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Law firms are often eager to burnish their social responsibility credentials by leveraging their training and experience to help communities that don’t have the resources to pay BigLaw billing rates. See which firms are leading the pack in pro bono hours.
A continuing onslaught of legislation and litigation opposing corporate environmental, social and governance actions has created a fork in the road for law firms, with some choosing to scale back efforts and others pushing ahead with their internal ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
Law firms are being heavily scrutinized for their social responsibility efforts, with attorneys, clients and critics all pushing for accountability. Find out which firms made Law360 Pulse's list of firms that are taking the greatest strides on social responsibility.
To some, a recent report's finding that nearly 60% of legal department leaders expect a reduced reliance on outside legal service providers due to GenAI might be gloomy, but many lawyers view the innovations as a way for clients and counsel to strengthen their relationships.
Contract management software provider ContractPodAi, which launched an automated legal assistant earlier this year, announced Tuesday a new partnership with London's KPMG that will provide artificial intelligence to the Big Four accounting firm and its managed legal services.
The California Supreme Court has rejected a proposal that would have allowed bar applicants to submit a portfolio of work they did with real clients under supervision instead of taking the bar exam.
A contract software company gained new funding from a venture capital program this week.
Document Crunch, a contract software company servicing the construction industry, announced on Thursday the raising of $21.5 million in a Series B funding round, less than a year after its first capital raise.
Three outlier megadeals pushed funding for legal technology companies to $1.57 billion in the third quarter of 2024, up from $392.5 million in the same period last year, but the number of mergers and acquisitions fell by about 50%.
This was another action-packed week for the legal industry as BigLaw firms made a slew of hires and a state judge was admonished for lip synching "Jump" by Rihanna in a TikTok. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
Alternative dispute resolution provider JAMS has launched a suite of artificial intelligence-powered tools that attorneys, their clients and panelists can use in the dispute resolution process as part of its new initiative JAMS Next.
Gunster has struck a settlement agreement in one of the two proposed class actions it faces in Florida federal court over a 2022 data breach, while the plaintiffs in the second case urged the court the same day to reject the law firm's dismissal bid in their suit.
The corporate deals software platform Noetica AI embarked on a new chapter of its journey on Thursday with a $22 million Series A funding round.
UnitedLex Chief Executive Officer James Schellhase has left the role after just one year and is being replaced by general counsel Renee Meisel, the law firm-focused data and professional services company announced Thursday.
Thomson Reuters on Tuesday filed a pair of renewed motions for partial summary judgment seeking to block ROSS Intelligence Inc. from claiming fair use, and hold it liable for copyright infringement, in a suit alleging ROSS ripped off the Westlaw research platform for its artificial intelligence product.
Legal client engagement startup Case Status has secured $19.7 million in Series B funding to further develop its artificial intelligence-powered tools, expand into new law practice areas and add leadership positions.
The general counsel for litigation platform Fileread has announced that he's left the company to "build something new," having just joined from AstraZeneca earlier this year.
Several law firms this year, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and McDermott Will & Emery LLP, have filled artificial intelligence-focused chief and director roles to keep up with technological advances and client demands, according to legal recruiters.
As ransomware attackers like to hit companies on holidays and other sensitive times, in-house attorneys should role-play the holiday attack scenario in advance as they prepare to respond, members of an Association of Corporate Counsel conference panel said Tuesday.
The traditional hourly billing model in the legal industry is facing increasing scrutiny as in-house legal teams leverage technology to enhance efficiency, the co-founder of a leading AI service told Law360.
In-house lawyers should craft a single artificial intelligence governance policy for their organizations, build cross-functional teams to assess AI needs and risks and audit and update their AI policy frequently to keep pace with the technology's rapid evolution, according to experts on an Association of Corporate Counsel conference panel.
White & Case LLP announced Monday the appointment of both a chief innovation officer and a chief marketing officer as the firm continues to expand through hiring and office openings.
The legal technology sector has a new unicorn after artificial intelligence provider EvenUp secured a $135 million Series D funding round and reached a $1 billion valuation on Tuesday.
Labor and employment firm Littler Mendelson PC has added the former executive vice president and chief information officer at photonics and light technology company Excelitas Technologies as its chief digital innovation officer.
Billing rates for the top 100 law firms in the United States surged by 10% from 2023 to 2024, the largest rate hike in the past three years, according to a new research report on Tuesday.
Opinion
We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court HeadwindsThough the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.
Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.
Corporate legal departments looking to implement new technology can avoid hiccups by taking steps to define the underlying business problem and to identify opportunities for process improvements before leaping to the automation stage, say Nadine Ezzie at Ezzie + Co., Kenneth Jones at Xerdict Group and Kathy Zhu at Streamline AI.
A recent data leak at Proskauer via a cloud data storage platform demonstrates key reasons why law firms must pay attention to data safeguarding, including the increasing frequency of cloud-based data breaches and the consequences of breaking client confidentiality, says Robert Kraczek at One Identity.
There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.
Tools like ChatGPT can help students studying for the bar exam achieve their two main goals — mastering law concepts and topics, and then successfully applying them to the various question formats on the test — but there are still limitations to this technology, including incorrect answers, says Joseph Wilson at Studicata.
Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.
Opinion
Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEINational and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
Corporate counsel often turn to third-party vendors to manage spending challenges, and navigating this selection process can be difficult for both counsel and the vendor, but there are several ways corporate legal departments can make the entire process easier and beneficial for all parties involved, says David Cochran at QuisLex.
Recent legal challenges against DoNotPay’s "robot lawyer” application highlight pressing questions about the degree to which artificial intelligence can be used for legal tasks while remaining on the right side of both consumer protection laws and prohibitions against the unauthorized practice of law, says Kristen Niven at Frankfurt Kurnit.
The growing demand for analytical data within law firms and corporate law departments — from live case status updates to diversity reports — highlights the need for improvements in legal profession reporting, with increasingly granular industry-standard codes to describe legal tasks being key, says Kenneth Jones at Xerdict.
Legal technology has the potential to eliminate barriers for disabled attorneys navigating their careers and for disabled clients seeking access to justice, but to truly level the playing field, accessible technology must be designed with input from and empathy for the often-underrepresented communities it serves, say Lisa Mueller at Casimir Jones and attorney Haley Moss.
Despite strides made in the e-discovery industry, document reviews continue to be one of the most expensive line items for litigation, so law firms working with alternative legal service providers should consider key best practices, including providing clear protocol, having transparent deadlines, and more, says Phoebe Gebre at Integreon.
Generative AI applications like ChatGPT are unlikely to ever replace attorneys for a variety of practical reasons — but given their practice-enhancing capabilities, lawyers who fail to leverage these tools may be rendered obsolete, says Eran Kahana at Maslon.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent elimination of a rule that partially counted pro bono work toward continuing legal education highlights the importance of volunteer work in intellectual property practice and its ties to CLE, and puts a valuable tool for hands-on attorney education in the hands of the states, say Lisa Holubar and Ariel Katz at Irwin.