Can robots be lawyers? Computers, lawyers, and the practice of law by Dana Remus and Frank Levy published by SSRN (2016).
We assess frequently-advanced arguments that automation will soon replace much of the work currently performed by lawyers. In doing so, we address three weaknesses in the existing literature: (i) an insufficient understanding of current and emerging legal technologies; (ii) an absence of data on how lawyers divide their time among tasks; and (iii) inadequate attention to whether computerized approaches to a task conform to the values, ideals and challenges of the legal profession. Combining a detailed technical analysis with a unique data set on time allocation in large law firms, we estimate that automation has a measurable impact on the demand for lawyers’ time, but one that is less significant than popular accounts suggest. We then look ahead to future developments through a series of three questions. First, what is the likely path of technical innovation and diffusion in an unregulated market? Second, what are the benefits and adverse consequences of such a path? Third, to what extent can regulation reduce the adverse consequences of new technologies without reducing their benefits? Throughout the discussion, we ask how computers are changing – not simply replacing – the work of lawyers.
Data-driven Innovation for Growth and Well-being – INTERIM SYNTHESIS REPORT – published by OECD (2014).
“Data-driven innovation and its contribution to economic growth 1. For many businesses and governments across OECD and its Partner economies, techniques and technologies for processing and analysing large volumes of data, which are commonly known as “big data”, are becoming an important resource that can lead to new knowledge, drive value creation, and foster new products, processes, and markets. This trend is further referred to as “data-driven innovation” (DDI)…”
Economic Analysis for Lawyers by Henry N. Butler, Christopher R. Drahozal, Joanna Shepherd publisher by Carolina Academic Press (2014).
“This casebook is designed to help law students and lawyers learn the principles of microeconomics. A quick review of the table of contents reveals that economics concepts provide the organizational structure of the book. Instead of organizing around substantive areas of the law, it follows the building block approach used in most successful principles of economics textbooks. This proven approach to teaching economics differs from other law-and-economics casebooks that tend to focus on applications of economics to legal issues rather than teaching economics. After fifteen years of teaching economics — often to law students, law school professors, lawyers, and judges — I am convinced of the pedagogical advantages of this approach. For the many law professors who share this view and have been forced to supplement principles of economics textbooks with cases, I believe that this casebook offers a more convenient and coherent alternative…”
