Dan Liutikas, CEO of nonprofit International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), shares how technological innovation is giving the legal industry a much-needed rebirth and the benefits that come with that.
The intersection of technology and legal
ILTA works as the connecting piece for those involved in legal and technology, offering a community and educational opportunities. There is still more education needed in the legal industry, though, Liutikas admits.
“A lot of it is ultimately coming down to having key understandings of the potentials of the technology itself and what it can do when used in conjunction with different technologies,” Liutikas says. There is a lot of focus on “how we are connecting the dots with the technologies and data, and then a lot of it is in the skill sets.”
There are a number of things to be expected: “AIs that can interview you and can ask questions then follow-up questions based on your answers. Ultimately, they can track output that matches the requirements and is backed up to big data to properly align what we know from that data that would be enforceable.”
Benefits of technology
With the increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the legal industry is seeing a sweeping change of efficiency, cost benefits and higher quality end results. Liutikas says it’s particularly prevalent in “how technology can leverage big data, whereas before you had to rely on what the senior attorney’s experience set was to answer questions for clients.”
While technology is obviously improving many industries these days, it creates more accessibility as well. AI and machine learning “can help folks who didn’t have access to legal services or attorneys and the costs associated with that.” Liutikas continues, “For people who should have legal services but have not been able to access those, technology is really going to be behind enabling that.”
The legal industry is on the precipice of becoming more attainable and streamlined. “We’re in the middle of a new birth for the legal profession where you can leverage all these exciting technologies and data and create better outcomes for the entire spectrum of clients.”