Peak AI hype was surely reached this past week at the UK AI Safety Summit, organised by the UK Government. The culmination of the summit was Prime Minister Rishi Sunak interviewing Elon Musk. This was when peak AI hype truly kicked in. Especially when Musk said: We will have for the first time something that…
What is the future of legal services? That is a question that Professor Richard Susskind attempted to answer at the University of Strathclyde on 19 October 2023. Although, Professor Susskind has, of course, spent the past 40 years trying to answer that very question. The Future of Legal Services: Drills and Holes? Before the talk…
Legal Geek 2023 was the one with Withnail and GenAI. Legal Geek 2023: Withnail No big surprise that GenAI was being overcooked at Legal Geek 2023, but what was Withnail doing there? Withnail’s alter ego, Richard E. Grant, was giving a keynote discussion on ‘grief and its impact’. Perhaps to prepare the GenAI evangelists for…
I had an exchange about Large Language Models (LLMs) in law, on Twitter (otherwise now known as X), a couple of days ago with Zach Abramowitz: LLMs in Law – The Hype I do think GenAI, in its current form, is over hyped and especially so when it comes to using it for the provision…
The New Zealand Law Society, in its response to the Independent Review on Regulating Lawyers in Aotearoa New Zealand (the Paterson Review [PDF]), has accepted in principle the proposal to establish a new independent regulator. The Review said that the New Zealand Law Society’s current structure (operating as both a regulator and membership body) was…
Professor Stephen Mayson has published his response to the call for views on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill on both the UCL website and on his own website. You can download the full response as a PDF: Response by Professor Stephen Mayson on call for evidence on Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill….
The Law Society of Scotland made an announcement on 10 August that would suggest the ABS Nessie may be in sight at long last! Later this year (2023) no less. ABSs in Scotland – rarer than Nessie Seven years ago, in 2016, the Law Society Gazette (i.e. the Gazette of the Law Society of England…
Professor David Flint submitted, yesterday, his response to the call for evidence on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill. Professor Flint supports the principal recommendation of the Roberton Review that an independent regulator should be created to regulate legal professionals. In his response Professor Flint suggests that the present system, and what is proposed…
On 31 July, The Herald published a letter by Michael Sheridan, Solicitor, Glasgow claiming that Law Firms are “public assets” that should not be allowed to be sold to shareholder companies. Mr Sheridan was alerting the public to, in his view, the “proposed sale of public assets for private gain” that could happen if section…
I have submitted my response to the call for evidence on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill by the Equalities, Human Rights & Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament. My response is a follows:- 1. What are your views on: a. the principal recommendation of the Roberton Review that an independent regulator should…
Views on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill must be with the Scottish Parliament by 9 August 2023. So, this is just a nudge, if you haven’t done so already, to submit your views by that date. It is most important that anyone with an interest in the future of regulation of legal services…
The Judge in the infamous ChatGPT lawyer case (Mata v Avianca) has now issued his judgement. He has sanctioned the ChatGPT lawyers. Judge P. Kevin Castel issued a 34 page Opinion [PDF]. It concludes that a penalty of $5,000 is jointly and severally imposed on the lawyers in question. In addition they must send a letter…
