Legal technology
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JC pontificates about technology
An occasional series.
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No, not chat-bots, AI, metadata extraction, fuzzy logic or semantic syntactical parsing. That’s reg tech, and it’s easy: the answer is blockchain. Legal technology is the real-life code that lawyers generate day in and day out: words.
Should lawyers learn to code? My oath, they should. Because for the best paid professional writers on the planet, lawyers can't write for shit. See: IT strategy
Addressing the barnacle risk
Strategic over tactical: When drafting and updating templates *always* prioritise strategic over tactical. Say a new regulation has been introduced (I mean, just imagine!) which poses the question whether an existing form should be updated:
- really, does it? Challenge whether any change is necessary
- on economic grounds (could we lose money? How much? Realistically, how likely?)
- on regulatory grounds (could we be in breach of the law? What are the consequences?)
- on reputational grounds (could this affect the firm's franchise? How?)
- If the issue is important look to do so in a way that shortens and simplifies:
- take out specifics and render them as general statements
- remove optionality and complexity – this is a tech and management imperative.
See also
Plain English Anatomy™ Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb | Preposition | Conjunction | Latin | Germany | Flannel | Legal triplicate | Nominalisation | Murder your darlings