Primary Law Isn’t the Only Law That Matters to AI

Clio’s CEO Jack Newton shared the importance of context in AI in a post today. “…[E]ven the most powerful model operates in a vacuum without proper context.”

Jack continued: “In legal that context includes statutes, cases, documents, emails, billing records, deadlines and countless other sources of information.”

Jack’s right that the model isn’t the point, the context is. But look at what could be missing in the context. The legal professional’s insight and commentary on the above items – particularly on the common law. What a new ruling means? How the law may be argued? How a document may be structured.

Years ago I asked our general counsel where he got his legal information online. He said a lot of it was via legal blogs. Certainly, not every lawyer was publishing a blog, but the ones who did were offering insight on things you couldn’t get from a case, code or ruling.

No question the veracity of what is shared in a legal blog, alert, white-paper or article is critical. But the verifying of such insight doesn’t need to be as difficult as you think.

The volume of this context is substantial. 980,000+ posts; 72,000+ legal professionals; and 4,400+ legal publications. And this is blogs only, and from one library, that is growing in sources and publication types.

Seems connecting minds, from around the world, will be important for context. Especially when it comes to access to legal information and access to legal services via AI.