county level as Larry was saying   yeah so each County what happened was there is a  history behind here we won't go into it but the   state attempted to build a Statewide solution  and spent a fair amount of money only to have   it partially implemented in Sacramento and ended  up uh deciding hey in the counties were like you   know you have these large cities are like we need  something now and so the state legislature enabled   them through law to to take it on themselves  because the counties were like we couldn't wait   for a Statewide solution in California was  too too much pressure yeah and uh how long   does it take for teams to learn how to use your  product and get familiar with it do they need a   lot of training done uh to go to to to kind of  understand how your workflows work and then how   it gets integrated into a case management system  or any of those other products so the attorneys   require no training because they're just getting  emails and they're just seeing their documents   so zero attorney training but you they're usually  a couple staff members uh in a large firm it may   even be four or five but in a small almost all our  smaller clients it's one individual was trained on   our system understands how it works understands  if something gets stuck why it's stuck and how to   unstick it um so there is some training required  uh and we usually do them in you know a few one   hour sessions to get them fully um firsts in the  product and do you also have apis that you need   it people to integrate with other systems how do  that look we don't require any it direct support   uh we do we do integrate with systems and so  you may involve it in it uh oftentimes the   larger firms do have to involve their it teams  for security reasons and other things uh so it   varies greatly by firm but we have some solo  practitioners uh on the platform that have no   it support and we're able to handle everything  for them so okay and l h uh the rapid legal um   how how is that uh in terms of integration with  how do you set up integration how do you train   people what what's the background there well gopy  it's it's actually very very easy to get started   using rapid Legal Services um it's access to a  web browser so a very small amount of training   our staff can walk through um with the law firm  staff who will be using it our services on on how   to submit the orders and then how to to uh look  at the views of the case documents that have been   filed some of the the basic functionality we have  around Court notices coming back emails our system   will send that's very straightforward uh we now  have the Integrations with document Management   systems that are really easy to activate and use  and some of the more sophisticated uh Integrations   uh billing Integrations that's going to depend  a lot on what what systems that the law firm   is using and what they need from it so those are  those will take more time we'll get involved and   help solve those problems and work with the IT  staff appropriately right and uh this question   is for both of you what use case do you see that  combines rapid legal with ecfx and are there use   cases out there that can create a workflow that  combines both the Technologies together and   provide uh significant productivity gains for law  funds oh absolutely 100% so that's actually we're   we're that's why it's a great partnership um if  you will think of it uh rapid legal's dealing with   the inputs and we're dealing with the outputs and  by by putting those two systems together you've   now got a full 360 degree solution for your office  yeah you you start creating your documents in your   document management system send them through  Rapid legal um to the courts sent out to get   served Etc it all comes back and ecfx can add the  Intelligence on how those documents get put back   in the document system notifi to people all that  handling on the back end it's a really good yeah   the conform copy comes back right so they want  the file stap comp before the record and we can   save that in that docs right next to or whatever  document management system they have right next   to um the the filing that they made so they will  have the draft that they submitted But ultimately   they want the court stamp document and since we're  no longer walking down to the court and bringing   three copies to get conformed copies to bring back  to the office we we need the file stamp version   that's eamp so and um in terms of integrating  rapid legal with u ecfx is there anything special   required or they they work independent of each  other no we work together on integration so we've   built really tight integration so uh for example  we know what a rapid legal notice looks like um   they've provided us with the information on what  jurisdictions they support and so we can recognize   which court it came from understand using their  apis how to call call and get the documents um   it's been a ter terrific partnership from building  a tight integration so that our customers have a   seamless experience excent lar you had anything  to add to that no he covered it yeah we we do   the work so uh they don't have to right uh and how  is the reception of Rapid legal with um law firms   I mean are more and more people adopting eiling  I know it's mandated so they have no choice but   even then uh is there a kind of resistance to  adopt defiling uh the rapid legal as a solution   or do people try other Solutions before they come  to Rapid legal well um we would love it if they   all started with us but uh of course um let's when  you have a a county where eiling is mandated they   have to efile with someone um there could be that  a direct portal that the courts technology vendor   has put up there could be other businesses out  there what we find is when folks come to Rapid   legal and they they are they stay with us because  of the level of service um remember you know when   you adopt technology it's great to have someone on  the other end of the phone when you have questions   on how you're using it or an issue using it  someone that can help you out so what we've   seen is um the level of service uh that's there  as well as the ability to work with all these   complimentary Solutions so we're not just helping  them get eile documents submitted we're able to   work with companies like ecfx and handle the full  round trip provide all the Automation and increase   the value ad um of automation to the law firm by  by selecting us because of who we can work okay so   uh Dan question for you um is there any question  I've not asked and do you wanted to talk about   well I'd love talking about legal tax so there's  a million things to discuss I I think we can all   um appreciate that the the landscape is changing  and it's probably changing more rapidly um I think   a lot of discussion a few years ago was how um  coid essentially forced The Firm to recognize   Cloud technology in particular and and as a result  um there's data to support the fact that lawyers   are more willing to accept technology than they  were pre-co right um and they see it as helpful   and beneficial um I mean the whole experience of a  of instead of waiting in court for four hours for   your hearing until the judge could get you getting  a zoom call at the right time while you can still   do other work me just so much more efficient um  in so many ways right right and Larry is there   anything I should have asked and have not asked  yet about your uh platform and your technology   or anything related yeah the the the biggest  thought is what's driving the adoption of e filing   I'd like to remind people that it's the courts  themselves um because the courts have finally   come to recognize the benefits of Automation and  by getting documents electronically receiving them   electronically the courts are also processing them  electronically they have court case management   systems now that allow the clerks to review  them they can be routed to the correct judge   to be reviewed um they have full view of of a case  now electronically they they saw even during coid   when clerks were able to process filed documents  from home um there were lots of efficiencies but   the the driving I think as we we we've seen  the adoption accelerate is because more and   more courts are realizing that they need to start  adopting technology faster incorporate automation   to manage their costs um they're gaining benefits  from it so I think as we look to the Future um as   they continue on their adoption path that's  going to um pull or push uh more law firms   to um come along and also I think create a lot of  opportunities for as we we've already talked about   uh how much automation has been able to help um  what we're seeing right now that's only going to   continue to increase okay and I thanks for that  and and I don't think we can end the conversation   without talking about chat GPT how do you think  how do you think chat GPT done will change the   way firms will work using your technology are  you incorporating chat GPD in any manner do   you plan to do any of that and what what's your  vision there so so uh yeah so C GTP is obviously   generative AI in generically and large language  models whatever you want whatever classification   and having wrote my college thesis on artificial  intelligence I've been thinking about this for   most of my wow career um and so I I would say that  there are there are two types of AI that are being   used in the legal industry and I do think it's  important to separate out the generative AI from   kind of your other types of AI expert systems  uh things we do like parsing um various uh   ways in which you can approach things categorize  classification engines things like that um and so   those things classification engines um things  that pull out and identify dates and titles of   documents those are really important Technologies  for what we do the generative AI is obviously more   involved on the drafting side of the equation um  I have some theories uh that uh I'm pretty sure   is not controversial that not every company that's  entering legal Tech with a generative AI solution   will be around in five years um because these  Technologies are early Technologies and the we   all know how lawyers are they're going to look at  this stuff and go like what this is more work for   me or this is too it's t too much effort for me  to to deal with all the edits I have to make to   this thing that was generated for me automatically  um I do have a big question though when it comes   to the bar associations it would not surprise  me at all if the bar association start to step   in and do something along the lines of you have to  disclose if you use generative Ai and you have to   review it because you're it's just like if you  had your paralal draft it you ultimately it's   your license you're responsible for it I think  that's the position they're taking now but they   I think they're going to be more explicit about a  lot of this stuff um I do think that you'll find   that it's going to be used by as it has been it's  going to be used more by plaintiffs attorneys than   defense attorneys because of the economics of the  two sides um so I I have a lot of thoughts about   generative AI in legal I'm sure you're don't  want to give away your secrets on how you're   changing your product by using generative AI but  yeah not again it's not for us it's more about   the extraction and classification and pulling out  dates and so you will see AI in our product but it   won't be we're not going to be writing stuff now  that rapid legals in in more in the submission   business but but we're not so and Larry how do  you see large language models like CH GPD enter   your uh world of rep legal well similar to what  Dan answered you know our business is not in the   model we're not in the business of helping the law  firms create their their documents or argue their   case we're uh we're all about helping them get it  done but I what I think I we we'll see happening   is as the more and more these documents become  automated um well and the courts start to share   information from their own automated systems that  the body of knowledge about legal cases uh that's   available for systems like chat BT and others  to to ingest will it grow that'll only grow as   uh you know chat TPT can't ingest a document  that's sitting on a paper file somewhere in in   a courthouse so as more of the um information  becomes digitized those large language models   will have a larger data set to look at um so that  only help so it's it's need to be a part of the   process of bringing you know what what used to be  all paper based to more electronic that can help   Drive these kinds of automations that'll help us  in the future sure thanks um there Dan any closing   comments there uh final comments so I I think we  are seeing the changes that we we've discussed are   just the beginning obviously or we're somewhere  in the middle of the road maybe uh you know what   I guess the early days of the word processor  in the law firm was probably just the beginning   uh and now here we are um and we I do think we  will see paperless offices I know there's some   practices already that have gone paperless because  of the remote work combined with everything else   right um so it's nice to see that that day is  finally here um and I am excited to see what the   next uh 30 years brings this uh this area legal  Tech yeah yeah thanks for that Dan uh Larry how   about yourself any closing comments there yeah I  I agree it's an exciting time um as we see uh all   the there's lots of parties involved in the case  right the law firms the uh the courts uh other   entities as all of those connections Move online  and those system systems uh evolve it's just going   to create more opportunity for Automation and  streamlining and saving a lot of time you know   the the the the generation of web technologies  that are out there now systems in the cloud can   talk to each other so much easier U like rapid  legal and ecfx um the accounting systems will   evolve the billing systems the practice Management  systems were you know we're already in the early   stages of having them talk to each other so as  all these systems um develop and are able to talk   to each other more naturally uh it'll save a lot  of time uh for the staff in running the business   of the law firm so they can focus on what they  do best and where their true value at is is the   practice of Law and all of these administrative  aspects and we'll just get easier and easier to automate yeah thank Larry thank Dan Larry both of  you um so um uh it is clear from what uh you've   both said today that law firms need to embrace  technology faster than ever to stay ahead in the   game right uh Cloud technologies have made it  easier for law firms to introduce new systems   into their uh workplace so there is a whole  bunch of applications available and couple   of good examples are rapid legal for E filing  and ecfx for uh managing Court notices so these   are some really good examples and this these are  the heart of any law firm uh this work so these   are very useful for improving operational  efficiencies so I think uh this has been a   great session um thank you Larry and Dan for this  insightful talk and sharing your knowledge with   CB's family um that's all I have for now goodbye  thank you GOI it's was a pleasure thank you go

2023-10-18

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