Return to the law firm of DLA, Watson, Siri & Wal-Mart

07
Jul
2014

Jeffrey Brandt

A futuristic picture of how technology, artificial intelligence and big data might impact law firms in the future

Good morning Mr. Phelps and welcome back to the global law firm of DLA, Watson, Siri & Wal-Mart.  I see from your expression that you have noticed the change in my voice.  I am Stevie, a Mark 8 assistant.  After the Apple-Microsoft merger on Tuesday, all the firm's assistants have been upgraded to the Siri/Cortana hybrid.  I am sure you'll find the upgrades useful.  

It looks like you have a very full schedule today.  Your calendar and associated information have been transferred to cubical 45-38-7, which is your assigned office for your stay here today.  Office lighting, temperature and virtual artwork have been updated with your stored preferences.  Your personal assistant, Jordan 7188 has updated your iSlate II with a firm map and will guide you to your office.

You have 54 emails, 87 communications through the community of practice, 23 voice mails and 13 video messages.  Analysis of all those communications would indicate that there are three priority situations you should be aware of.

• At 4:00 p.m. today in the firm cafeteria there is retirement party for the former head of Knowledge Management and Library Services.
• As part of the firms ongoing "green" initiative, there will be a scheduled brown out from 7:00-9:00 pm today.  This will impact secondary and tertiary systems throughout the building.
• You have five client communications that require your attention  Voice stress and facial analysis would recommend that you focus first on the communications from Mr. Flaherty. 

Casey Flaherty is the senior vice president and general counsel of one of the firm's newer clients, megacorporation, Telsa Royal Dutch Shell.  Detailed information on Mr. Flaherty and Telsa Royal Dutch Shell appears on the virtual screen to the left.  Financial billing, pricing and matter management virtual assistants are on stand-by and can be reached through your center screen if you have any additional inquiries.

The correspondence from Mr. Flaherty indicates some concerns about the Genesis matter currently being worked on.  Detailed analysis and break down of the Genesis matter appears on the virtual screen to the right.  He is dissatisfied with the productivity of our lawyers on this matter. They have used their own Watson to analyze our firm's work product for this matter.  Their data suggests that our lawyers are not working in an optimal way.  He says their analytics further support the claim that the last two memorandums in this case are more than 84.2% identical.  Mr. Flaherty refuses to pay the full lawyers billings for the repurposed work of the second document.  I took the liberty of checking Mr. Flaherty's numbers and our internal analysis indicates their data on the Genesis matter is correct.  That information is appearing now on your left screen. 

Mr. Flaherty said that their Watson unit is currently analyzing the work product from our firm across the other 987 matters that are currently open.  Your request to requisition two of the four Watsons for additional analysis has been approved by the managing partner.  Data crunching has already begun and preliminary tending indicates that the inefficiencies referenced by Mr. Flaherty extend across all the active matters.  It is estimated that this information will be confirmed by the Telsa Royal Dutch Shell Watson in 22 hours.

Furthermore Mr. Flaherty has demanded a face to face meeting next Thursday at 9:00 a.m. to discuss the administration of the fifth generation of the Telsa Royal Dutch Shell/Suffolk University Law School’s Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation Lawyer Technology Audit. Historical data indicates that the firm has never taken the TRDSSULSLPTILT Audit.  I have gathered three separate public news stories indicating that Telsa Royal Dutch Shell has terminated four outside counsel in the last two years because of their inefficiency and inadequate technological competency.  Statistical compilations indicate that since 2014, 324 law firms have taken the audit and none have passed.  Additional analysis indicated 10 firms have taken the audit twice and failed both times.  One law firm has taken it three times and failed each time.

Mr. Phelps, would you like to review the IT department training video on PDF document creation or review how to create arbitration exhibit index in Excel?