Technology

Three quarters of law firms are still unprepared for the EU general data protection regulation which comes into force next May, potentially opening them up to large penalties, according to new research. It also found that one in five law firms admitted to experiencing an attempted cyber attack in the last month.

Leading defendant law firm Keoghs has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) driven service that cuts legal costs for insurer clients by enabling them to handle work that is currently done by its lawyers. Its “AI lawyer”, called Lauri, is initially for what are called “avoidable litigation” cases – generally standard, low-value claims.

DoNotPay – the chatbot that aims to make access to the law free – has received $1.1m (£840,000) in backing from leading Silicon Valley investors, and even some lawyers. DoNotPay is the brainchild of English-born student Josh Browder, who started the site as a teenager to fight his own parking tickets.

Thousands of small businesses are flocking to a purpose-built legal hub, operated by alternative business structure LHS Solicitors, to access online documents. Some 35,000 documents have been downloaded from the Federation of Small Businesses Legal Hub – provided by LHS on a white-label basis – since its launch last month.

A ground-breaking battle between lawyers and artificial intelligence has ended in a comfortable victory for AI. Lawyers had a week to predict whether real PPI complaints were upheld or rejected by the Financial Ombudsman, using their own resources and unlimited time, before AI got to work.

Efforts to recruit an initial 2,500 barristers to direct access website MyBarrister failed miserably, it has emerged in a court ruling that details an ongoing dispute with the recruiters charged with signing them up. “These were, as things turned out, demanding targets,” the judge observed.

Law firms are facing a “pivotal moment” where they need to turn talk of improving efficiency into action, with those that are seeing the competitive advantage, new research has claimed. It said firms “appear to be in a holding pattern, pledging forward-looking action, while cleaving to traditional thinking”, such as hourly billing.

Singapore has begun marketing itself to UK law firms wanting to access Asia’s lawtech start-up community, as well as UK start-ups wanting to expand beyond these shores, with what it says in south-east Asia’s first lawtech accelerator.

Basic digital housekeeping like keeping software up-to-date and backing up data separately from your network will solve most cyber-security issues – with corporate espionage one issue law firms have to face – according to a former assistant director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Law Society has agreed a deal with a crowdfunding platform to connect solicitors with lawtech start-ups looking for investment. Meanwhile, a lawyer at a magic circle law firm told yesterday’s Legal Geek conference that while clients welcomed the idea of innovation, when it comes to the crunch they often chose old-style methods.

A new online service for family and immigration clients is launching today, giving them access to lawyers at prestige firms such as Withers and Farrer & Co. The founder said she wanted the website to help “thousands of people” reduce their legal costs in a “very substantial way”. Users can buy answers to legal questions for between £4.99 and £200.

Leading legal artificial intelligence company ROSS Intelligence has unveiled a new $8.7m (£6.6m) funding round, some of its from Nextlaw Labs, the business accelerator backed by UK-based global firm Dentons. ROSS has developed AI technology that can read and answer questions about the law.

An internet conveyancing platform last week completed what it claimed was the first property to be digitally exchanged online and moved instantly to a live blockchain. It reported the property – in Trowbridge, Wiltshire – went from initial marketing to a verified online exchange in just seven days.

More than 50 solicitors, barristers and in-house counsel have volunteered to outsmart predictive software based on artificial intelligence in a ground-breaking lawyer v machine challenge. Lawyers will have a week to predict whether real PPI complaints were upheld or rejected by the Financial Ombudsman, before CaseCrunch has its go.

A European legal services provider specialising in advising tech companies has launched a prototype of what it calls the first business-to-business legal chatbot and, continuing its rapid expansion, plans to open a London office at the end of the year.