Technology innovations and artificial intelligence tools have generated much discussion this year. There have been many truly amazing uses for AI demonstrated and many of the tools we currently use are now adding AI components. This is a perfect time to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2024, scheduled February 14-17, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The Oklahoma Bar Association Event Promoter…
Continue Reading A Great Time to Get Ready to Attend ABA TECHSHOW 2024

In private practice, I was threatened several times, always related to domestic and protective order cases. I didn’t consider any of them serious and took no action. But that was decades ago. Today we need to appreciate that threats must be taken seriously. Have you had a conversation with all of the people who work with you on how to…
Continue Reading Some Specific Steps to Take If You Receive a Threat

Technology advances change many things. A few decades ago, most lawyers would likely have rejected the idea that it would ever be a good idea to record a conversation between an attorney and a client. There would have been numerous philosophical objections and practical

objections, including the cost to transcribe the recordings. Many readers, no doubt, would still agree with…
Continue Reading Can Lawyers Legally and Ethically Record Conversations with Clients Using Artificial Intelligence – and Should They?

“Lawyers have hated passwords since passwords first made their appearance,” some of my colleagues recently wrote. So true.
Emerging AI tools mean it is easier to crack passwords. So, the standard advice for strong passwords is now at least 15 characters, with requirements of upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, symbols and maybe a drop of blood (OK, not really.) The…
Continue Reading Passwords Are a Major Annoyance of the Digital Age. How to Cope.

This month the Oklahoma Bar Association Journal has a legal ethics themed issue. We believe in sharing with others in the profession. So you can access the entire issue as a PDF or use the handy index of the Table of Contents to select the articles you wish to read online. https://www.okbar.org/barjournal/august-2023/  Two of the articles cover AI and…
Continue Reading Ethics Articles in August Oklahoma Bar Journal

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. ChatGPT, along with other artificial intelligence (AI) tools, has dominated the conversation about cutting-edge technology and legal technology tools during 2023. The reactions have ranged from “the most entertaining thing on the internet” to an incredible new tool that will change society in a positive way to a corporate tool that will allow companies…
Continue Reading ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence and the Lawyer

Our Digital Edge podcast Generative AI and Copyright: Collision is Inevitable tracks the fact that copyright lawyers is buzzing with the rising possibilities of AI-related legal matters. Is this a major concern in our current era of blossoming AI technologies? Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway welcome Vedia Jones-Richardson to get her expert opinion on a variety of legal questions arising…
Continue Reading Generative AI and Copyright: Collision is Inevitable (Podcast)

Office Sharing Arrangements with Other Lawyers was the subject of American Bar Association Formal Opinion 507, released July 12, 2023.
The opinion “addresses some minimum ethical requirements and suggested practices arising in the office sharing context, particularly in the areas of confidentiality, conflicts of interest, supervision, and communications concerning a lawyer’s services.” It notes that when lawyers in an office…
Continue Reading The Ethics of Office Sharing Arrangements

Suppose next week begins with one of your top paralegals or legal secretaries giving you two weeks’ notice. Maybe they are moving to another location or another local law firm. But now you have an opening to fill.
The first response is not about filling the position. First, you must determine if there are any matters the employee is working…
Continue Reading Law Firm Staff Hiring Procedures. More Complicated Than They Used To Be

As we enter the Artificial Intelligence Age, there is a lot to think about in many aspects of law and society. I encourage you to read Brian X. Chen’s piece in the New York Times Don’t Use A.I. to Cheat in School. It’s Better for Studying. (Gift article link.) The power of the emerging AI tools cannot be denied.
Continue Reading New York Times Piece on Using AI to Study Rather Than to Cheat has Great Lessons for Lawyers

Attorneys need to know about ChatGPT and other AI tools because your clients will use them and at some point there will be a legal issue. So it’s important to understand the basics.
Some lawyers tell me they have never heard of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool from OpenAI, released late last year. I read dozens of posts and articles…
Continue Reading A Non-Hysterical Guide to ChatGPT for Lawyers

I must confess that, although the Attorney at Work website is one of my top resources, some posts there by Analog Attorney. Call it “digital bias” if you will. But sometimes the pieces seem to strain to do something the traditional way, even when digital methods are preferable.
That is noted because I want to encourage you to read “…
Continue Reading What’s the Best Legal Pad for You?

Prepaid legal fees and refundability of those fees was the subject of American Bar Association Formal Opinion 505. Yesterday I did a blog post about that and noted it tracked the opinion of the Oklahoma Supreme Court released in Oklahoma Bar Association v Weigel, 2014 OK 4 (2014).
This is probably a good time to note that this…
Continue Reading Thoughts on Availability Retainers and Subscription Legal Services After ABA Formal Opinion 505