Dentons’ NextLaw Labs, having launched in May to focus on developing and investing in new technologies for the legal profession, has signed a deal with its first portfolio company, ROSS Intelligence, a start-up developing a legal adviser app powered by IBM Watson.
DWF launches subsidiary to enter burgeoning legal product market
Following on from the launch last month of consultancy, paralegal and flexible lawyer offerings, DWF has entered into the growing legal product market by launching a wholly owned subsidiary, 15squared, to sell and develop technology products for in-house clients.
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Big data and AI will come to the fore as law firms expect tech to drive their businesses
Year-long study by legal technology body identifies future challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics will play a game-changing role within the legal sector as law firms emerge from a decade where they began to understand the power of technology, and to recognise they now have to put it at the heart of their business.
These are key findings of the Legal Technology Future Horizons study, a report into how global advances in technology could impact the legal industry over the next decade. Commissioned by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), the report is based on research conducted between January and November 2013 and was released last month.
Comment: Almost meeting minds – a select band of CIOs and MPs plot a big, big breakthrough
During the original dot-com boom, there was a brief period – oh so brief – when legal technologists and managing partners were almost on the same page. With both camps dreaming of dramatic use of IT projects to revolutionise the legal business – the era of Blue Flag – there were big sums signed off, in many cases with poor results when it came to the hard grind of implementation. Dot-com boom turned to bust and IT professionals were once again from Venus and fee-earners from Mars. Continue reading “Comment: Almost meeting minds – a select band of CIOs and MPs plot a big, big breakthrough”
Systems addicts – The CIO Power List
With the use of data and technology increasingly central to a law firm’s success, the contribution of the individuals leading multi-million pound tech teams has never been greater. Meet the IT heads and chief information officers that stand out from the crowd.
From law firm partners to former data analysts at banks, the individuals who control the deployment of IT and knowledge management (KM) resources at some of the UK’s top-performing law firms are a diverse breed. Some, such as Sheila Doyle at Norton Rose Fulbright, entered the legal industry relatively recently after distinguished careers at some of the world’s largest companies. Others, like Julie Berry at RPC, became one of the earliest adopters of the systems manager role at a law firm, building up the knowledge and experience to become one of the most effective operators in legal tech.
Knowledge is power – the future of legal tech
Effective use of technology and knowledge management tools are higher on a law firm manager’s agenda than ever before. Here we track the key developments that will shape the future of legal tech
For insight into how important the role of the IT specialist is to the modern law firm, just ask Balfour Beatty’s head of group legal Keely Hibbitt. The infrastructure giant made a significant splash in April, when it announced a radical overhaul of its panel arrangements, selecting Pinsent Masons as its sole adviser for all its ‘business as usual’ legal work.
The three-year contract, which will cover all repetitive and predictable legal work that the client faces on a daily basis, is a major coup for the law firm. But while the mandate reflects Pinsents’ ability to offer a single-supplier model effectively, it would have floundered were it not for the work of IT director Colin Smith and his team.
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