Bill Henderson once advised me not to use the term "industrialization" to describe changes in the legal profession to attorneys. It offends us, and we disengage. But I titled this field note "industrial evolution" because we must embrace industrialization as a necessary and valuable part of our transformation that will elevate the value of our profession in a digital age. This post is part of a series that reflects my legal industry learning journey, building upon my career journey (080), professional evolution (143), focus on knowledge work (159), and future practice design theory (210). This installment examines the changes happening now that require us to evolve to serve a civilization experiencing exponential change powered by the fourth industrial revolution, and how we might get there faster, together. See Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (2016) (cognitive automation will produce creative destruction). This post was drafted proximal to the College of Law Practice Management's 2021 Futures Conference, which offered expert commentary on the information work industrialization megatrend and strongly influenced the thesis presented here: that we are experiencing accelerating change as a secular trend. As discussed below, my tentative solution is, in part, to invert the law's traditional pyramid structure. None of this is likely to make much sense, however, without first describing the set of challenges before us.

Legal AI efficacy report published by Blickstein Group cuts through market hype in industry's first independent review of AI-Powered Legal Tools . Blickstein Group has launched its Legal AI Efficacy Report, an independent analysis that evaluates the effectiveness of 50 AI-powered solutions currently available across eight different legal tech categories. The report was launched at the legal tech gathering ILTACON in Orlando, USA. Based on research conducted over the past six months, the firms says the report provides the market with an unbiased, holistic look at AI products on the market, so that corporate law department and law firm leaders can make educated decisions based on their business goals. They stress the report is written for user, with no vendors paying to be included or to influence the analysis.

The legal services industry is hurtling headlong into a revolution in the way that we carry out virtually every aspect of our jobs. The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) – intelligence exhibited by machines that are trained to learn and solve problems – is not just an extension of prior technologies. AI holds the potential to dramatically change the field in a variety of ways, from reducing bias in investigations to challenging what evidence is considered admissible. For corporate legal department teams that are prepared to embrace the power of AI, there is vast potential for increased corporate security, greater productivity in litigation management and improved corporate investigations capabilities. Corporate legal departments, no matter how large or small, can no longer escape the fact that AI capabilities are real.

Sally Gonzales joined Fireman & Company in May as the Toronto-headquartered legal management consultant's newest senior consultant. Recognised as an authority in knowledge management and strategic technology planning, here Gonzales, who has held senior IT and KM roles at firms including Dentons, Norton Rose Fulbright, Akin Gump and Jones Day, tells us what led to her move to Fireman; how KM has evolved in the legal space; the major KM trends ahead; and discusses some of the biggest questions around AI. "I think we are on the cusp of KM 4.0," she says. What led you on this path to Fireman & Company? I've been fortunate to have a long and stimulating career in KM and IT management, with about 15 years spent in-house in top IT leadership positions at several global law firms, most recently Dentons, and about 18 years consulting to law firms and law departments in the US, Canada, and the UK. I recently returned to the US after two years in London working for Norton Rose Fulbright as KM Program Manager for their global enterprise search implementation. After a brief sabbatical, I knew I wanted to continue consulting and I wanted to find the right team to partner with to focus in on the two areas about which I am most passionate: KM and AI.

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic these days, but hype tends to be much easier to find than practical advice on how to use AI in a law department. What kinds of AI can make a difference today? What use cases are best for the benefits AI offers? How can legal service providers leverage AI? These are questions that Paul Lippe, part of Elevate's Advisory Board, answered with Inside Counsel.

Most of us are familiar with Google's moonshot projects that span everything from self-driving cars to AIs that can beat world champion GO players. Less well known are the ways that Google is re-inventing how it designs and optimizes its own internal operations. Let's be honest -- 'disruptive innovation' and the legal profession are not two ideas that frequently hang out together. However the role of the general counsel has changed quite dramatically over the last few years. Rather than just risk managers, they are increasingly business advisors to the CEO and to the board.

Artificial Lawyer caught up with Canadian legal consultant and futurist Jordan Furlong of Law Twenty One and asked him about his perspective on what opportunities and challenges AI faced in the legal sector. Do you see a strategic advantage for the law firms that embrace AI? If yes, how would that advantage manifest itself? We should probably begin by creating a working definition of'AI', which is a term applied so broadly in the legal sphere that, as Ryan McClead has pointed out, it might as well just be written as'magic'. Michael Mills of Neota Logic has suggested instead the term'cognitive technologies', which encompasses a wide range of tech applications including machine learning, natural language processing, and expert systems.