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Keeping in touch with the future

13 April 2018 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7788 / Categories: Opinion , Technology
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Artificial intelligence, Big Law & cyber security. Roger Smith shares his takeaways from the British Legal Technology Forum

The British Legal Technology Forum 2018 filled the historic Billingsgate Market on London’s Thames to the gunnels last month. Around 1,200 delegates crowded in around a main stage, three subsidiary ones and exhibition space to get an update on latest developments. And Professor Richard Susskind, the guru of law’s future, curated a fitting line-up to meet their expectations. Long gone are the sceptics who argued that the legal profession would escape from the technological revolution pretty well unscathed: they have joined the cottage weavers and other deniers of history. But, the question of how it will impact is still open.

Perhaps the most telling element in the day was that hardly any speaker spoke of technological disruption of the market. There was none of the sense of angst that you can find, for example, at similar American conferences that the barbarians—in the form of unregulated providers of legal advice—might be lurking at

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Partner joins family law team inLondon

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Private client division announces five new partners

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Banking and finance team welcomes partner in London

NEWS
The landmark Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd—along with Rukhadze v Recovery Partners—redefine fiduciary duties in commercial fraud. Writing in NLJ this week, Mary Young of Kingsley Napley analyses the implications of the rulings
Barristers Ben Keith of 5 St Andrew’s Hill and Rhys Davies of Temple Garden Chambers use the arrest of Simon Leviev—the so-called Tinder Swindler—to explore the realities of Interpol red notices, in this week's NLJ
Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys [2025] has upended assumptions about who may conduct litigation, warn Kevin Latham and Fraser Barnstaple of Kings Chambers in this week's NLJ. But is it as catastrophic as first feared?
Lord Sales has been appointed to become the Deputy President of the Supreme Court after Lord Hodge retires at the end of the year
Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are reportedly in the firing line in Chancellor Rachel Reeves upcoming Autumn budget
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