Karl Haraldsson about his Keynote at Lexpo, the most important developments in his field of expertis
We've asked the thought leaders and experts who will be speaking at Lexpo'18, legal innovation event:'What is the most important development in their area of expertise and how will it affect the upcoming years?'; 'What will they be talking about at Lexpo'18'; 'What they need to do or read to learn more about their area of expertise and if there is something else they would share?'
Harald, 'If you should pick one - what, in your opinion, is the most important development in your area of expertise over the past 5 years in the Legal Market, and how will it affect the upcoming years?'
My area of expertise is legal data science. The most important development in this space has been the emergence of legal-specific document analysis tools. One of the legal industry's biggest challenges in legal analytics is the dearth of good structured data that characterizes the practice of law. Very few firms, for instance, track detailed matter outcome information (e.g., dispute settlement amount). Today, we can use machine learning and natural language processing to extract that kind of information--and many other pieces of information that are not publicly available--from settlement agreements, contracts, demand letters, and more. This breaks down a substantial barrier to collecting data, which, in turn, makes sophisticated data analysis possible.
'what will you be talking about at Lexpo'18'
At Lexpo'18, I will be speaking about strategies for propelling data science into legal practice. In my work, I focus almost entirely on "practice data," which looks beyond time and billing information to attempt to better characterize elements of the practice of law itself. Thus, in my talk, I will speak about ways that lawyers can use data to inform their legal strategy, underpin negotiations, and forecast matter outcomes. More importantly, however, my talk will focus primarily on practical ways that corporate legal departments and private practice law firms can actually use legal data science.
When the legal professionals want to learn more about your area of expertise or the developments in this expertise, what do they need to do or read?
Some interesting reading might include:
alt.legal: The Forecast For Legal Analytics Is Mostly Sunny by Ed Sohn (https://abovethelaw.com/2016/05/alt-legal-the-forecast-for-legal-analytics-is-mostly-sunny/)
Why The Best Supreme Court Predictor In The World Is Some Random Guy In Queens (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-best-supreme-court-predictor-in-the-world-is-some-random-guy-in-queens/) by Oliver Roeder
Quantitative Legal Prediction - or - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Preparing for the Data Driven Future of the Legal Services Industry (https://ssrn.com/abstract=2187752) by Daniel Martin Katz
Noise: How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making (https://hbr.org/2016/10/noise) by Daniel Kahneman, Andrew Rosenfield, Linnea Ghandi, and Tom Blaser
You Don’t Need ‘Perfect’ Data for Analytics (http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2016/02/04/you-dont-need-perfect-data-for-analytics-analytics/) by James Guszcza
'Thank you! Is there something else or an insight that you would share with our readers
Don't sleep on the power of contemporary data visualization tools to jump-start a legal analytics program. Lawyers rarely see the results of the data that they enter. Tools like Tableau and Microsoft Power BI make it possible to not only build on the static reporting that lawyers and clients already receive, but also display new metrics that reach beyond the basic financial figures that everyone has become so accustomed to. We see basic data visualization as a gateway to more profound analyses.
About KARL HARALDSSON
Karl is an expert in the application of data science to the practice of law. He specializes in counting and summing legal things, running operations over those counts and sums, building models to forecast future legal things, and designing visual interfaces for consuming the insight that results.Drawing on his distinctive skillset, he has advised global law firms and large, multinational corporate legal departments at both the strategic level and through discrete data analytics and visualization projects.Karl is currently the Manager of Legal Analytics at LexPredict, a leading legal data science consulting and technology company. Prior to joining LexPredict, Karl held central roles at Janders Dean, Seyfarth Shaw, and SeyfarthLean Consulting. He led client-facing analytics teams, worked with partners and clients to track the delivery of legal services, to forecast matter outcomes, and to pinpoint factors that impact the risk and volume of matters.
The following Thought Leaders and Expert (all speaking at Lexpo'18) will be answering the same questions in this Series
David Yermack
Philipp Kadelbach
Kim Craig
David Fisher
Oliver N Oram
Shruti Ajitsaria
John Alber
David Rueff
Nick Kirby
Susan Lambreth
Ben Kingsley