There is an immediate need in our community to disseminate legal knowledge without the exorbitant price tag attached. To respond to this gap, there has been an influx of new legal apps in the Canadian market. While these services serve the much needed goal of providing access-to-justice to consumers by offloading the financial burden, researchers shed light on the serious privacy concerns that form the adverse side of such innovative technology.

A team of researchers from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law assessed legal apps from a privacy lens and compiled guidelines to subvert the confidentiality issues that arise when using such apps [1]. While many mobile apps are susceptible to weak privacy protection barriers, the researchers flag legal tech to be at the forefront of these issues. Many of these apps collect highly sensitive personal information in order to provide assistance, with little attention to safeguarding the privacy of its user from unauthorized third-party collection, or without due attention to the compliance with privacy laws.

Additionally, consumers are often not made aware that while lawyers may design these apps, the confidential information shared on these apps are not protected by solicitor-client privilege. This privilege, while sacrosanct between a client and their lawyer, does not extend to algorithms.

Many of these apps are developed by legal professionals or students with the intent of solving socio-legal issues, but who often lack the requisite computer science know-how to truly build in adequate privacy measures. A number of these apps are not monetized initially and therefore not under the purview of governing privacy legislation. As such, the authors found that at the inception stage of many apps, there is little awareness or implementation of legislation such as PIPEDA.

The authors warn consumers about freely sharing private information on such apps without conducting proper due diligence with respect to the security measures available. The authors advise the legal community participating in the legal-tech sphere to contemplate the importance of adhering to and implementing privacy guidelines at the design stage of building legal apps.

While legal apps are essential in bridging the access-to-justice needs in our community, it is important to engage in these projects with the ultimate goal of protecting the identity and information of its users. If privacy measures are only contemplated at the commercialization stage, it is already too late.

[1] Teresa Scassa, Amy Salyzyn, Jena McGill and Suzanne Bouclin, Developing Privacy Best Practices for Direct-to-Public Legal Apps: Observations and Lessons Learned. (2020) 18:1 Canadian Journal of Law and Technology.

The post Legal Apps – A Double Edged Sword appeared first on FCL LLP.

The Buy-In: Legal Innovation as a Firm Strategy
By Samah Rahman

There are certain tried and tested traditions in law which have come to characterize the practice: the late nights in board rooms closing deals; the glossy-eyed hours in document review; the painstaking calculations measuring each word to craft the most erudite factum; the infinite rabbit-hole of research to uncover the most poignant legal loophole, all the while trying to strike the perfect balance of rate to hour ratio that appeases the client and bolsters the firm’s bottom line. And like all traditions, there is a sense of comfort in resorting to these familiar rituals; but the reality is, while times have changed, the practice of law has not. But if it ain’t broke, why innovate? Because clients demand efficiency; and, the competitive business of law demands that firms stay ahead of the tech-curve.

To discuss these ideas, the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum congregated on March 5, 2020, bringing together professionals working at the intersection of law and technology. This year’s forum focused on how to harness legal innovation to respond to the increasing client expectations and competition in the field. The core objectives of the forum were:

• To provide legal practitioners with context, information and guidance on how to define and evolve their innovation strategies;
• To encourage collaboration in the legal sector to tackle the toughest challenges it and the businesses they support are facing. And leveraging opportunities linked to these challenges; and,
• To build a national network of innovators focused on invoking change in the legal sector and aligning with business trends in the Canadian economy.

A running theme that emerged from the eight panel discussions was the idea of top-down resistance towards product-driven or process-driven innovation. Another obstacle identified was the conflict between target billings and the investment in innovation that may undercut billable hours. Finally, the panel identified the lack of time allocated to learning and innovating as another impediment to change.

The solutions proposed by leading innovators in the field, unanimously began with the concept of the buy-in. Talent driven innovation is possible and necessary when an individual or group champions the push to innovate, sells the idea, and induces the buy-in to make innovation a team strategy. It typically goes like this: these internal champions introduce the process or product, create transparent channels to educate and monitor the progress, and the firm sees results, believes in the innovation and adopts it in their practice. There has to be complete buy-in of the innovator mentality by the firm and its people so it can permeate through all levels to create a leaner practice.

Key takeaways from the forum to implement innovation as strategy are:

• To honestly identify the pain-points in practice, and take a flexible approach in locating vendors who can create solutions;
• To procure technology that benefits the entire organization at all levels;
• To ensure vendors are able to customize the technology to cater specifically to the practice;
• To vet the technology, and then to test the technology beyond demos to ensure suitability of integration within the firm fabric.

Legal innovation is talent driven. The forum affirmed that the onus is on the entire team to identify areas of improvement, but specifically challenged students and new lawyers to apply their fresh eyes to call out the inefficiencies in practice, and canvas the market for solutions. The dialogues to innovate are beginning now – streamlining practice may reduce billable hours, but leaves space to build volume and improve client satisfaction. It is imperative for both the practice and business of law to recognize the traditional models of practice need not be venerated. It’s a new day; and we should implement innovation as a team strategy to revamp the tired practices of law.

The post The Buy-In: Legal Innovation as a Firm Strategy appeared first on FCL LLP.