This week  Fastcase  is announcing three new projects for 2023 which will become the foundation of additional state initiatives across the country in the future.
Dockets with the State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Texas has given its members access to  DocketAlarm brief, pleading and motion documents in Fastcase. The Texas bar will also launch a  digest curated by the Fastcase/Casemaker editorial team in the key practice areas of oil & gas and real estate. These initiatives are all based on feedback as they build out docket analytics within the Fastcase platform.
Forms workflow with the Arkansas Bar Association
The Arkansas Bar Association is expanding its publishing projects with Fastcase. The Bar Association is offering its own practice guides

Continue Reading Fastcase 2023 Roadmap Includes New Citator Called “Cert”

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. is  announcing the launch of the Securities Enforcement Analyzer, a new research and data visualization tool. Although the legal analytics market has exploded. Regulatory analytics have lagged behind. Wolters Kluwer Securities Enforcement Analyzer is filling an important gap for securities practitioners. The new product provides visualizations and data on SEC enforcement actions, trends, and outcomes. The tool is accessible from the Securities section on VitalLaw or from RBsourceFilings.

According to the press release, Wolters Kluwer developed the Securities Enforcement Analyzer to address one of the biggest challenges in securities professionals’ workflow.. The  Analyzer contains over 90 filtered fields that  enable lawyers to quickly locate the most relevant enforcements based on specific client scenarios. It also provides users with access to detailed and unique data as well as penalty analytics that cannot be found elsewhere, all in an easy downloadable format.

“With the increase in volume of SEC enforcement actions and the associated penalties, it’s important to be prepared for more complexity across the industry and constant changing information,” said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President & General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. “Our Securities Enforcement Analyzer offers a large number of search filters and superior details, helping legal professionals gain an edge in quickly advising on securities related issues.”

The tool provides customers with detailed downloadable graphics and tables, and available filters remove the need to conduct complex full-text searches and inspect numerous documents for relevancy. Users can leverage the Securities Enforcement Analyzer to better assess risks and craft the best defense strategy possible for clients.

The Market There is definitely a need for federal regulatory analytics, but the market is developing very slowly. The only other product I know of in this area is the a Bloomberg Law feature SEC  Administrative Law Judge Enforcement Analytics which launched in 2018. Since Wolters Kluwer and Bloomberg Law which acquired BNA  are the two legal vendors with deep regulatory editorial expertise  are ahead of the rest of the market in tackling the regulatory analytics challenge.

To learn more, visit: https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/vitallaw-law-firms/securities-and-corporate-law/securities-enforcement-analyzer

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. today announced the addition of ESG Daily to its daily reporting suite on VitalLaw.  The ESG Daily will provide  updates on on rapidly evolving ESG regulations, legislation, and standards across key practice areas.  The newsletter will focus on breakings news and expert analysis in energy, sustainability, andgovernance (ESG) affecting a wide array of legal practice areas, including securities, banking, labor and employment, and health. ESG Daily is available at no additional cost to VitalLaw customers.

Built on a wide range of world-class content, Wolters Kluwer’s VitalLaw is a cutting-edge, digital research solution that empowers legal Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Launches ESG Daily – Expands Environmental, Social, and Governance Content on VitalLaw with ESG Daily  

Lex Machina and LexisNexis announced today that it has officially released a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module, which provides Legal Analytics for over 115,000 Chapter 11 proceedings. It’s been a long time coming. Ever since they launched their Bankruptcy Appeals  Analytics  in 2017, customers have be wondering when Chapter 11 analytics would launch. Hooray! That day is here.

Excellent timing given the fragile state of the economy. Recessions has historically been a boon for Bankruptcy and Finance practices. The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module includes the entire docket in any bankruptcy proceeding filed after 2009 in a United States Bankruptcy Court under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Like other Lex Machina modules, the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module provides insights into judges, courts, debtors, creditors, creditor committees, and trustees involved in Chapter 11 proceedings over the last 13 years.

The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Module incorporates special features such as filters for cases involving business debtors, voluntary petitions, and confirmed plans. It also incorporates an extensive collection of practice bankruptcy specific document tags to filter Continue Reading Lex Machina Launches Bankruptcy Chapter 11 Module.

TRG Screen has released a powerful new enhancement to their Research Monitor product. The new Optimize Insights platform provides visual analytics for proactive management of digital resources. Law libraries were already reducing their print resources before the 2020 pandemic. The sudden and long term shift to remote work resulted in a dramatic conversion to digital resources. This means that a significant proportion of the resources budget has shifted to digital formats. What’s a law librarians to do? Research Monitor has always offered a significant suite of digital reports for computing utilization ROI. This is often translated as “cost per user” and “cost per session.” The Optimize platform is more flexible and intuitive and offers great “out of the box” graphics.
Optimize Insights sits at the heart of TRG Screen’s new Optimize platform, which launched in 2020.  Resource monitoring platforms are a “must have” for Library Directors and Knowledge Managers responsible for optimizing digital resource budgets. Instead of random

Continue Reading Power Tools for Budget Planning – TRG Releases Optimize Insights for Research Monitor

Today Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.  is launching a powerful new tool for employment lawyers: the Labor Arbitrator and Awards Analyzer. The Analyzer is a research and data visualization tool  which delivers key insights on labor arbitrators and labor arbitration awards, trends, and outcomes. The tool is accessible from the Labor Arbitration section on VitalLaw.

The product enables lawyers to  locate arbitrators and awards  meeting specific criteria by leveraging the product’s  filtering, data visualization, and flexible reporting functionality. The Labor Arbitrator and Awards Analyzer gives users the power to mine and analyze 33,000+ labor arbitration awards and profiles to identify Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Launches Labor Arbitrator and Awards Analyzer on VItalLaw

One of the most exciting panels at the 2022 ILTA Conference (What is Natural Language Processing and How can I Use It?) showcased dramatic breakthroughs in neural net technology to natural language processing (NLP). Pablo Arredondo, Co-Founder / Chief Innovation Officer, Casetext provided an intensely passionate tutorial on the history of AI through the centuries. The launch of commercial research systems such as Lexis and Westlaw in the 1980’s dramatically transformed legal research by making cases and statutes keyword-searchable. Arredondo enthusiastically proclaimed that neural net technology can now “free research from the keyword prison.”

Let’s start with a definition. Natural Language Processing is a multi-disciplinary field concerned with the interactions between computers and human language. NLP is also generally considered a sub-field in the broader field of artificial intelligence. As with other areas of AI, the two major approaches (the full story appears at this link  on Legal Tech Hub)

 

Today Thomson Reuters is announcing the release of a new platform Westlaw Precision which promises to dramatically cut research time and improve the quality of research results. Westlaw Precision will be sold as an upgrade to Westlaw Edge. Westlaw Precision is tackling the gnarly and perennial problem of language ambiguity by doubling down on taxonomy. At launch, Westlaw Precision covers 8 topics (Commercial law, Federal Civil Procedure, Federal Discovery and Evidence, Federal Remedies, Federal Class Actions, Employment, Securities, and Anti-trust.) Fifteen new topics will be released through 2023. Only the most recent 12 years of caselaw in each topic are included in search results.

Westlaw Precision includes 6 new features at launch. Precision Research is the “Star of the show.” The other 5 features offer cite checking or workflow enhancements.

“Our customers tell us difficult legal research can often take more than 10 hours per case,” said Mike Dahn, head of Product Management, Westlaw, Thomson Reuters. “It’s time consuming because they are often looking for something very precise, but traditional Continue Reading Westlaw Precision Launches With Promise to Cut Lawyer Research Time in Half

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory  is launching its AI enhanced workflow tool for GCs in the US. Legisway  is already  well established in the European  In House Counsel market. The product offers contract lifecycle management and customizable modules for a wide range of workflows. Legisway is an all-in-one SaaS solution that powers enterprise legal management for corporate legal departments.

“Wolters Kluwer has a long history of providing actionable solutions for corporate legal professionals, and as legal departments are called upon for key decision-making and strategic counsel within their organizations, it is essential for them to become more effective, connected and collaborative,” said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President & General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. “The launch of Legisway provides our customers with a workflow-based platform that meets key needs within a law department, and provides powerful reporting, insights, and analytics to support decision making and better outcomes for the department and the broader business.”

Legisway is a configurable, modular, workflow platform, productivity tool and smart repository for small to mid-sized corporate legal Continue Reading Wolters Kluwer Launches AI-Powered Version of Legisway  in the United States for In House Market

 Law360Pulse has released their first post-pandemic “Summer Associate Survey.” As in the past, the questions focused on compensation and hiring, social activities, training and mentorship, and whether law firms adequately prepared them for expected tasks.

2019 was the last year when summer associate programs got a full on site emersion experience complete with mentoring, and the mandatory fun events – cruises, concerts, wine tasting, whitewater rafting etc.. According to the survey 66% of the 2022 respondents participated in a fully in person program this year compared to 27% in 2021.

I was particularly interested in the questions which explored summer associates exposure to innovation and technology.  53% of respondents reported participating in innovation projects. Unfortunately, no details were provided on what type of innovations summer associates were exposed to.

Key Highlights:

  1. Ropes & Gray LLP emerged as the top firm among summer associates, boasting a perfect score and dethroning the incumbent, Morrison Foerster LLP.
  2. Dechert LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, and Skadden Arps Meagher Slate & Flom LLP rounded out the top five. Latham & Watkins LLP saw the biggest leap, up 13 spots from last year.
  3. Summer Associate programs conducted in-person rose to 66% (from only 27% last year.)
  4. Less than half of students (49%) received hiring assurances, down by six percentage points from 2021 and down by a lofty 25 percentage points from 2020.
  5. Signing bonuses are still not the norm: Only 7% of participants reported receiving them, at a median amount of $9,500. 43% percent said their firms offered a bonus to cover living expenses while studying for the bar.
  6. Tech and innovation are lagging: 84% of participants said there was no skill requirement that included giving them the opportunity to create tools to automate workflow, and a scant 20% received software training in contract life cycle management.
  7. In-person experiences were up. Students expressed a lot of excitement about getting to do on-the-job training in actual litigation or deal-making scenarios, in courts, boardrooms and other settings. And 46% categorized their program as “super fun” — almost 19 percentage points more than last year.
  8. The percentage of summer associates allowed to get involved in pro bono work declined to 68% (from 75% last year.)