Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.
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Law firms still aren’t budgeting for technology
Ten years ago, law firms were just starting to use tools such as eDiscovery, management software and document automation. Now, most lawyers couldn’t imagine running their practice without them. A recent Law Technology Today article explains that in the next decade, the same will hold true for analytics, artificial intelligence and other burgeoning legal technologies. Find out why "failing to plan is planning to fail" and whether your firm is ready for the future here.
An inside look at how Toronto lawyers have moved their practices onto Zoom
Once the coronavirus pandemic forced the world into lockdown, lawyers across the city started to conduct team meetings and client consultations over Zoom. A recent Precedent article recounts the transition was not so simple. Video calls would descend into chaos as children (or pets) screamed in the background. Technical problems caused constant delays. And the profession’s dress code was tossed aside, since it’s clearly absurd to wear a full suit in the kitchen. To capture this bizarre moment in time, Precedent interviewed four lawyers (including Peter Aprile from our recent Canadian Legal Innovation Forum webinar) about how they're doing, what they've been wearing and how they've decorated their Zoom-ready "offices." Read the full story here.
Cybersecurity due diligence becomes focus in M&A transactions
There is an increasing focus on cybersecurity due diligence in M&A transactions, not only as organizations become more dependent on digital technology, but as Covid-19 has highlighted security issues as more people work from home. Imran Ahmad, Partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, spoke with Canadian Lawyer about how due diligence on cybersecurity issues is being done in a more meaningful way. Ahmad said that law firms dealing with M&A are increasingly bringing in those with cybersecurity expertise to look at such issues as part of the transaction process or have staff in the firm who can deal with these types of concerns. Read the full interview here.
New ‘A.I. lawyer’ analyzes your emails to find moneysaving loopholes
Email systems have gotten smarter. Whether it’s filtering out spam, prioritizing the messages we need to respond to, reminding us when we’ve forgotten to include a mentioned attachment or suggesting appropriate responses, 2020 email has come a long way from the basic inboxes of yesteryear. A recent Digital Trends article explains how DoNotPay — an app known for appealing parking fines — has recently launched a feature that analyzes incoming emails to identify how you can save time, money or both. Rather than just determining it to be spam or non-spam, as a conventional email system might do, DoNotPay Email will chime in with the option of letting you cancel your membership with a single click should you wish to do that.
Pandemic highlights risk of cyber security breaches, need for protection
With businesses and public institutions more reliant on technology than ever, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of good cyber security, which will be the focus of an upcoming panel providing advice to prevent breaches. Paul Armitage, a partner at Gowling WLG’s Vancouver office whose practice includes cyber security and privacy law, will be speaking about cyber security during the pandemic at the Cyber Security panel presented by Business In Vancouver. Find all the details here.
