The Ginger (Law) Librarian

As we are increasingly aware, the ethical Duty of Technology Competence requires lawyers to keep abreast of “changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology. ” To date, 35 states have adopted the duty . In a previous post , I highlighted  the risks of blindly relying on algorithmic results  (relevant technology) as a potential violation of the Duty of Technology Competence. We now have case law from Canada focusing on the benefits of using algorithmic results to perform legal research. In fact, this case law may be interpreted as requiring the use of algorithmic results when ethically performing legal research.  In both Cass v. 1410088 Ontario Inc. (“Cass”) and Drummond v. The Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. (“Drummond”) justices of the Ontario Superior Court made comments about artificial intelligence and legal research. The Cass case was a slip and fall in which the defendant prevailed. The plaintiff, who ...

At the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries (ORALL) Annual Meeting, as I presented on the  duty of technology competence in the algorithmic society , an astute law librarian asked (paraphrasing), "how does fake news play into this?" That question gave rise to a flurry of brain activity, as I considered how Google, for example, ranks relevancy, the rise of fake news, and the ability of users to spot fake news sources -- particularly for legal research. As I was presenting to a group of lawyers at a CLE this week, I polled them asking about the electronic resource that they primarily use for legal research. The overwhelming response was Google. Google uses a trademarked, proprietary – mostly secret – algorithm called PageRank, which assigns each webpage a relevancy score based on factors, such as: The frequency and location of keywords within the webpage. If the keyword only appears once within the body of the page, it will receive a low score for that key...

In a recent survey conducted by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), a wide array of legal employers ranked the legal skills and professional competencies and characteristics that they believe new lawyers most need to succeed. (There is a detailed accounting of the study’s results and an explanation of the study’s role within IAALS’s broader project in the summer 2018 edition of The Bar Examiner , pp. 17-26.) The results revealed that legal employers value foundational characteristics and competencies much more than they do foundational legal skills.  The 20 Foundations Identified as Most Necessary in the Short Term for New Lawyers  • Keep information confidential • Arrive on time for meetings, appointments, and hearings • Honor commitments • Integrity and trustworthiness • Treat others with courtesy and respect • Listen attentively and respectfully • Promptly respond to inquiries and requests • Diligence • Have a strong work et...

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article discussing how artificial intelligence is changing teaching (sub. req'd). The discussion centered around many of the same themes that we see when discussing artificial intelligence in law. The CHE article asks the common questions: When you’ve got artificial intelligence handling work that is normally done by a human, how does that change the role of the professor? And what is the right balance of technology and teaching? Replace "professor" and "teacher" for "lawyer" and "lawyering," and you get the idea. Like the augmenting argument for law , the argument for teaching goes: They automate some of teaching’s routine tasks, so that professors can do what no machine can — challenge and inspire students to gain a deeper understanding of what they’re learning.  And just like the argument that law will become increasingly reliant on AI raising privacy and ethical concerns , s...

After learning more about AI systems and their predicted disruption in law and legal research , one of the most compelling arguments against blindly relying on algorithms is the lack of transparency and underlying probability for error.  This may be less of a concern going forward as the MIT Technology Review reports that Google and others are building AI systems that doubt themselves .  Researchers at Uber and Google are working on modifications to the two most popular deep-learning frameworks that will enable them to handle probability. This will provide a way for the smartest AI programs to measure their confidence in a prediction or a decision—essentially, to know when they should doubt themselves. The work reflects the realization that uncertainty is a key aspect of human reasoning and intelligence. Adding it to AI programs could make them smarter and less prone to blunders, says Zoubin Ghahramani, a prominent AI researcher who is a professor a...

A colleague sent me the following image of Samuel Williston with the research -- drafts and notes -- for his venerable treatise: This is an impressive image of a labor of love. We'll likely never see anything like it again (nor should we, poor trees). Just imagine the countless hours of toiling in the books that Williston (or his research assistants, as it were) undertook to develop the preeminent contracts treatise. This was certainly a golden age for the print-lined walls of the law library.  It's interesting to look at the tangible work product and understand the research behind it and compare it to what we're likely to see today. While we won't see piles of papers, we'll see documents stored in electronic folders. And while we won't, generally, toil in books, we are still toiling in electronic databases doing the creative analysis required of effective legal research.  After seeing the image, I was intrigued to read the accompanying article ...

The age of legal tech is upon us. The possibilities are endless, and the potential access to justice benefits have never been greater . One thing is certain: law will never be less technologically oriented than it is today. This certainty may induce excitement or fear, but we all should proceed with reasonable care. In fact, it may be an ethical violation not to. The Duty of Technology Competence requires lawyers to keep abreast of “changes in the law and its practice,  including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” To date, 28 states have adopted the duty. Using reasonable care to understand the benefits and risks associated with relevant technologies is increasingly difficult as society moves beyond the abundance of information that defined the Information Age to increasingly rely on algorithms that sort big data in the Algorithmic Society. The difficulty is in how easily algorithms retrieve "relevant" information. Couple this perceived eas...

In a continued effort to attract longterm users, both Westlaw & Lexis have modified graduate access to offer generous extended access. As to Westlaw, currently, if you are a "Practice Ready" school, meaning that you  subscribe  to the Practice Ready suite , Westlaw sends the following message to impending graduates: Don’t miss out! Enable your extended access now: ·           Sign in at  www.lawschool.westlaw.com ·           If you have not already enabled your access, you should see a prompt asking you to extend. Click on “I agree” and you are all set.  Not seeing the prompt? ·           Use this link -  https://lawschool.westlaw.com/authentication/gradelite What do I get with my extended access? ·           Know How - Access to helpful sample do...

Many law librarians try to find creative ways to incorporate research into the law school curriculum. Some try to integrate fully into the 1L program to ensure that all law students get a proper legal-research foundation. Others may hit roadblocks taking that route and instead start law library administered legal research programs . Whichever method you use to instill the importance of efficient and effective legal research, and aside from the importance of researching across the law school curriculum , there are a couple of gaps to note in student ability that have run consistent throughout my time as a teaching law librarian. One is the understanding of the interplay between statutes and regulations. I regularly ask my students to explain it, and I've only had a few who could do it. If students don't understand that statutes enable administrative agencies to enforce the law and that administrative agencies create regulations that further the goals of enforcement, then h...

The use of artificial intelligence has many potential pitfalls regarding attorney professional responsibility rules. One such pitfall has to do with the duty of technology competence. As Robert Ambrogi points out over on Law Sites , there are now 26 states that have adopted the duty of technology competence for lawyers - first noted in Comment 8 to ABA Model Rule 1.1.  The ABA version states:  To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology , engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject. (Emphasis added.) While the states may differ in the exact language of their rules, these rules will likely have an ongoing effect on a lawyer's duty to learn various aspects of ever-changing technology.  Down the road, there may be a time when a...

In December, the ABA Journal reported on  a new judicial analytics tool by Ravel Law . As mentioned, currently, the field of judicial analytics mainly focuses on individual judges and what their histories and tendencies are, so that lawyers will be able to make more informed decisions regarding litigation strategy.  Ravel Law knew that the individual-judge strategy was cumbersome and limited. With that, Ravel Law launched Court Analytics , a comprehensive analytical tool that covers more than 400 federal and state courts. Court Analytics allows users to search through a jurisdiction, filtering out over 90 types of motions and topics. The tool analyzes case outcomes, language patterns and citation history, among other things, to give practitioners insight as to how courts and judges throughout a jurisdiction have ruled on certain types of motions or cases in the past. The tool also highlights the most-cited precedents and cases within a jurisdiction Ravel Law intends for ...

Law librarians do similarly creative work as lawyers, so a computer program like ROSS won’t be able to replace us in the near future. That being said, there may be a time in the future when computer programs will be more adept at many of our tasks. Artificial intelligence relies on machine learning, which is highly dependent on natural language processing. There are three main levels of natural language processing: Syntactic (sentence structure/grammar) Semantic (understanding phrases) Pragmatic (understanding context) Computer science experts and philosophers have estimated a processing curve based on where computers are now and when computers will master pragmatic natural language processing. Based on the curve, we see that computer programs are currently at the end of the syntactics curve and are just beginning the semantics curve (think Siri). We still have a long way to go before computers do the high level pragmatic natural language processing, with estimates bei...

Beginning researchers often ask, "How do I know when I'm done?" This is a legitimate question because legal research can send you down many rabbit holes with seemingly endless resources to sort through. The University of San Francisco School of Law put together a wonderful research guide on point. Here are a few good indicators that you've reached the end of your research project: You've found the answer. Sometimes — this is rare — you will quickly find the authoritative law that applies to your fact pattern. Be sure to Shepardize or KeyCite to check to see if your sources are still good law.  You keep finding the same primary authority no matter which research method you use or which sources you consult. It's usually a good idea to double-check your research by checking two or three sources on the same topic to see if they all cite to the same authority. When you've done thorough research, and you keep turning up the same citations no matter wh...

InsideHigherEd provided a comprehensive overview of recent actions by the American Bar Association (ABA) in what is seemingly a response to the long-standing criticism of legal education. As noted , earlier this month, the ABA’s accrediting arm recommended against approving the University of North Texas-Dallas College of Law, citing low admissions test scores scores of entering students. Days later, it found Ave Maria Law School in Florida out of compliance with its standards, again citing admissions practices. The ABA is also considering tightening bar-passage standards to make them tougher for schools to meet.  The long-standing criticism stems from the law school bubble  that was created during the recession. Law schools, like many other areas of higher education, saw increased enrollment during the recession. But the job market for law graduates has tightened in recent years. That’s meant more lawyers looking for work and fewer applications from prospective law studen...

If you are considering creating a digital law library, Lexis put together a wonderful white paper on topic that guides you through the process.  While there is product placement throughout, this white paper is helpful for anyone considering a digital law library. The white paper offers general best practices, along with information on the LexisNexis Digital Library product.  According to the white paper, one of the first things to consider is the approach that your law library will take to digital migration: I ncremental: Some organizations have an ongoing preference for printed volumes and offer eBooks for just a select portion of titles. Accelerated: Others place more emphasis on mobility or are concerned about the administrative overhead that comes with physical books; they may choose to replace a large percentage of hard-copy volumes with eBooks. According to the 2015 ABA technology survey, one third of lawyers report using legal eBooks for work.  Holi...

In the past, I have blogged extensively about the importance of legal research skills for practice and the myriad of evidence that supports just how important it is. And now we have even more evidence. Recently, a large survey (24,000 responses) was conducted on what new lawyers need for success in practice . Some interesting aspects: (1) the long list of possible skills and characteristics are classified according to urgency: necessary in the short term; must be acquired; advantageous, but not necessary; and not relevant; and (2) many so-called "soft skills" and personal qualities (e.g., listening respectfully, strong work ethic, timeliness, courtesy) were ranked urgent to a greater degree than many academic or practice competencies. Not surprisingly, legal research was deemed necessary in the short term by a very large percentage of respondents. In fact, the ability to effectively research the law was the foundation most often cited as necessary in the short term (...

Cognitive computing is very close to reality in the legal research realm. Recently, BakerHostetler, an AMLaw100 firm, released a joint press release with ROSS Intelligence announcing a partnership. ROSS Intelligence is proud to announce that AmLaw100 law firm BakerHostetler has agreed to retain use of ROSS Intelligence's artificial intelligence legal research product, ROSS. The ROSS platform is built upon Watson, IBM's cognitive computer. With the support of Watson's cognitive computing and natural language processing capabilities, lawyers ask ROSS their research question in natural language, as they would a person, then ROSS reads through the law, gathers evidence, draws inferences and returns highly relevant, evidence-based candidate answers. ROSS also monitors the law around the clock to notify users of new court decisions that can affect a case. The program continually learns from the lawyers who use it to bring back better results each time. ROSS Intelligence...

An associate professor of law at Seton Hall Law School has an interesting take on the commentary surrounding legal sector employment stagnation. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, law firms employed about 90,000 more lawyers and about 80,000 more paralegals in 2014 than at the start of the survey in 2001. At the same time, law firms shed 180,000 to 190,000 legal secretaries, other legal support workers and their supervisors. As a result, [commentators] have mischaracterized a decline in the fortunes for low-skilled support workers at a time of expanding opportunities for highly educated workers as stagnation for all. Law firms have sharply upgraded the education level of their work force, increasing the number of workers with graduate degrees by 100,000 and those with bachelor’s degrees by 30,000. At the same time, jobs for those with one year of college or less have shrunk by 125,000. Those who say law firms are going through “structural change” may b...

During legal research & writing for international LL.M. students, I discuss the role of logos, pathos, and ethos as modes of persuasion for brief writing. Pathos (plural: pathe) is an appeal to the audience’s emotions, and the terms sympathy, pathetic, and empathy are derived from it. During the course, I give various examples of choosing specific words and phrases to garner sympathy or empathy from the reader if it is warranted. Until recently, the efficacy of using pathos has been mostly based on anecdotal evidence that it will make a judge feel a certain way about a defendant or victim helping the attorney advocate for his or her client. In December 2015, a new paper was released that looks at the use of emotional language in briefs before SCOTUS and analyzes the briefs and the ultimate outcome of the case. From the abstract: The legal brief is a primary vehicle by which lawyers seek to persuade appellate judges. Despite wide acceptance that briefs are important,...

A new article was just released that is the culmination of a three-year ethnographic study of attorneys in the workplace called  Lawyers at Work: A Study of the Reading, Writing, and Communication Practices of Legal Professionals by Ann Sinsheimer and David J. Herring. From the abstract: This paper reports the results of a three-year ethnographic study of attorneys in the workplace. The authors applied ethnographic methods to identify how junior associates in law firm settings engaged in reading and writing tasks in their daily practice. The authors were able to identify the types of texts junior associates encountered in the workplace and to isolate the strategies these attorneys used to read and compose texts.  The findings suggest that lawyering is fundamentally about reading. The attorneys observed for this study read constantly, encountering a large variety of texts and engaging in many styles of reading, including close reading and also reading broadly, skimming and...