Membres UIA | 01.07.2020

Last chance to take part in UIA Technology Task Force Survey

The greatest transformation on the practice of law– the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it is being called – will be the rise of “Artificial Intelligence.” It is becoming increasingly clear that law firms must have a clear strategy for dealing with these changes now if they want to remain competitive and ensure they attract the best talent to support their business. This statement equally applies to commerce in general, and companies of all kinds must have a clear strategy for dealing with technological changes now if they want to remain competitive.

Increasingly, the practice of law is merging across all jurisdictions, because of the influence of technology. Technology developments, and their impact, are creating a fundamental, and exciting change to the future of the legal profession.

With the goal of helping the membership better understand and plan for the impact of technology on the practice of law, the UIA has established a Technology Task Force, in collaboration with its global partner LexisNexis. The objectives of the Task Force are to measure (over the next five years or more) the adoption, impact, opportunity (or threat) of new technology to law firms and identify programs and initiatives to meet the challenges presented. 

Artificial Intelligence supports professionals to learn, think and perform better; analytics and machine learning are revolutionizing insight; and platforms are disrupting traditional business models by bringing buyers and suppliers together. In a world where billing for time has gone, billing for value will be required. The business model will have to change, and will be forced to do so, as technology comes along and replaces a lot of work which was previously done by a human. We are already seeing this, for example, in relation to discovery, document analysis, textual analysis of judgements, statistical analysis of judgements to predict a decision, time recording and billing, and many other applications.

As a first step, the Technology Task Force has developed a brief survey and your input will be crucial in supporting our efforts to assist UIA colleagues around the world. Please take a few minutes to respond by clicking on this link: https://www.sphinxonline.com/SurveyServer/s/dumairir/UIA-LexisNexis/questionnaireEN.htm

By Jerome C. Roth
President
Union Internationale des Avocats

By Nigel Roberts
VP, Global Associations,
LexisNexis Legal & Professional

91781