Legal Tech & AI – Rainmaking, Recruiting & more
The Billable and Non-Billable! Hour Part 2: Clearbrief
I wrote in 2019 an article titled ” The Disappearing Billable HourPart 1″ where I predicted that (over time), millions of billable hour would be eliminated through the use legal-specific AI such as Technology Assisted Review. I predicted that AI was on the cusp of a breakthrough in the law.
I was both wrong and right. I was wrong in my timing. I was wrong about the timing. Instead of amazing AI for legal purposes, we have COVID. Ugh. I was right. AI will eventually affect the legal profession. We’re now two years past my timeline.
This is my sixth AI article this year, and I still have dozens of drafts left to complete. I have interviewed everyone, from developers and startup owners to “Big AI”, executives such as Kriti Sharma, chief legal product officers for Thomson Reuters. (Her interview will appear in an upcoming piece).
It’s been like fighting an hydra. Each time I learned about or addressed a new legal-specific AI two others appeared. According to a study by Stanford University, while legal AI has improved, ChatGpt 4 is getting dumber. This is not as significant as it could have been, since Chat (and other AIs) are involved. They don’t perform the same tasks as paralegals and attorneys. There are dozens of platforms that do this, and more are being added every day.
Can AI-specific legal replace paralegals and attorneys? No. AI-assisted attorneys and paralegals will replace those without.
Let’s discuss a must-have for any litigator. Writing briefs. A good brief cites facts, precedent etc. It provides links to cases cited. The attorney or paralegal must also create a Table of Authorities, as well as all necessary exhibits. This is a time-consuming task that is not usually billable. Even creating non-billable material can take a full day.
Clearbrief AI is here. Clearbrief AI is here.
Clearbrief can save litigators (and their client) a huge amount of time, both billable and not. How? Jacqueline Schafer is their CEO.
Let us start with the basics. Clearbrief is a new service that I’d like to know more about.
JSClearbrief uses AI to analyze legal writing and find the page where laws and facts are referenced. This is displayed in the right-hand pane in Microsoft Word. Clearbrief’s AI is patented and will suggest other pages to cite from all of your transcripts, emails and discovery documents. In minutes, you can create a powerful and accurate facts section.
Legalweek awarded us the Litigation Product of the year 2023.
FS: Congratulations! It’s a great achievement. Now, let’s get back to your product. If you’d like, describe the product’s functionality.
JS: Sure. Select any phrase within your Word document and then use the “Add Cite”, Concept Search Bar, to view a list with suggested pages or transcripts that support the ideas you have in your sentence. You can also insert a link. As you browse the suggested pages for evidence, click the hyperlink to add a citation to your Word document. When your colleagues cite-check your draft, they can now see the actual evidence.
FS HTML0 FS: HTML0 _____ You just highlight what you would like to be supported and it will give you options based on that. You then drag and drop links into your document.
JS: Correct.
FS – What can it do?
JS can create a Table of Authorities with just one click. No tagging is required. It can also create your exhibits to be filed with just a few clicks using your citations. This saves an average of one day’s admin time at the filing date. The partner can continue editing, wordsmithing and billing, instead of stopping to allow the paralegal time to perform manual admin tasks. When you are finished, click to create an hyperlinked version of the PDF for court filing. Clearbrief displays all cases automatically thanks to our partnership Fastcase.
FS No more hours spent on tables and displays. Is it all just a click away?
JS: Exactly. This tech is powered by four AI patents (our vision was to never have a litigator again do these things manually! ).
FS: Wow! It’s quite impressive. What else?
JS You can drag and drop your opponent’s file into Clearbrief, which will flag sentences that are not supported with evidence. Use the “Add Cite button” to locate the facts that they conveniently left out. The software will also flag up any false cases.
FS When talking about bogus case cited you are of course referring to the Avianca Airlines fiasco?
JS: (Laughs) Correct. I made a quick Video in which we uploaded the affidavit of that case, including the fake cases. Clearbrief immediately identified these text fragments as false cases and flagged for review .
FS I’m sure the lawyer in that case wished he had used your AI.
JS We are happy to give the attorneys in that case one month of Clearbrief for free!
FS I remember you saying that some of Clearbrief’s users also use it to send out demand letters. How does it work?
JS : Yes, thank you for bringing this up. Clearbrief’s final step is to click a button that will hyperlink all of the legal and factual sources in your Word document and then share it with counsel as a hyperlinked pdf. So, if you had a demand, you could send it to them to show the evidence you would face if this case went to trial. It’s powerful to show the insurance company how you won. Clearbrief users report that they receive replies immediately when they submit hyperlinked requests.
FS All of this is very useful. Thank you for your time.
How many hours can be saved by using AI for research, citations and creating exhibits? AI, like Clearbrief, show that, at least in the near future, AI allows attorneys to focus their attention on higher-level tasks and save significant amounts of time. This time can be spent on billable services for clients, or I could spend it playing tennis with my beautiful wife. Spending a day doing tedious, non-billable tasks is not worth it!
Shelton’s Crystal Ball : Clearbrief, and other developers who are savvy will concentrate on eliminating low-level tasks and functions performed by lawyers, paralegals, and legal assistants. The ultimate goal is to make everything that lawyers do billable.
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The article The Vanishing Billable and Non-Billable Hour Part 2: Clearbrief appeared first on Attorney at Law Magazine. Hour Part 2: Clearbrief first appeared on Attorney at Law Magazine.