In the data-driven world of the twenty-first century, legal analytics—the systematic “fishing” of legal data to uncover gems of insight—has become an important tool for law firms and corporate legal departments. This approach involves using the world of existing case law, statutes, and other legal information to gain insights and clarify thinking.

Historically, the tools of this trade have been predictive modeling, data visualization, and performance (including regulatory compliance) metrics. These jewels of wisdom often allow attorneys to successfully litigate business disputes, discover the best course for environmental regulatory agency negotiations, or project legal department budget outlays. As with any field of endeavor, it is the tool that defines and controls the nature of the work product. The legal canon, legal research, and administrative law practices demand inductive reasoning, are language-driven, and thus defy automated systems.

Key Components of Legal Analytics

Legal analytics is changing the way law is practiced with technology, and it can be broken up into three categories. The first of these components is legal data mining is the large-scale extraction of usable knowledge and information from the voluminous amount of accumulate legal data in our working datasets. With large-scale data mining, the modern lawyer will be able to identify and benefit from exploiting the last trends and correlations. There are all sorts of reasons a lawyer would want to identify trends and correlations in a multi-dimension dataset, like finding obscure patterns in case data to inform case strategies and/or decision-making based on wall-wall legal research.

The second component, legal data visualization, is about the need to produce easy-to-understand graphical data. I cannot think of anything worse than trying to spot patterns in a large numerical dataset. Much of the visualization, as applied to raw numerical data, has to be about increasing the simplicity of the source data; this is basically about taking esoteric legal data and converting it into readily understandable legal data. A decent data visualization solution will have facilities to change the output and orientation in real-time, and with a user-oriented approach to high-quality data visualization, a legal researcher will be able to communicate most forms of non-normal empirical patterns to others, including non-lawyers.

  • Legal data management focuses on the best practices for managing and working with all the data a lawyer gets to work with. It drives me nuts when I hear lawyers bragging about how they do not use e-mail in practice. My collections of client data is getting big. At best, my client-manager barely copes with most things client-related. In the present, the management of legal data has to be about maintaining the integrity and security of the dataset, while also having the option to allow clients access to the same data pool.

With that little lot in mind, I think one can only do good with access to a powerful data management solution.

The Intersection of Legal Technology and Analytics

Legal analytics is the focus of the legal revolution tech, promising to take over considerable analytical tasks with more sophisticated tools. This technology makes it possible to sort through incredible volumes of data per day and reveal patterns that it would be impossible to discover. The profession will likely change for the better, with attorneys doing less bulk data analysis and more strategic work centered around AI's data results.

AI takes on and codes cases, reading and coding tons of data in seconds. Lawyers can now move forward with more data-backed results. The changes ahead are sure to heighten defenses, bringing increasingly positive results. The machine learning and algorithms' accuracy will only get better, making the professions increasingly accurate at predicting outcomes.

The Future of Legal Analytics

Today, an analytic “layer” is emerging in legal. What I refer to as “legal informatics” — legal data analysis using current methods or various technical tools — describes a future industry that will absolutely be on the frontier of legal services and could reduce decision costs significantly because it will likely sort the case. There are literally hundreds of new ideas, tech, and VC possibilities. The more benefits seen for the practice, the smoother the transition over time. Lawyers will definitely be more skilled analysts. Technical course offerings and even non-JD degree plans are the future of the legal ed. landscape in my opinion. Lawyers could get through the potential research quagmire and get to the point across a much higher percentage of their work period.

Maybe.

They could also design/substantially better websites.

What is Legal Analytics?

Legal analytics is the use of data analysis to inform decision-making in legal work. This concept represents a change from traditional legal research, which has generally been a more qualitative than quantitative field, based far more on individual and collective interpretation of laws than on number-crunching.

A large amount of data can be obtained from cases and applied to different legal concepts. To some, this might be better known as "case law" or "law school." However, I tend to think of the operation of all the case law and court holdings out there a little differently. These data somehow have a role to play in the strategy of a case. The difference between now and the future is that legal-services delivery models at law firms in the future will require at least one person on a team to be data-fluent.

The Role of Legal Data Analysis

Legal data analysis is transforming the modern law firm by helping attorneys to make more informed choices in the same way that in-house lawyers can arrive better-prepared for meetings. The now educated guess of the potential legal outcome of vast numbers of different reviews allows paralegals to use the costs to gather and produce electronically stored information (ESI) and the law firm’s availability to devise.

However, the convicted or "efficiency" argument that some corporate counsel may use could exclude certain members of particular trial teams. That being said, it provides all sides with a reasonable solution. Judges, magistrates, and law clerks benefit from the merging of strategy and today’s trial theme with the proposed pretrial strategy. Attorneys may use an iPad interface, or its equivalent, to prepare the first few steps of discovery.

Legal analytics makes use of data to inform decision making. Looking at the outcomes of hundreds or thousands of similar cases can help attorneys decide the best strategy to use in a given case. Using legal analytics enables data-driven decisions that can help you predict with a high degree of accuracy the amount for which a case can settle. It will also enable you to take on or pass on potential clients, thereby helping you get your clients more money. Statistics can be powerful tools for making your point in the courtroom.

Taking some time to understand where legal technology is going will help you stay updated on what other law firms are doing. Technology can free up some of your time drafting simple documents, performing legal research, or reviewing contracts that can save you time and your client money. This can help to push the legal profession by putting it at the forefront of change. This will lead to a certain degree of competition within the legal profession in which we all grow. It will save researchers time and money.