Setting the standards for lawtech | News

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If computers are to take on an increasing part of lawyers’ workload, how can we ensure that such systems are designed, built and operated to the right professional standards? Both the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority made significant announcements about Lawtech last week.

The SRA announcements accompanied the publication of the state of the market survey commissioned by researchers at the University of Oxford. The report was the latest to identify the rapid impact of the pandemic on digital work. But it also identified a clear gap between efforts to computerize the so-called BigLaw and those that have essentially turned to PeopleLaw, the traditional high street companies. A surprising finding was that 97% of the funding going to the burgeoning legal technology industry is in products destined for BigLaw.

Information technology, the Internet, artificial intelligence have all been thought of as a lawless space

I. Stephanie Boyce, Law Society

The regulator has long seen a role for itself in correcting the imbalance: one of its strategic priorities for 202023 is actively supporting the adoption of legal technologies and other innovations that help meet the needs of the public, the business community, regulated entities and the economy. It used the Oxford report publication to unveil initiatives to promote and build trust in Lawtech.

It will begin by challenging the perception that companies cannot afford new technologies by collecting and sharing information on the typical costs of technologies and innovations. Other efforts include the relaunch of the SRA Innovate website and the offer for the next funding sections under the Government’s Pioneer Regulator Fund. It also announced a partnership with Swansea University subject to funding approval to create a virtual innovation hub that brings together business development, academic research and regulatory activities to enable cutting-edge legal innovation.

Perhaps more ambitiously, the SRA has also launched the ability to approve or accredit lawtech suppliers or systems, saying it is unclear whether standard accreditation services will work for legal products. The regulator will consider hiring work under the banner of its SRA Innovate service.

To support and encourage technology developers, we will explore the best way to share a checklist or standards list for innovators. For example, this could be a guide to legal, regulatory, and industry accreditations that companies in the legal sector should comply with. The goal of such a list of standards would be to help law firms purchase services from technology companies that have met those standards, the SRA statement says.

A probable accreditation standard was announced by the Law Society last week as part of the work of representative bodies on lawtech and ethics. This is a set of five guiding principles for Lawtech design, development and implementation.

Company President I. Stephanie Boyce announced the principles in a presidential address at the reopening of 113 Chancery Lane. Boyce described the principles as the culmination of two years of work, including consultations with law firms, developers and regulators. They are:

l Compliance: the design, development and use of lawtech must comply with all applicable regulations.

l Legality: Lawtech should be supported by the rule of law.

l Capability: Lawtech manufacturers and practitioners should understand the functionality, benefits, limitations and risks of the products used in the course of their work.

l Transparency: Information on how a Lawtech solution was designed, implemented and used should be accessible to the Lawtech operator and the client.

l Liability: Lawtech should have an adequate level of supervision when used to provide or provide legal services.

All five exist under one general principle: that of customer care, Boyce said. The client should be at the center of lawtech, determining the business requirements and how to consider the other principles in a proportionate way.

We hope this is the first step in digitally transforming the profession in a way that stays true to the ethical obligations of lawyers.

Overall the idea is that digital legal services will operate according to the same ethical standards as those followed by the human profession; they should also provide a more stable and predictable environment for investment and development.

But a lot depends on how the principles are monitored and applied, presumably a decision for a government already grappling with how to regulate the internet giants. But it needs to be done, Boyce said. Computer technology, the Internet, artificial intelligence have all been thought of as something of a lawless space at various points. But lawtech well, this cannot be illegal, by definition.

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