The potential of legal analytics, with a focus on courts: a talk by Daniel Lewis

On Thursday, May 18, IE Law School hosted ieLawX, a day of talks and roundtables discussing the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and law. The second talk was given by Daniel Lewis, Stanford Law alumni and co-founder and CEO of Ravel Law, a legal analytics startup. Lewis used his time on stage to discuss the potential of this field, especially as applied to the courts.

Lewis started by reminding us that law “has never been more important or complex,” which makes the proper use of technology in the field an absolute must. We now rely on data to do machine learning—the more data we have, the better our systems. However, he noted that AI requires not only a large volume of data, but good data.

Lewis then gave us a portrait of the current state of legal tech. He explained that law has actually been minimally disrupted by technology in the past—software hasn’t really taken over any difficult legal task, because a lawyer’s job is so complex. Lawyers write, draft, complete administrative tasks, advise, invest, communicate with clients… and many of these tasks cannot be automated. As opposed to the other speakers at this event, Lewis actually believes that AI predictions are overhyped, at least when it comes to the next five or ten years. For now, AI will only make a lawyer’s life easier.

According to Lewis, the primary advantages of AI can be broken down into three areas: prediction, automation, and standardization. He explained that with the current technology, we can use data to determine risk and make other predictions in cases. However, he doesn’t find prediction technology extremely effective quite yet. We can also turn a case law into statistics, making complex models on how courts will rule based on what influences judges. If lawyers understand this, they can automate the argument, starting a case “not with a blank page, but with an outline of what has worked on this judge in the past.” Lastly, with the help of data, judges will begin to recognize the variation in their decisions (from case to case and also compared to other judges), and this will help make judges more systematic and standardized in their decision making.

IE Law School hosted this event to promote their core values: an innovative approach to legal education and a dedication to incorporating technology into the legal field. IE Law Students are given the tools and encouragement to not simply keep up with the times, but rather to lead the way in legal innovation.