How is AI impacting the legal world? A conversation with Owen Byrd

IE Law School’s event ieLawX took place on On Thursday, May 18 with the aim of opening a dialogue about how artificial intelligence (AI) and law will affect each other in the future. Owen Byrd, Chief Evangelist (because he “goes out and spreads the good word” about this type of technology) and General Consul of Lex Machina, gave the third talk of the day. He used this time to explain how AI is affecting the legal world, and he used his own company as a case study.

Byrd started by explaining of evolution of Lex Machina. It started as a project at Stanford, when a patent law student proposed an idea to create a patent litigation database. He went out and got millions of dollars in donations, and the idea turned into a leading legal data company that would go on to bring legal analytics to all areas of law.

In the beginning, most customers used the analytics to develop a list of cases relevant for their use, so Lex Machina thought, what if we can develop this case list for them? They restructured their team, hired an engineer with experience in analytics and AI, and re-architected the product to make it more simple, flexible, and visually appealing. Using Lex Machine is easy: “if you can book a flight online, you can use this system.” All you have to do is plug in what you’re looking for (trademark cases, a certain judge, etc) and it’ll find cases to suit your needs.

So what are the takeaways from Byrd’s talk? Analytics is transforming most industries and professions, not just the legal field. The legal industry is going through some major changes, and absolutely must deploy technology to remain economically viable. Clients are demanding that lawyers be technologically competent, and law firms can win both business and cases using data and analytics.

Lastly, Byrd accepted some questions from the audience. For example, how can you persuade lawyers to warm up to technology? “Speak in language people can hear,” he told us. This is why Lex Machina actually coined the term “legal analytics”—to make it sound more simple. Furthermore, Owen advised legal tech companies to use pretty graphics, make it user-friendly, and design simple buttons and apps.

Byrd’s talk was perfectly in line with IE Law School’s values: a cutting-edge approach to legal education and a steadfast commitment to innovation. IE Law Students are encouraged to not only keep up with the curve, but lead the way in legal innovation, just like Byrd did with Lex Machina.