The 13th annual Clio person conference kicked off this week with the standard opening keynote by Jack Newton, Clio CEO. Newton delivered what might have been essentially the most consequential keynote within the firm’s historical past and one which alerts a shift by Clio from a conventional apply administration supplier to a complete platform that basically does all the pieces for the enterprise and apply of regulation.
The Bulletins
Newton walked via numerous updates and enhancements to Clio’s core merchandise of Handle, Develop, and Accounting. He additionally introduced a transfer by Clio to go after the big agency market, companies with over 200 workers. (Clio has traditionally served solo, small, and, extra lately, midsize regulation companies). Clio lately acquired ShareDo to facilitate this addition. ShareDo provides apply and administration software program for a lot of massive companies.
However That’s Not the Huge Story
Clio additionally earlier this 12 months acquired vLex, the heavy-duty AI authorized analysis participant. The acquisition is pending regulatory approval. It’s the vLex acquisition that’s powering the Clio transformation that Newton described in his keynote.
vLex has an enormous quantity of authorized information in its wheelhouse to energy refined authorized AI analysis. On prime of this information, vLex developed Vincent, a strong AI software to work with this information and allow all types of actions and work.
This implies a few issues. First, by buying vLex, Clio can now provide its prospects AI authorized analysis instruments. Clio prospects will not must go one place for its apply administration wants and a second place for its substantive authorized work, like analysis. It makes what Clio can present rather more complete and all inclusive.
Second, by gaining access to vLex’s highly effective AI software, Clio can permit its prospects to use Vincent to a agency’s inner paperwork. Clio’s instruments can thus provide an entire vary of automated AI work throughout the agency. In essence, it’s marrying inner and exterior information upon which AI can run.
So Clio can now provide things like a transactional and automatic doc drafting which Newton described as a drafting teammate. It will possibly provide instruments that handle workflows. Clio can automate consumer consumption virtually utterly, even figuring out whether or not an engagement ought to be accepted within the first place. It will possibly calendar dates after which automate compliance.
It will possibly write briefs. It will possibly take actions and steps in issues to automate an enormous quantity of labor all through the lifetime of a matter from billing to collections. It will possibly do refined authorized work like complicated contract evaluation, authorized analysis, or transient writing. From back-office work to making ready the Supreme Courtroom transient, Clio’s instruments might be embedded and central to what regulation companies and attorneys do.
The vLex acquisition additionally implies that Clio is not a apply administration firm. It’s rather more of a complete supplier of all wants of its prospects large and small.
To the extent it wasn’t earlier than, Clio is now a authorized AI firm. Nobody else available in the market can provide such a monolithic set of service powered by inner and exterior information. It’s now the proverbial one cease store that different distributors have been making an attempt to determine by both providing integration with different distributors and even free partnerships. However these preparations might be difficult and never permit for nimbleness and centralized choice making which issues now greater than ever.
However There Are Risks
Newton took just a few moments in the course of the keynote to stroll via what a day within the life would appear like for a lawyer utilizing a full set of Clio AI instruments. He confirmed the instruments doing just about all the pieces that wanted to be achieved.
However then it hit me. A lot of what many attorneys and authorized professionals do every single day can now be achieved by AI instruments. With AI doing a lot, what is going to attorneys do all day? What’s going to paralegals and administrative employees do??
At a number of factors in the course of the keynote, Newton referred to the AI instruments as a “teammate.” He even described Vincent as a “sensible junior affiliate.” That’s nice however what occurs to all of the work the human “teammates” have been doing? How do you turn out to be that sensible human junior affiliate when the so many authorized solutions might be discovered via AI?
It’s usually mentioned that AI will allow attorneys to do the extra refined authorized work that they don’t have time to do now. However is there actually sufficient want for that form of work? (To not point out the truth that not each lawyer is sweet on the imaginative and prescient factor.)
And the place will these refined thinkers come from sooner or later if we don’t want as many associates? Which raises a good greater query: how will we prepare and develop youthful attorneys to be future attorneys and thinkers? How will we develop youthful attorneys to be strategic thinkers?
The reality is fairly clear: the authorized occupation as we all know it’s going to be totally different and maybe even downsized. Now we have to face the likelihood that attorneys and authorized professionals might have totally different expertise.
It’s an inevitability and actuality that few within the authorized enterprise are making ready for. I talked to Ed Walters, vLex’s Chief Technique Officer, after the keynote and he made an excellent level: “We should be instructing youthful attorneys issues like judgment, discernment, counseling, and tips on how to assess the outputs of AI.”
People who do will prosper, those that don’t received’t. As William Gibson famously mentioned, “the longer term is already right here, it’s simply not evenly distributed.”
We additionally want to acknowledge that there will definitely be smaller administrative staffs, who’re composed of people that might be harm the worst by job displacement. Whereas it’s true, as John Foreman, Clio’s Chief Product Officer, put it, “AI is actually good at administrative work and a whole lot of administrative work simply isn’t getting achieved.” However that also implies that some job features that people are doing might be changed creating the danger of job displacement.
You’ll be able to’t blame Clio for these dangers. It’s doing what different distributors try to do and it’s doing it extra responsibly than most. However I noticed perhaps for the primary time how disruptive AI can and might be.
And there’s one other hazard when one firm offers all the required companies.
Enshitification
As soon as Clio can present soup to nuts wants of regulation companies such that different distributors are rendered irrelevant, the temptation to extend costs and reduce companies will at all times be there. As soon as you might be in a walled backyard and an organization like Clio can present the form of wall-to-wall service you possibly can’t get anyplace else, it’s powerful to go away the backyard. Even when it finally prices extra to get much less. It’s the enshitification syndrome that Cory Doctorow waxes eloquently about in his ebook titled Enshitification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
Once more, Clio exhibits no indication below current management of going this route. As I mentioned earlier than, it’s one of many extra accountable gamers in authorized tech. However issues can change. Management can change, financial forces can shift. All of which factors to the dangers of a single supplier having the ability to meet each want.
Make no mistake, having the ability to serve the vast majority of prospects’ wants with one supplier is sweet for many causes. However prospects additionally want to acknowledge that there are dangers. Divorcing a supplier will not be simple, notably the place you must substitute one vendor that provides your each want with six or seven separate ones. It’s essential have an exit plan out of the walled backyard.
The Huge Story
So the large story from the keynote will not be the brand new and glossy AI merchandise Clio launched and Newton mentioned.
It’s Clio’s transformation from apply administration supplier to complete authorized companies platform, one able to dealing with refined authorized work throughout each side of a agency’s operations. For purchasers, it’s undeniably highly effective. Whether or not it proves to be a blessing or a curse will depend upon how each Clio and the authorized occupation navigate the profound disruption forward.
Time will inform.
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and author. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a weblog dedicated to the examination of the stress between know-how, the regulation, and the apply of regulation.
