Episode 7: Legal Bots, Legal Innovation, the New Legal Workforce and A2J!
So many bots, so little time! Everywhere you turn there’s another website with a chatbot, or another article about them…often followed by a bunch of doomsday predictions about more lawyers and legal business professionals losing their jobs! So, what’s the real deal? Are legal bots a fabulous tech tool that can assist lawyers in spending more time where they add the most value e.g. with their clients, understanding their client’s problems, their businesses, and focussing on the more complex problem solving they do so well? Or, will legal bots provide more support, assistance and information to those who otherwise cannot afford legal services. Or, is there a less rosy scenario for everyone somewhere down the road. Or, is it a little of all of these things? In other words, what’s the real impact, right now, of legal bots and, where will it all go from here?
We spoke with Sam Flynn, a lawyer and co-founder of Josef, a company that develops bots but also connects these with document automation and data. It’ a company that has rapidly and deservedly found itself leading the industry in this area, at home and overseas. Topics covered in our conversation included:
- Some quick definitions for all the bots out there.
- The pros and cons of bots.
- How law firms and legal departments are using bots and why.
- How the use of bots is changing how lawyers work, what lawyers work on (i.e. where they focus their time) and the impact this is having on legal education.
- The work Josef has been doing in running summer programs for clerks/associates in law firms on bot development around the world and how that is developing skills but also acting as a catalyst for legal innovation.
- Whether or not government funding for legal bots (recently announced by the NSW government when we recorded this podcast) would assist with improving A2J.
- Where to start on the bot learning continuum.
- And finally, what will the 2025 version of a bot look like and do!
Thank you so much, Sam - we love your work – you amaze and inspire us all!
You can also read more about Sam’s journey in his CLI Legalpreneurs Spotlight on the CLI website.