ABA Journal

e-Sign on the Dotted Line: When it comes to using generative AI and contracts, the devil is in the details

Along with drafting and reviewing, generative AI can leverage contract datasets for strategic insights to help mitigate risk and negotiate, manage and assess contracts.

Feb 1, 2024 12:06 AM CST

Head of the Class: Law schools consider post-ChatGPT coursework

ChatGPT’s unveiling sparked conversations among law faculty, with opinions ranging from banning GPT platforms in certain classes to encouraging experimentation to reconsidering law school pedagogy.

Feb 1, 2024 12:05 AM CST

Always on: Will generative AI alleviate burnout or make lawyers more miserable?

History is littered with examples of how hot new technologies meant to make us more productive led to unintended consequences, including stress and burnout. When it comes to generative artificial intelligence, will things play out differently?

Feb 1, 2024 12:04 AM CST

Helping Hand: Generative AI already is making an impact on legal research and writing

Lawyers who expect generative artificial intelligence to significantly impact the practice of law see some of the greatest potential in legal research and writing.

Feb 1, 2024 12:03 AM CST

Bridging the Gap: Lawyers trying to increase access to justice see promise in generative AI

For lawyers working to close the justice gap, generative artificial intelligence could be a real game changer.

Feb 1, 2024 12:02 AM CST

Locked in: Criminal justice startups tap into generative AI’s early promise

As two ABA Journal 2022 Legal Rebels build on their lofty ambitions to create a more equitable criminal justice system, they now have another tool at their disposal: generative AI. They have wasted no time in putting it to use.

Feb 1, 2024 12:01 AM CST

Yale Law’s Owen Fiss talks about threats to democracy and ‘Why We Vote’

After 50 years as a professor at Yale Law School, Owen Fiss says his students are still idealistic and passionate about the rights won in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. A classroom discussion prompted his new book.

Jan 31, 2024 8:47 AM CST

How will generative AI affect digital investigations and e-discovery?

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Chantelle Jalland, a London-based managing director for digital investigations and discovery with J.S. Held, a global consulting company.

Jan 26, 2024 8:52 AM CST

Carnegie and Me: Refuting the culture war on American libraries

My hometown Toulon, Illinois, is a small farm community of 1,200 souls about three hours southwest of the Chicago sprawl. During my youth, it featured five gas stations; four churches; three grocery stores and two doctors, which said something about gas, God and medicine in my 1960s rural America.

Jan 25, 2024 8:43 AM CST

What to do when friends or family members ask for legal advice

“It’s never going to go well,” Arizona attorney Lynda C. Shely says about the prospect of representing anyone you are close to, including family members and friends. Shely, the immediate past chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, works in private practice and has advised more than 2,500 law firms around the country on legal ethics matters.

Jan 25, 2024 8:34 AM CST

Living through Hurricane Katrina inspired Alessandra Jerolleman’s disaster justice advocacy

Alessandra Jerolleman lost her home, her car and much of her community to the Hurricane Katrina’s powerful surge and flood waters. But Jerolleman found the hurricane also changed her life in another profound way.

Jan 24, 2024 2:32 PM CST

To be a lawyer or a doctor? That is the question

Albert Einstein said, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” So you want to become a doctor or a lawyer? For some reason or other, these two words are often muttered together, like St. Paul and Minneapolis. Or like Dallas and Fort Worth. Or like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Do these professions generate similar value to society?

Jan 17, 2024 10:43 AM CST

Want to clear a criminal record? This lawyer has an app for that

In 2022, lawyer Noella Sudbury launched an app called Rasa to provide a quick, cheap and easy solution for people who want a fresh start, automating the process of expungement from start to finish.

Jan 17, 2024 8:15 AM CST

Access to justice can be achieved, says ‘Law Democratized’ author—but not without change

In 2013, the ABA Journal named Renee Knake Jefferson a Legal Rebel for her work rethinking how legal services could be delivered to consumers. In 2024, she’s looking back at a decade of successes and failures aimed at improving access to justice.

Jan 10, 2024 8:22 AM CST

The Lawyer’s Identity: How to recognize that we are more than the job

I remember being on cloud nine as I drove home from work not too long ago—two hours late but excited to sneak up on my 1-year-old as she played in the bath. I was working as a federal prosecutor, and some agents and I had finally cracked (through equal part persistence and luck) a cross-border money laundering case that had seemed to be hopeless until that morning.

Jan 9, 2024 1:15 PM CST