Will machines and programs replace lawyers? What does Moore's Law have to say about it? Will Big Data be the end of Big Law? The technology and legal industries are going through immense change. That should make us all happy...

1. © 2013 Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP & Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP
The Technology Challenge:
enhance access to law without
replacing legal reasoning
Gareth Dickson
Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP

2. Introduction
♦ “Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software”
♦ “The End of Lawyers?”
♦ “If you see a threat to your business, and it’s not very good – in five
years it will kill you.”
♦ The challenges for technology:
♦ Presentation of legal data
♦ Creation of legal data and reliance on it
♦ Making of predictions from legal data
♦ Moore’s Law?
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3. Henry Ford
“If I had asked people what they wanted,
they would have said
faster horses”
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4. The Presentation of Legal Data
♦ Not yet comprehensive, but a good start
♦ Pay walls have led to innovative solutions
♦ Search engines
♦ Intelligent or interactive search
♦ “Available to all” versus “accessible to all”
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5. The Creation of Legal Data and Reliance On It
♦ Creation of reliable content is expensive and time-consuming,
individuals need it to be commoditised
♦ Which jurisdiction does it apply to?
♦ When was it written?
♦ Why is it high up the rankings?
♦ Who wrote it?
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6. Predictions from Legal Data
♦ Law not exempt from the Big Data revolution
♦ Self-affirming and self-defeating predictions can have undesirable
consequences for lawyers and individuals
♦ What about understanding? Nuance, caveats, totality of circumstances
♦ Authority vs. philosophy vs. tactics
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7. Leonardo da Vinci
“Anyone who conducts an argument
by appealing to authority
is not using his intelligence;
he is just using his memory”
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8. Moore’s Law
“The number of transistors on integrated circuits for the same price
doubles every year”
i.e.
“If you see a threat to your business and it’s not very good - in five years it
will kill you.”
Christopher Reeve: “At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable,
then inevitable.”
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9. Considerations on Moore’s Law
♦ Funding
♦ Business models
♦ Role of the Law Society and insurance companies
♦ The Little Big Band
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10. Data vs. dating
♦ eHarmony
“Ignore all of those cynical lawyer jokes:
1. Quoting your date will make you sound smarter: “My boyfriend is a
lawyer and he says…”
6. Your date will stand up for you, even when you’re wrong.
7. Lawyers are often invited to interesting social events. Most of them
include an open bar.
10. Lawyers have good memories – or at least good note-taking skills.”
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11. Conclusion
♦ Lawyers are experiencing a bit of an identity crisis
♦ What is the technology challenge for us?
♦ Access to law and justice?
♦ Our response to technology?
♦ If all else fails, apply “reasonableness”!
♦ Finally, don’t forget the importance in law of the human element, and
let’s look forward to the future and the opportunities we will find there
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12. Thank you
Gareth Dickson
Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP
GDickson@edwardswildman.com
http://www.edwardswildman.com/GDickson
Twitter: @GarethDickson
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