What the [Heck] is Legal Tech?
In 2023, and soon-to-be 2024, it is critical for most employees to have a basic level of technological competency. Lawyers and law students are no different. When I began my law school journey 2.5 years ago, I was mainly concerned with whether I would grasp easily onto black-letter law. Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law…
But I’ve realized through networking, internships, and hearing working attorneys’ stories isthat there is so much more to the legal profession than just the law itself.
Yes, the law may be the foundation upon which the profession operates but without business acumen, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and now: technological competency, this profession would be infinitely harder. Even from my very limited perspective as a just-graduated law student, it has become clear the emphasis that is now placed on technological know-how.
But when it comes to technological competency, what does that even mean?
At what point does one know that they are in fact ‘competent’?
Do you have to be a computer scientist or adept at coding to reach this ambiguous threshold?
On that last question: no — if that were the case, they more-than-likely would not have handed me a diploma last month. At the end of the day, the job of the lawyer is to interpret the law. But since society now largely operates within a digitized system — digital calendars, filing systems, conference calls, etc. — without technology know-how, I would likely be left with little to no clients and way behind on any workload assigned to me.
Legal research is now conducted online via LexisNexis and WestLaw, not libraries. AI will be the next legal research librarian, poised and ready to assist frantic first-year associates.
Clients are becoming acquainted with their potential lawyers via Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. The latter of which has also become the quickest way to spread your firm’s mission, network with your future employer, and mentor upcoming lawyers.
The more we become acquainted with the ins-and-outs of new technology, the more efficiently we can continue to provide services in the modern world. Even if the service itself is a part of a long-standing profession that has been around for centuries.
Defining Legal Technology & Competency
Legal technology is exactly what it sounds like: technology used in and for the practice of law. This can encompass classic software used by most netizens: Microsoft Outlook, Google Drive, and so on. Or specifically curated software that assists the modern-day lawyer with practicing in cyberspace: client management software like Clio, e-filing platforms that are run by local court systems, and legal research databases like the aforementioned, LexisNexis, are just a few examples.
Similar to any other mammal learning a new tool for the first time, lawyers and law students will have to explore and play around with the software they are getting accustomed to. Free tutorials are abound these days on YouTube (many software companies include them on their websites now), trial-periods are often included before purchasing, and law schools as well as firms include training classes or periods to get accustomed to the technology that will be used throughout the duration of the program or job.
The real gray-area has to do with competency? When is enough enough?
According to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the most relevant rule for purposes of this article is Rule 1.1.
In other words: what knowledge and skills would you need to know to properly represent a client? You may not need to know the back-end coding of the software you’re using but you should know just enough to use it efficiently so you can conduct your representation effectively.
And it doesn’t stop there: competence, at least when it comes to technology, will have some cross-over with other rules, like confidentiality.
If you peruse the headlines of any major newspaper today, you’ll more than likely find articles about data privacy and whether our personal information is safe in cyberspace. This is a concern that every lawyer should keep note of when utilizing technology.
The ABA has issued advice on how to approach emails containing personal and confidential information. They have also explained the importance of ‘scrubbing’ your documents of metadata that is no longer useful before sending anywhere.
While it is critical that lawyers can understand technology just enough to be able to protect information and efficiently use legal software — it should not keep them from gaining a deep substantive knowledge of the law. When I conducted a survey for a capstone project my final semester in school, I asked some attorneys what their thoughts were on legal technology and that was one major concern. Technology should make your job easier or more efficient but it shouldn’t do it for you. So, when utilizing novel tools (*cough cough* Artificial Intelligence…), there must also be a hefty amount of due diligence:
It is not enough to just ask ChatGPT to do some legal research for you and assume that every case, precedent, and current event it spits out is correct. AI models are known to hallucinate, which is when it makes up information to provide an output in response to the questions (or input) the user provides.
At the end of the day, remember the critical word included in Rule 1.1 when it comes to competency is “reasonably.” You don’t have to know how to code but you do need to know enough to ensure you are complying with all of the other Rules of Professional Conduct.
Based on the survey I conducted and some advice given there, as a starting point, when dealing with new technology, consider the following:
- What sort of data security and data privacy does this software provide, if any?
- Have I done an audit of my technology and processes to ensure that my information is secure? Do I know which companies can assist with this?
- Do I know at what points I need to double-check behind my technology to ensure the proper law is being applied? Am I actually conducting such diligence?
- Is the technology I am using slowing me down or allowing me to be more efficient? If it is slowing me down, is it because I don’t know how it works or because the technology itself breaks down a lot, freezes, malfunctions etc.?
- Am I signed up for any CLEs, newsletters, or groups that can help keep me updated on essential legal technology current events and advice?
I am not a lawyer (yet) but even if I were — NONE, absolutely none, of this article is legal advice nor should be taken to be legal advice. Please consult an attorney for any specific questions you may have. This article is meant for educational purposes on legal technology and its overlap with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as written by the ABA. If you have ethics questions please reach out to your local ethics board or the ABA directly — do not rely on this article alone.
