Examples of each include Cisco’s use of tech- nology to improve the efficiency of its in-house team. This, along with other such examples, re- ceived substantial attention in Richard Susskind’s latest book, THE END OF LAWYERS?; RETHINKING THE NATURE OF LEGAL SERVICES (2008). For numerous ex- amples of problems caused by poor implemen- tation of legal automation projects, see Dani- elle Keats Citron, Technological Due Process, 85 WASH. U. L. REV 1249 (2008), at http://lawreview. wustl.edu/inprint/85/6/Citron.pdf. For more on the history and success of A2J, see Ronald W. Staudt, All the Wild Possibilities: Technology that Attacks Barriers to Access to Justice, 42 LOYOLA L.A. L. REV. 101 (2009), at http://papers.ssrn.


archive/lpm_magazine_articles _v30is1an2.html. 2


com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1543329. 3


This definition is from the Sedona Confer- ence Glossary: E-Discovery & Digital Informa- tion Management (2d ed. Dec. 2007), at https:// thesedonaconference.org/publication/The%20 Sedona%20Conference%C2%AE%20Glossary. The Sedona Conference is the foremost group dedicated to advancing the theory and practice


of e-discovery. 4


Stephanie Kimbro maintains an excellent and


frequently updated bibliography of e-lawyering- related ethics opinions: http://virtuallawpractice. org/2010/10/ethics-opinions-related-to-virtual- law-practice-updates-to-book-appendix. Ver- mont opinions of note include: 1997-05 (lawyer use of unencrypted email); 2000-04 (websites as online advertising and inadvertent creation of at- torney client relationships); 2003-03 (confidenti- ality concerns related to use of contractors); and


2010-06 (use of Software as a Service). 5


LawLine Vermont, the state’s LSC-funded le- gal services organization, has been involved, al- though the most recent additions to the suite of interviews available have been managed by the state judiciary. In New York, the courts have also taken an active role in producing and hosting A2J interviews. The A2J interviews available for Vermont users are linked through the judiciary’s website: http://www.vermontjudiciary.org/mas-


terpages/court-forms-courtformprep.aspx. 6


http://www.hotdocs.com (HotDocs). 7


coursework. 8


For more on the two programs respectively, see http://www.a2jauthor.org/drupal (A2J) and


For comparison, the legal expert systems projects were the culmination of a semester of


The SEC is phasing in requirements that all


reporting be done using the markup language XBRL. This is designed to make information much easier to deal with and use. See, http:// xbrl.sec.gov. This also led to discussions about the possible use of “big data” whether struc- tured in XBRL or otherwise, to make previous- ly daunting amounts of data useable. For exam-


ple, Prof. Goodenough has been involved with a project originating at Harvard to increase trans- parency in the mortgage markets by reporting


mortgage data in XBRL or a similar language. 9


LegalZoom’s S-1 filing for its initial pub-


lic offering (IPO) reveals its size and growth. The company has served more than two mil- lion customers in the last decade, 490,000 in 2011. Revenue grew by 50% between 2009 and 2011. More than 20% of California LLC filings now use LegalZoom. See LegalZoom S-! Reg- istration Statement, at http://www.sec.gov/Ar- chives/edgar/data/1286139/00010474691200 5763/a2209299zs-1.htm#bg73503_table_of_ contents. See also Richard Granat’s coverage of LegalZoom related issues on his eLawyeringRedux blog, http://www.elawyeringredux.com/articles/


legalzoom. 10


Of course, the bar also has the option of at- tempting to shut down providers of legal servic- es seen as “practicing law.” For a history of this controversy, from the 1960s bestseller HOW TO AVOID PROBATE by Norman Dacey through 2002, see Catherine J. Lanctot, Scriveners in Cyber- space: Online Document Preparation and the Unauthorized Practice of Law, 30 HOFSTRA L. REV. 811 (2002), at http://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/law_ lanctot.pdf. Lest I give the impression that the conflict over legal forms and legal advice given by nonlawyers started with Dacey, see JOHN GAY- LORD WELLS, EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER AND BUSI- NESS FORM BOOK: A COMPLETE GUIDE IN ALL MAT- TERS OF LAW AND BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, FOR EVERY STATE IN THE UNION, WITH LEGAL FORMS FOR DRAW- ING THE NECESSARY PAPERS, AND FULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCEEDING, WITHOUT LEGAL ASSISTANCE (1867), at http://books.google.ca/books?id=BgYsAQAAM AAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_sum-


11


mary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 12


North Carolina 2011 FEO 6 is entitled Sub- scribing to Software as a Service While Fulfilling the Duties of Confidentiality and Preservation of Client Property. It is available at http://www.


ncbar.com/ethics/ethics.asp. 13


Id. 14 Vermont Advisory Ethics Opinion 2010-


6, at https://www.vtbar.org/FOR%20ATTOR- NEYS/2011%20Advisory%20Ethics%20Opin-


ions.aspx. 15


http://www.americanbar.org/groups/profes- sional_responsibility/aba_commission_on_eth-


ics_20_20.html. 16


html. 17


http://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_ practice_management/publications/lpm_books.


SubTech is the “International Conference on Substantive Technology in Legal Education and Practice.” It has been held every two years since 1990, usually alternating between locations in


See SUSSKIND, supra note 2.


North America and Europe. The most recent edi- tion was at New York Law School in July 2012. The program is available online at: http://www. nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/insti- tute_for_information_law_and_policy/events/


subtech. 18


See RICHARD GRANAT, E-LAWYERING FOR COMPETI-


TIVE ADVANTAGE: HOW TO EARN LEGAL FEES WHILE YOU SLEEP (2008), at http://apps.americanbar.org/


dch/committee.cfm?com=EP024500. 19


See Gillian K. Hadfield, Legal Barriers to In- novation: The Growing Economic Cost of Pro- fessional Control over Corporate Legal Markets, University of Southern California Law and Eco- nomics Working Paper Series, no. 76, at http://


law.bepress.com/usclwps-lewps/art76. 20


crisis.” 21


22


I remember one participant evoking advice he’d heard in another context “not to waste a


Legal Services Act, 2007, c. 29 (U.K.).


Milton Regan, Lawyers, Symbols, and Money: Outside Investment in Law Firms, 27 PENN STATE


INTL. L. REV. 407-439 (2009). 23


See generally SUSSKIND, supra note 2; Had-


field, supra note 19, at 1731. 24


“The Commission has ruled out certain forms of nonlawyer ownership that currently exist in other countries. In particular, the Commission rejected: (a) publicly traded law firms, (b) pas- sive, outside nonlawyer investment or owner- ship in law firms, and (c) multidisciplinary prac- tices (i.e., law firms that offer both legal and non-legal services separately in a single entity).” ABA, Discussion Paper on Alternative Law Prac- tice Structures, Dec. 2011, at http://www.amer- icanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/ ethics_2020/20111202-ethics2020-discussion_


draft-alps.authcheckdam.pdf. 25


Despite my intense curiosity to see how the


reforms in the United Kingdom and elsewhere play out, I do not mean to imply that I think American bar organizations should necessarily


follow suit. 26


I should note the exception of my ABA-re-


quired Legal Profession class, taught by Robert Rachlin. Although Rachlin could have rested on the laurels of a long and distinguished career, he had obviously made intense effort to keep abreast of emerging issues. I remember discus- sion in his class of metadata and the risks of of- fering advice over the Internet, or inadvertent creation of attorney-client relationships over the Internet. I don’t think I grasped it at the time, but I think he also noted the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure largely in-


tended to clarify discovery in the digital age. 27


See, e.g., EDUCATING THE DIGITAL LAWYER (Oliver Goodenough & Marc Lauritsen eds., 2012), at chrome://epubreader/content/reader.xul?id=1.


38


THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • FALL 2012


www.vtbar.org


Preparing for the Increasing Pace of Technological Change


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