The Atlanta Lawyer August/September 2019 | Page 14
Legal Analytics 101
Class is in session: what is legal analytics, why do we
need it and who does it benefit?
L
e g a l
technology
traditionally
referred to the
application
of technology and software to help
law firms with practice management,
document storage, billing, accounting,
14
August/September 2019
DANIELA BRITTON
Rechtsanwältin
[email protected]
and electronic discovery. Today, there is more
to it. Technology in the legal world provides
tools for clients to connect with lawyers,
or even to complete legal matters, such as
contract writing by themselves through
“smart apps.” The latest use of computing
power in the practice of law is the application
of data science methodologies to legal
documents. While the idea of employing
algorithms and machine-learning processes
to legal work dates back to the late 1950s,
only very recently have the advances in
artificial intelligence and programming made
Legal Analytics, in its current form, possible.
What is Legal Analytics?
“The beginning of wisdom,” said the Greek
philosopher Socrates, “is the definition
of terms.” So, what IS Legal Analytics?
Technically speaking, it is words that are
transformed into numerical data, which,
in turn, are used as a quantitative basis
for decisions to be made by lawyers or
other participants in the legal industry.
“Imagine Grammy has ten grandchildren
who write her 90 letters,” says Susan Navarro
Smelcer, Assistant Professor of Law at