July 2018

     

    Featured

    Practice Technology

    3 ways AI can boost your law firm productivity and security

    Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to reduce the amount of time legal professionals spend on simple, repetitive tasks that prevent them from practicing law or pursuing larger, more profitable clients. Smart business owners realize that strategic investment in their business operations can help them withstand disruption from increased competition. By leveraging AI-enabled technologies, law firms can become more efficient and secure while saving time and money.

    In Focus

    Human Rights

    You can be a legal observer at Gitmo

    Since 2003, the Office of Military Commissions has granted observer status to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including the American Bar Association, to “attend, scrutinize and even publish critiques of the proceedings” at Guantanamo Bay. Matthew Cowherd, an associate at BakerHostetler in New York and a reservist in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, served as a legal observer at Guantanamo Bay in July 2016 and writes about it in the May-June issue of TYL.

    Access to Justice

    3 ways to meet the “staggering” amount of unmet legal needs

    “If you were to fill Petco Park [the 42,445-seat baseball park in San Diego] to capacity with low-income people, there would be just two lawyers to serve them all.” That was the stark image summoned by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California Goodwin Liu, the keynote speaker at the National Meeting of State Access to Justice Commission Chairs, held in conjunction with the ABA Equal Justice Conference in San Diego in May.

    Around the Bar

    Ethics

    5 tips to avoid ethical landmines when outsourcing law office work

    Outsourcing work at a law firm is done to be competitive, competent, efficient and smart about how the work is accomplished. There are ethical implications to hiring a lawyer, whether deemed of counsel, associated or a contract lawyer. There are also ethical implications to outsourcing other aspects of a law office’s work, such as accounting and bookkeeping, receptionist and information technology support, advertising and marketing and paralegal tasks.