A California State Bar working group established to study access to justice innovations held its first public meeting on the 14th January 2021. The State Bar’s Closing the Justice Gap Working Group, created by the Board of Trustees to carry on with important recommendations from the State Bar’s Task Force on Access Through Innovation of…
New Zealand Law Commission seeking views on class action and litigation funding
The Law Commission of New Zealand is undertaking a first principles review of class actions and litigation funding. They are currently seeking feedback from interested parties, having released an issues paper in December 2020. The New Zealand Law Society is planning to respond to the call, and is asking for views on the issue. The…
Federation of Law Societies of Canada commitment to reconciliation
On the 7th December 2020 the Federation of Law Societies of Canada released a formal statement of commitment to reconciliation. The statement was in recognition of the federation’s responsibility as a justice stakeholder to foster reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The statement received the unanimous approval of the Federation Council and is an essential part of…
Hong Kong Law Society responses to AML consultation
The Law Society of Hong Kong has released its responses to questions arising from an online consultation on anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) regulation. The consultation was launched on the 3rd November 2020 by the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau. The consultation gave members of the public, as well as private companies the…
Event: ABA Mid-Year Meeting
February 17 – 22, 2021 Online Join your colleagues from across the country for a week of engaging business meetings, dynamic CLE programs, and celebrations of achievements in the legal profession – all from the comfort of your home or office. Event Website
Event: Global trends and challenges in legal education and legal practice
28 JAN 2021 1300 – 1400 GMT Online The connection between legal practice and legal education is extremely relevant for law firms and legal departments, as well as for universities and bar associations. This webinar will explore the connection between the most recent global trends and challenges in legal practice and legal education. Event Website
Entity Regulation, Litigation Rights and the Changing Meaning of Professionalism at the Bar of England and Wales
Abstract Entity Regulation, Litigation Rights and the Changing Meaning of Professionalism at the Bar of England and Wales The Legal Services Act 2007 provided a framework for a liberalised marketplace for legal services. The most significant responses to this by the Bar appear in the Bar Standards Board Handbook, which was first released in January 2014. This included changes allowing…
Legal Technology and the Future of Women in Law
Abstract Much has been written about how automation will change the legal profession as a whole, less so about how automation might affect women in legal practice. This paper briefly maps the likely changes that legal tech (legal technology) will bring to the provision of legal services, and explores how these changes might affect the barriers to advancement that women face in the profession….
Listening and Relational Lawyering
Abstract Legal professionals spend much if not most of their time listening to others, including clients, witnesses, co-workers, and judges. And yet, lawyers are notorious for being poor listeners. Perhaps this helps explain why the legal profession consistently gets ranked as one of the least trusted professions. The primary reasons for clients’ dissatisfaction have more to do with…
Law, Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Language Processing: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Search Results
Abstract Renowned legal educator Roscoe Pound stated, “Law must be stable and yet it cannot stand still.” Yet, as Susan Nevelow Mart has demonstrated in a seminal article that the different online research services (Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Fastcase, Google Scholar, Ravel and Casetext) produce significantly different results when researching case law. Furthermore, a recent study of 325…