Last spring, the global world of legal technology became a bit more connected, thanks to the unusual coincidence of of two legal tech world tours. One was by Dera J. Nevin, who traveled the world as the self-anointed “global ambassador for legal technology,” in conjunction with the Global Legal Hackathon. The other…

Our guest this week on LawNext is Daniel B. Rodriguez, who recently stepped down as dean of Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, where he gained wide recognition for his work to innovate legal education, and recently stepped up to become chair of the governing council of the ABA Center for Innovation, which focuses…

Vote now. Help us pick the legal technology startups that will be selected for the third-annual Startup Alley at ABA TECHSHOW. Fifteen companies will be selected to face off in a pitch competition on TECHSHOW’s opening night and to exhibit in a special portion of the conference’s exhibition hall.

In October, we issued a…

Ten years ago, I missed out on buying my first home. Having scraped enough money together to pay the deposit and associated government tax, I only had to figure out how to pay for the legal fees. My plan was to use my 0% purchases credit card to pay my lawyer, and eventually pay this…

Evisort might just be the hottest legal tech and AI company you’ve never heard of.  Born out of Harvard Law School, MIT and the Harvard Innovation Lab; funded by an investment firm backed by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and other Silicon Valley luminaries; recently profiled in a Columbia Business School case…

Passports and drivers’ licenses are tried-and-true methods of authenticating the identities of people signing paper documents. Now Adobe Document Cloud is taking that concept to the cloud with the introduction of Government ID Authentication, a new feature in Adobe Sign that uses a physical ID to authenticate digital signatures.

The feature, included in the latest release…

Thomson Reuters, the dominant provider of research and information services for the legal profession, last week announced plans to reduce its workforce by 3,200 and close 30 percent of its offices by the end of 2020. What is going on and what does it mean for the company’s customers?

The timing of the news, announced…

In major legal industry news, global law company Elevate announced its acquisition of the legal AI technology and consulting firm LexPredict. The move combines the comprehensive legal services offering of Elevate with the data science team and AI engine of LexPredict.

With the combination of Elevate’s alternative services model and LexPredict’s cutting-edge technology, does this acquisition…

In my continuing quest to track the states that have adopted the duty of technology competence for lawyers, I have learned of two more that should be on the list, bringing the total to 34.

The new additions to the list are Alaska and Montana. Both adopted the rule some time ago, but I…

North Carolina has become the second state to mandate continuing education for lawyers in technology. Beginning in 2019, all lawyers will be required to complete one hour per year of CLE devoted to technology training.

In 2016, Florida became the first state to mandate technology training for lawyers, when it adopted a rule requiring…

Is the traditional form of contracting broken? Are static legal agreements irrelevant in a fast-moving global economy? Casey Kuhlman, CEO of the blockchain and smart contracts company Monax, believes we’re on the brink of a paradigm shift in how we form and execute legal agreements.

Kuhlman and Monax are the principal forces behind the…

In this special bonus episode of LawNext, listen to a panel discussion on savvy podcasting for lawyers.

Recently, at the 2018 Northeast Regional Conference of the Legal Marketing Association, I participated on a panel of legal marketing and media experts to discuss podcasting for lawyers and law firms. The panelists shared their tips and…