Copyright Margaret Hagan. Used with permission.
On February 7, 2014, over 800 people gathered in New York City to hear presentations on “reinventing law.” The presentations (which ran anywhere from 6 to 15 minutes long) covered a variety of topics. Some were theoretical, some were product pitches and some were reviews of tools and processes already being used. The day wrapped up with a longer talk by legal futurist Richard Susskind.
Given the large number of speakers and the variety of topics, it is impossible to fully review the events of the day. There was one thought expressed that really resonated with me – “being early often looks like being wrong.” This is something CALI has experienced first hand. For instance, declaring “The Year of the Electronic Author“….in 1996. It’s only now, almost 20 years later, that this seems like an actual possibility.
Our Executive Director, John Mayer, spoke at Reinvent Law about a CALI project that we think is actually right on time – A2J Author(R) and the A2J Clinic program. The short elevator description of A2J is that it lets legal aid attorneys and clinic students create guided interviews (similar to what you would experience in Turbo Tax) that allow individuals to create and fill out basic legal forms and documents.
Fortunately, John’s talk was video recorded, so if you weren’t in NYC and have six minutes to spare, you can still see it. LXBN storified the live tweets if you want to see the audience reaction and John’s slides are on Slideshare.