Welcome to 2025! The ABA Journal's Legal Rebels Podcast is not usually in the business of making prognostications. Let’s face it: If we were, we’d be playing the lottery or putting bets on sports games and the stock market and not doing this. But it seems like a safe prediction to say generative artificial intelligence will dominate 2025—just like it did in 2024.
The year 2024 has been a momentous year for legal technology. Generative artificial intelligence continues to gain traction in an industry not known for adopting tech quickly or efficiently.
Lawyers, especially litigators, like to say they never ask a question that they don’t already know the answer to. But there’s plenty of unknowns out there—especially when it comes to how a case might turn out or how much it will cost. Predictive judicial and law firm analytics take some of that guesswork out of the equation.
Much has been made of the gigantic access-to-justice gap in this country. According to a 2022 study by the Legal Services Corp., 92% of Americans do not receive any or enough help for a civil legal need. There are many reasons for this.
When it comes to access to justice, it has long been estimated that low-income Americans did not receive any or enough legal help for over 90% of their civil legal problems, according to a 2022 report from the Legal Services Corp.
Widely hated by lawyers and clients alike, the billable hour has nevertheless proven to be more resilient than cockroaches, Twinkies and those nonbiodegradable containers that you used to get fast-food restaurants.
For the longest time, one of the staples of any courtroom has been the stenographer. Typing on a small machine that produced a seemingly random series of letters onto a small strip of paper about the same size as what cash registers use to produce receipts, being a court reporter required extensive training and superhuman attention span. One missed sentence or one inaccurate transcription and the entire trial record could be compromised.
It’s that time of year again. The ABA’s annual technological showcase—the ABA Techshow 2024—starts Feb. 14 and runs through the weekend in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
