Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Automatically Extracting Meaning From Legal Texts: Opportunities And Challenges, Kevin D. Ashley

Georgia State University Law Review

This paper surveys three basic legal-text analytic techniques—ML, network diagrams, and question answering (QA)—and illustrates how some currently available commercial applications employ or combine them. It then examines how well the text analytic techniques can answer legal questions given some inherent limitations in the technology. In more detail, ML refers to computer programs that use statistical means to induce or learn models from data with which they can classify a document or predict an outcome for a new case. Predictive coding techniques employed in e-discovery have already introduced ML from text into law firms. Network diagrams graph the relations between …

Legal Intelligence Through Artificial Intelligence Requires Emotional Intelligence: A New Competency Model For The 21st Century Legal Professional, Alyson Carrel

Georgia State University Law Review

The nature of legal services is drastically changing given the rise in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Legal education and training models are beginning to recognize the need to incorporate skill building in data and technology platforms, but they have lost sight of a core competency for lawyers: problem-solving and decision-making skills to counsel clients on how best to meet their desired goals and needs. In 2014, Amani Smathers introduced the legal field to the concept of the T-shaped lawyer. The T-shaped lawyer stems from the concept of T-shaped professionals who have a depth of knowledge in …

Digital Pro Bono: Leveraging Technology To Provide Access To Justice, Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Samantha A. Moppett

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Article explores the United States justice system’s failure to adequately serve all people irrespective of wealth and position. Next, Part II discusses the ABA’s call to leverage technology to increase access to justice. Part III explores ABA Free Legal Answers Online, the program that the ABA pioneered to help confront the justice gap in the United States. Subsequently, Part IV illustrates how law schools can leverage technology to increase access to justice for low-income communities while providing pro bono opportunities for attorneys and students in their state. This Part highlights Massachusetts as an example of …