Robot Lawyers

Since 1998 when I worked with a whiz named Russell, I have been a proponent of automation. Pushing information to myself with RSS, using autotext and macros in Word, subtotaling in Excel, and Outlook Rules have all made it possible for me to automate bits of my own work. As a law firm KMer, I build and advocate for tools that automate, or at least reduce steps, to work done in my organization. I am certain that many Slawyers have similar stories about how the way they use computers (or phones, or tablets, or other devices) in their work has changed their life.

Because of my “automation is good” philosophy, I am reading with interest a series of posts at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog about the Exponential Law Firm. Part 1 is here
and part 2 is here.

The Exponential Law Firm is based on an an introduction to an ILTA session titled, Do Robot Lawyers Dream of Billable Seconds which is also available. The premise in yesterday’s Part 2 post is that digitizing a product or service throws an entire industry onto the Moore’s law bandwagon and change within that industry becomes exponential with processing power doubling and prices halving every 18 months..

I believe that we are in a period of rapid change in legal. What do you think…is it exponential?