What I Learned At CES About Law Practice Management – Above the Law

As
you
can
imagine,
there
are
multiple
sessions
at


CES

that
focus
on
the
trends
and
the
future
of
technology
in
the
consumer
product
environment,
as
I


previously
reported. 

But
a
panel
discussion
on
Tuesday
offered
a
slightly
different
focus
that
got
my
attention.

First,
it
was
put
on
by
the
Big
4
accounting
firm,


Deloitte.
Deloitte
is
in
the
business
of
advising
businesses
in
all
areas,
including
technology.
So,
what
Deloitte
says
about
trends
is
relevant
to
businesses.
Second,
what
Deloitte
says
businesses
should
be
focused
on
can
be
especially
important
to
law
firms
and
in-house
management.
Indeed,
law
firms,
in
particular,
are
often
slow
to
respond
to
trends,
making
the
Deloitte
report
all
the
more
important
to
them.

The
presentation
was
based
upon
the
16th

annual
Deloitte


Technology
Report

that
actually
came
out
in
late
2024.
But
yesterday
at
CES,
Deloitte
hosted
a
blue
ribbon
panel
discussion
about
the
report
and
what
it
means.
The
panel
was
composed
of


Bill
Briggs,
Deloitte
CTO;


Amit
Ahuja,
VP
Adobe;


Deborah
Golden,
Deloitte
CIO;


David
Randle,
Amazon
head
of
spatial
computing;
and


Holly
Walters,
Toyota
CIO.
If
any
group
is
in
the
know
about
technology
and
its
impact
on
business,
this
is
it.

AI:
Everything
Everywhere
All
at
Once

So
what
do
Deloitte
and
the
panel
see
coming
down
the
pike
in
2025,
and
how
do
I
think
the
developments
should
impact
law
firm
and
in-house
management?

First,
as
an
overarching
matter,
Deloitte
concludes
that
AI
will
be
everywhere
but
invisible.
Deloitte
and
the
panel
believe
that
more
and
more
AI
will
be
—
and
already
is
—
woven
into
the
daily
fabric
of
our
lives.
We
will
all
increasingly
take
it
for
granted,
expect
it
to
work,
and
assume
it
will
perform
quietly
in
the
background. 

What
does
it
mean
for
legal?
Lawyers
and
legal
professionals
will
come
to
the
office
(whether
remote
or
not)
with
certain
expectations
about
how
things
work
and
eliminate
pain
points.
If
the
tools
provided
by
law
firms
and
in-house
legal
departments
don’t
meet
those
expectations,
dissatisfaction
and
decreased
performance
will
inevitably
result. 

Lawyers
and
legal
professionals
also
need
to
keep
in
mind
the
expectations
of
their
clients,
many
of
whom
will
also
be
using
AI
without
fanfare,
in
the
background
and
perhaps
unknowingly.
They
will
assume
their
lawyers
will
be
using
similar
tools
and
that
their
interaction
with
their
lawyers
will
be
as
frictionless
as
their
own
experiences.
Lawyers
will
need
to
double
down
on
their
customers’
experience. 

As
Briggs
put
it:
“Information
is
moving
toward
intelligence.
Interaction
is
moving
toward
simplicity.”
Walters
also
put
it
well:
Customers
(for
lawyers,
clients))
don’t
want
to
hear
about
what
AI
tool
you’re
using
or
how
you
use
it
in
your
business.
They
just
want
things
to
work.
They
just
want
their
problems
solved.
Lesson
for
lawyers:
Clients
care
less
about
what
AI
tool
you
are
using
or
might
use.
They
care
about
results.
As
Walters
said,
“One
of
my
favorite
clients
used
to
say
we
need
a
lot
less
fingers
and
a
lot
more
thumbs.”

The
Big
Six

The
six
specific
trends,
what
I
think
the
impact
of
those
trends
on
the
business
side
of
law
practice
will,
and
what
law
practice
management
needs
to
consider,
are
as
follows:

1.
Spatial

Computing.
Just
like
CTA,
the
Deloitte
panel
sees
spatial
computing
increasing
because
it
can
break
down
silos
and
create
so
many
more
ways
to
communicate
within
teams
and
with
others.
Spatial
computing,
says
Briggs,
is
the
physical
and
digital
world
coming
together
in
ways
that
haven’t
been
possible
or
seen
before.

As
I noted
before,
spatial
computing
blurs
the
line
between
the
real
and
digital
worlds.
Spatial
computing
will
transform
the
way
businesses
train,
the
way
they
build
facilities
and
work
processes,
and
the
way
they
sell
and
market
products,
says
Ahuja.
The
panelists,
in
particular,
all
commented
on
how
spital
computing
opens
up
new
ways
of
training
workers:
surgeons,
for
example,
can
hone
their
skills
in
the
digital
world
with
no
risk,
reducing
stress
in
real-world
surgeries.

For
lawyers
and
legal
professionals,
spatial
computing
could
allow
younger
lawyers
to
do
the
same:
hone
their
skills
without
risk
and
improve
real-world
performance.
Clients
will
also
be
living
in
the
spatial
world
and
expect
their
lawyers
to
be
there
as
well.
The
downside
for
legal
is
that
much
of
what
we
do
depends
on
what
is
real.
Blurring
the
lines
brings
risks
of
misinterpretation
of
facts
and
people.

2.
Refined
Use
of
AI.
Deloitte
and
the
panel
talked
about
businesses
moving
away
from
large
language
models
to
smaller
models
that
use
more
limited
internal
data
sets.
We
have
seen
this
already
with
new

NetDocuments

tools
that
apply
AI
to
internal
documents
and
partnerships
between

vLex
and
iManage

to
do
the
same.
Large
models
running
in
the
cloud
with
small
models
running
on
the
edge,
as
Briggs
puts
it.
Law
management
needs
to
invest
in
these
systems
that
enable
them
to
use
their
own
valuable
internal
data.

3.
Emphasis
On
Hardware.
For
years,
much
of
the
investment
discussions
in
legal
and
elsewhere
has
been
on
cloud
computing
and
software.
But
to
power
the
AI
tools,
firms
will
need
sophisticated
and
more
powerful
hardware
to
make
it
all
work.
Law
firms
and
in-house
management
will
need
to
reinvest
in
hardware
to
enable
their
AI
tools
to
work
as
they
should.

4.
The
Need
for
IT
Talent.
For
years,
notes
Deloitte,
the
trend
has
been
to
create
lean
IT
departments
or
outsource
IT
altogether.
But
if
businesses
—
law
firms
and
in-house
departments
—
are
going
to
use
AI
as
they
should,
they
will
need
to
beef
up
their
IT
talent
and
spending.
The
Deloitte
report
puts
it
this
way:
“As
both
traditional
and
generative
AI
capabilities
grow,
every
phase
of
tech
delivery
could
see
a
shift
from
human
in
charge
to
human
in
the
loop.”
This
change
will
mean
a
new
role
and
skill
set
for
IT.

5.
Scary
Times
for
Cybersecurity.
Quantum
computing
—
a
when,
not
an
if
—
will
pose
significant
security
changes
for
all
businesses
and
firms.
Several
panelists
noted
that
cybercriminals
may
have
already
infiltrated
internal
processes
and
systems.
They
are
patiently
awaiting
the
development
of
quantum
computing
tools
that
will
allow
them
to
breach
security
protections
and
take
control.

A
big
problem
is
that
the
significant
risk
does
not
yet
have
a
timetable
to
become
real.
That
fact
makes
the
risk
easy
for
businesses
to
ignore.
Law
firms
have
been
notorious
for
lax
cyber
protections.
It’s
not
clear
if
they
understand
the
enormity
of
the
risk
or
have
the
ability
to
take
action
in
advance
(most
firms
operate
under
a
partner
consensus
model:
Getting
partners
to
agree
to
invest
profits
in
cybersecurity
for
risks
that
haven’t
matured
yet
may
be
difficult).

6.
AI
Embedded
in
Core
Systems.
According
to
Deloitte,
AI
will
allow
businesses
to
quickly
retrieve
and
analyze
key
information
about
things
like
their
clients,
their
costs,
and
revenue.
For
law
firms
to
stay
competitive,
they
will
need
to
make
investments
in
AI
to
maximize
the
use
of
internal
data
about
their
core
business.
Firms
need
to
integrally
embed
AI
in
all
their
business
processes.

The
Future
Is
Here

As


William
Gibson

so
famously
said:
The
future
is
here
—
it’s
just
not
evenly
distributed.
Many
of
the
trends
identified
and
discussed
by
the
panel
are
already
impacting
businesses. 

For
many
managers
of
law
firms
and
in
house
legal
departments,
that
fact
means
they
are
already
behind.
AI
and
its
opportunities
and
challenges
can’t
be
ignored;
business
as
usual,
particularly
for
legal,
is
no
longer
a
panacea.

---

Stephen
Embry
is
a
lawyer,
speaker,
blogger
and
writer.
He
publishes TechLaw
Crossroads,
a
blog
devoted
to
the
examination
of
the
tension
between
technology,
the
law,
and
the
practice
of
law.