Final week, Suffolk Legislation Faculty grew to become the most recent venue for the American Authorized Tech Awards ceremony, an occasion informally referred to as “Authorized Tech Promenade” because the authorized know-how world’s greatest and brightest commerce the corporate-branded quarter zips for night formal put on. Whereas the pink carpet could lack customized Versace robes, it does function a bunch of people that simply spent 45 minutes watching YouTubers clarify the way to tie a bow tie. For what it’s price, this is a good one and only required two viewings.
With its robust tech and innovation bona fides, Suffolk Legislation was the plain option to host the occasion in Boston. House to the Suffolk Legal Innovation & Technology Center and the related LIT Lab, Suffolk takes a tech-forward strategy to coaching its college students, embracing the innovation and alter that the remainder of the career grumbles about “the children watching TickerToks” whereas dictating their e-mail responses to an admin.
LawDroid’s Tom Martin serves as an adjunct professor at Suffolk and can be one of many Awards’ founders together with Vanderbilt’s Cat Moon and legal professional Patrick Palace. Palace can be the present President of the Nationwide Convention of Bar Presidents, and “President of Presidents Palace” has an actual “we’re all about to be expendable extras in 300” really feel to it.
Damien Riehl returned for one more 12 months because the occasion’s host, providing a brand new spherical of legally themed music parodies. Like a quantity, carried out with Jackie Schafer of Clearbrief, about synthetic intelligence impressed by Little Store of Horrors, a musical a few nerd who falls beneath the thrall of an unholy creation that finally tries to kill him. A minimum of nobody referred to as Seymour “agentic flowers.” In any occasion, it’s proof once more that our annual Law Revue competitors don’t want to surrender on their ardour after legislation college.
The full list of nominees and winners showcases the breadth of what “authorized know-how” means. There’s extra taking place on the market past the now reliably constant conveyor belt of AI hallucination briefs ripe for our ridicule and occasional sanctions. Just like the Maryland Justice Passport, which compiled scattered assets right into a single, user-friendly digital interface for litigants navigating the Kafkaesque nightmare of the courts. Or Onit, who took dwelling the enterprise award for “democratizing entry to authorized experience by means of AI-powered instruments.” Throughout 10 classes, the ALTA honored the individuals on the market doing the arduous work of constructing the career suck much less by means of know-how. And whereas we’re speaking about individuals who make the career suck much less, the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Jim Calloway, the lately retired Director of Administration Help Program on the Oklahoma Bar Affiliation, who spent his profession serving to legal professionals serve purchasers higher.
In an trade with its share of vapid buzzwords and bloated enterprise capital money owed, the ALTA ceremony is a yearly reminder that there’s lots of room for combining legislation and know-how to enhance the career. A few of the legislation college students on the market may also see that there’s a path to utilizing their levels on one thing probably extra rewarding than billing 2400 hours to ClubbingBabySealCorp’s IPO.
Whereas the remainder of the career retains threatening to break down beneath the load of its personal dysfunction, the American Authorized Tech Awards affirm that there are individuals out right here making the legislation truly work. And that authorized tech geeks personal an iron.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be at liberty to email any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky if you happen to’re desirous about legislation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
