Law Times

Page 12 February 6, 2017 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com using a whip to make the horse go faster and a gas pedal and a steering wheel. You don't need to learn how to code; in fact, I think it's prob- ably a suboptimal use of your time." Learning how to be a good consumer of the information generated is also going to be im- portant. "Be slow, be purposeful in your adoption of technology," he added. "It's going to take time to make sure you're doing it in a wise way." Kuhn said the greatest con- fusion right now is around the term artificial intelligence and is open to interpretation that results in articles that predict ro- bots replacing lawyers. "Alarmist articles get readers but don't help lawyers evaluate important, meaningful technol- ogy," he said. "There is confusion over what AI means and having no precedent for how this is going to turn out is a challenge." Natalie Pierce, co-chairwom- an of the robotics, AI and auto- mation industry group at Lit- tler Mendelson, said that while she thinks there will be fewer lawyers, to not understand how technology can be used in the legal profession is how lawyers and others in the workforce will be left behind. She said the world is "unpre- pared" for what this next wave of technology will do to the future workforce. She pointed out that when you combine what big data and cognitive computing can do in a 24/7 on-demand economy, you get a very competitive value proposition. "The biggest problem for us is we don't have time to adapt and a real need for up-skills training. I'm hopeful maybe AI could be a solution. "We have eight million un- employed Americans and 4.5 million jobs that go unfilled, so there could be an opportunity to use cognitive computing to make those matches. "Employers have to look for opportunities so workers don't get left behind," she said. LT ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! 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The idea is to broaden the range of services to create more income streams while provid- ing a meaningful and fulfilling service. Richard Brzakala, director of external legal service for CIBC's legal department, regularly in- teracts with lawyers and law firms. He sees that increased com- petition and the innovative ap- proaches in the legal market- place encroaching upon tradi- tional approaches in law. "Some of them are not going the traditional route. They're creating and they're very innovative. They're entre- preneurs. They're creating their own firms, their own approaches to how they want to deliver legal services," says Brzakala. "So I think it's good for cli- ents because you're getting a lot of competitiveness in the marketplace and innovation in how legal services are being delivered. The old traditional model, I think it's had its day. It's just moving in a different direction." As a client of law firms, Brza- kala is seeing young legal profes- sional entrepreneurs recogniz- ing how traditional legal services may improve. Many are developing tools to automate processes that have traditionally consumed hours of lawyer time, he says. It was those technological advances that at- tracted Sauvageau to the collec- tions business. He saw very well-structured businesses using technology to zoom into issues and offer met- rics on the process. By adopting a technology- based analytical system, he says he can make decisions quickly on issues such as whether or not to litigate. "I thought that was fantastic. There was nobody doing this yet in law," says Sauvageau. "We created the law firm that in a way is built on the model of a collection agency, not from the legal standpoint but from a busi- ness standpoint. The model allows our firm to handle a very large amount of claims at the same time of a similar nature but with different facts." At CTL Law, technology is employed to prepare claims. Sauvageau says automation is used to distill facts, which are reviewed and receive approv- als from lawyers, paralegals and clients. There are also some au- tomated documents such as de- fault judgment applications. The firm also seeks alterna- tives to litigation to avoid the high costs and the lengthy pro- cess involved in taking an issue to court. So early resolutions are often sought through mediation, in the settlement conference stage or in discovery, he says. "Clients are looking for added value and law firms are trying to deliver added value somehow," says Sauvageau. LT FOCUS Continued from page 8 Law firm built on the model of a collection agency Confusion over AI Continued from page 11 Chris Bentley says young lawyers are being required to learn how to navigate a new marketplace.

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