Add Real Christmas Cheer: Precision, Productivity, and the Tools Lawyers Deserve December tends to make lawyers reflective. Court calendars quiet down, inboxes slow just enough to allow thinking, and the year’s accumulated frustrations come into view: the documents that took too long, the numbering that fell apart at the worst time, the tools that promised…
How a Spreadsheet Changed the Law
How a Spreadsheet Changed the Law Long before cloud apps and AI, a humble program—Lotus 1-2-3—quietly changed legal work. A paralegal built a damages calculator that recomputed interest and totals whenever the facts moved. Partners called it “magic.” It wasn’t magic—it was structure: variables, rules, reusable logic. That spreadsheet was the prototype for document assembly.…
Should We Have Different Ethical Standards for Machines?
What if your legal assistant invented a case, a clause, or an argument—out of thin air? Imagine this: your legal assistant comes into your office with a draft pleading. It looks great—polished formatting, strong arguments, and even a few citations. But when you ask, “Where did this come from?” they shrug: “I made it up.…
The Lawyer-In-The-Loop (LITL™): The New Professional Standard for AI in Legal Work
The Lawyer-In-The-Loop (LITL™): The New Professional Standard for AI in Legal Work Why responsible AI in law requires a lawyer at the center—not the perimeter. Introduction For more than a century, every advance in legal technology—from dictation machines to computer-assisted research—has shifted how lawyers work, but never broached the essential question of who is responsible.…
AI Is a Tool. Judgment Is a Duty.
AI Is a Tool. Judgment Is a Duty. AI can draft a clause; it can’t explain why it matters—or what it costs when it’s wrong. Our position is simple: every client deserves a Lawyer in the Loop™. We’re inviting Bar associations to partner on a 60-minute CLE: Evaluating AI for Legal Work—Ethics, Confidentiality, and Informed…
The Judge, the Machine, and the Missing Lawyer
The Judge, the Machine, and the Missing Lawyer Why Mattox v. Product Innovations Research USA may mark the moment courts began defining Lawyer-in-the-Loop™. When federal judges invoke Rule 11(b), it’s never casual. That rule requires every lawyer who signs a pleading to certify that the filing rests on truth, evidence, and law—not invention. In Mattox…
When Word Loses Count: The Case for Sanity in Numbering
When Word Loses Count: The Case for Sanity in Numbering We thought Microsoft was fixing numbering in Word. Five years later, we checked… and Word numbering is still broken. So we’re fixing it again, with Snapnumbers™. If you’ve ever tried to number paragraphs in Microsoft Word, you already know the symptoms: You apply numbers to…
65+ Fake Citations: How AI Hallucinations Become Fabrications in Court
65+ Fake Citations: How AI Hallucinations Become Fabrications in Court Last year, lawyers filed briefs containing more than 65 non-existent citations in U.S. courts. At the same time, AI developers began publishing research on whether their models were actively “scheming” to conceal mistakes. If a human assistant behaved this way — fabricating authorities to win…
The Ownership Illusion: Why Client Data in the Age of AI Demands New Rules
The Ownership Illusion: Why Client Data in the Age of AI Demands New Rules It’s time for lawyers, law firms, bar associations, and others working with confidential information or subject to CCPA, HIPAA, or GDPR to look past hardware and encryption to address the basic issue: after data is shared with the cloud, who actually…
The Human Advantage: Why AI Will Always Need a Supervisor
The Human Advantage Why AI Still Needs Will Always Need a Supervisor Artificial Intelligence is fast becoming a fixture in legal drafting—from contract clauses to court filings. But as the tools evolve, a hard truth remains: AI doesn’t know what it’s saying. And it certainly doesn’t know what it means. Which is why lawyers—real lawyers—must…