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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

Pillsbury—Lord Garnier KC

Pillsbury—Lord Garnier KC

Appointment of former Solicitor General bolsters corporate investigations and white collar practice

Hall & Wilcox—Nigel Clark

Hall & Wilcox—Nigel Clark

Firm strengthens international strategy with hire of global relations consultant

Slater Heelis—Sylviane Kokouendo & Shazia Ashraf

Slater Heelis—Sylviane Kokouendo & Shazia Ashraf

Partner and associate join employment practice

NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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