In an effort to expedite the most promising e-solutions and platforms that can help access to justice in the era of COVID-19, the Premier has launched a new online portal to give businesses and their employees an opportunity to propose solutions.
The portal is available at ontario.ca/ontariotogether and FOLA encourages anyone in the legaltech space to have a look!
Your one-stop shop for all sorts of online practice resource options!
The Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX), through the CCTX Data Exchange, provides a current, focused view of cyber events directly impacting Canadian business, along with mitigation options and tools to combat identified threats. By aggregating data on threats, vulnerabilities and risks and analyzing this information to produce pertinent, timely and actionable intelligence, the CCTX adds value that it shares with participants. The CCTX Collaboration Centre is a forum for exchanging best practices, techniques and insights. FOLA joined in early December 2019.
The World Legal Summit (#WLS2019) was a multi-party, two step initiative that brought jurisdictions together to learn and explore the development of legislative frameworks for dealing with emerging technologies, and related global systems. FOLA played a small role in this amazing inaugural event and we look forward to future Summits!
There are many issues that lawyers need to be aware of as we adopt new technologies and integrate them into our practice. When interesting reports get published, we think you should know!
THIS IS NO JOKE! WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
According to Statscan's Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime, in 2017, 21% of Canadian businesses reported that a cyber security incident affected their operations.
Cyber attackers are no longer limited to traditional entry points like employee mobile devices and laptops. They are now attacking companies through every entity that interacts with their business systems, including your clients and providers of business services.
Don't become part of that 21%! FOLA has some handy resources that we encourage you to check out.
Clio's Legal Trends Report provides an annual account of the most important issues faced within the legal profession.
By analyzing the aggregated and anonymized data of nearly 70,000 legal professionals in the US, in addition to extensive survey research, Clio, the leader in cloud-based legal technology, is able to report on unique insights into law firm efficiencies, hourly rates, and other key metrics for success.
Blockchain & the Practice of Law
As the role of technology increases within the legal industry, the question of how and in what ways it can best be used in the practice of law is of top concern among lawyers in all practice areas. From predictive analytics to machine learning, the message is clear: technology will underpin innovation in legal services in an increasingly rapid evolution. And yet, there is one type of technology that frequently makes its way to the top of trending conversations—blockchain.
And now, FOLA has you covered!
Ryerson's Legal Innovation Zone (LIZ) is a co-working space and the first legal tech incubator with a focus on building better legal solutions for the consumers of legal services.
There are currently about a dozen companies active in the Zone and the LIZ boasts over a dozen up and running alum. The companies are all either looking for users or testers in the legal community.
Who better to turn to than a LIZ startup?
TechSoup Canada is a program of the Centre for Social Innovation, and a member of the TechSoup Global Network. They can connect your Law Association to donated and discounted technologies through their tech donations program and provide valuable learning resources to equip you and your colleagues with tech tips and best practices.
FOLA is a member!
Did you know? FOLA is a member of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium!
GLBC organizes and aligns global legal industry stakeholders to enhance the security, privacy, productivity, and interoperability of blockchain technology. Furthermore, GLBC adopts policies that promotes a universal blockchain-based technology infrastructure for law.
More than 160 organizations are involved with the GLBC in creating these standards and governance. Several of them are collaborating and creating blockchain-based solutions.
GLBC VIDEOS TO GET YOU STARTED!
Whether you’re a law firm and want to help your lawyers become better versed on the subject, or a corporate legal department with an IT ready to take the leap into blockchain, this 90 minute course will cover it.
To stay current on all things tech and blockchain, follow @WorldHackathon on Twitter. It's a great resource!
PEER TO PEER JUSTICE
If you agree that existing dispute resolution technologies are too slow, too expensive and too unreliable for an online real-time world, you're sure to be interested in Kleros! Kleros is a fast, inexpensive, transparent and decentralized claim adjudication system.
What is Kleros? It's Peer-to-Peer Justice that uses crowdsourcing and blockchain to put the dispute resolution process in the hands of the community.
What is GROWL?
GROWL stands for the Global Rise of Women in LegalTech. Launched in advance of the 2019 Global Legal Hackathon, GROWL supports up-and-coming women leaders in legal innovation around the world. GROWL will be fully integrated with this year’s Global Legal Hackathon, providing an enhanced track for women-led
teams.
HOW DOES GROWL WORK?
A globally-located panel of senior women leaders in the legal industry drawn from The Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, will support the hundreds of women-led teams expected to participate in tech events with an unprecedented global network of mentors, tools, and resources to accelerate and amplify their efforts to evolve and improve the world’s legal industry. Participation is voluntary, and there is no cost.
The CCTX, through the CCTX Data Exchange, provides a current, focused view of cyber events directly impacting Canadian business, along with mitigation options and tools to combat identified threats.
By aggregating data on threats, vulnerabilities and risks and analyzing this information to produce pertinent, timely and actionable intelligence, the CCTX adds value that it shares with participants. The CCTX Collaboration Centre is a forum for exchanging best practices, techniques and insights.
FOLA joined in early December 2019.
Cybercriminals do not discriminate: 61% of data breach victims in 2017 were businesses with under 1,000 employees.
People will avoid doing business with you: 64% of customers say they’re unlikely to do business with a company that has experienced a sensitive data breach in the past. Honestly, you probably wouldn’t either.
You could be experiencing a breach right now: On average, 68% of breaches took months or longer to discover. You could be experiencing a breach right now and you might not find out until months from now.
The CCTX offers a variety of value-added information sharing and analysis options including cyber alerts, an ability to anonymously submit and receive threat intelligence, threat conference calls, participant surveys, membership meetings, and educational events.
In addition, members can gain valuable insights and information from other CCTX Subscribers by participating in Communities of Interest and Communities of Trust. These communities are forums for professionals to interact to solve their cyber problems by exchanging best practices, techniques and insights.
SPECIAL CYBERSECURITY PILOT PROGRAM
CyberSecure Canada has launched a CyberSecure Certificate Program for small and medium sized businesses.
If your firm would like to participate in the Pilot Phase, you should contact the CyberSecure Canada team at: ISED-ISDE@canada.ca.
Once your business is certified by an accredited certification body under the CyberSecure Canada program, ISED will issue your certification mark.
As cybercriminals, hackers are looking to steal as much data as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, so what better target is there for them than law firms?
With access to your systems, they can potentially steal confidential information from you — including your firm’s private data and the privileged information that’s connected to your clients. Nothing is safe if you’re vulnerable and we understand that this is a huge concern for you.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a member-based not-for-profit organization, best known for managing the .CA internet domain on behalf of all Canadians, developing and implementing policies that support Canada’s internet community and representing the .CA registry internationally.
They have published a recent survey to provide insight into the Canadian cybersecurity landscape and understand just how Canadian businesses are preparing and coping with the new IT security reality.
THE RISE AND FALL OF AI AND ALGORITHMS IN AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) released an important Issue Paper in October 2020 analyzing the potential use, impact and regulation of AI, algorithms and automated decision-making in Canadian criminal proceedings.
The LCO’s paper, The Rise and Fall of Algorithms in American Criminal Justice: Lessons for Canada, is the first of three LCO Issue Papers considering AI and algorithmic decision-making in the Canadian justice system.
A recent Globe and Mail series, Bias Behind Bars, highlighted how risk assessment in Canada’s federal correctional institutions is racially-biased. In the United States, risk assessments are now often performed by AI or algorithms. The expansion of AI or algorithmic risk assessment tools in American criminal justice has been called "breathtaking." The LCO paper provides an important first look at the potential impact and regulation of “algorithmic risk assessments” from a Canadian perspective.
The LCO identifies important legal, policy and practical issues that Canadian policymakers and justice stakeholders should consider before these technologies are widely adopted in this country and summarizes ten important lessons, including:
• Racial Bias and Data Discrimination
• The “Metrics of Fairness”
• Data Transparency
• Data Accuracy, Reliability and Validity
• Risk “Scoring” and Automation Bias
• The Distinction Between Predictions, Law and Policy
• Best Practices in Risk Assessments
• The Need for Public Participation
• Algorithmic Accountability
• The Limits of Litigation
The LCO identifies many unexplored, unregulated and poorly understood issues respecting data, discrimination, algorithms and the law. The paper concludes with a comprehensive analysis of law reform issues and options.
Here is a copy of their Executive Summary and you can click on the button below for the full report.
WORTH THE READ!
The Law Society of Ontario has published a very thorough Technology Task Force Review which FOLA encourages you to download and read.
The Report addresses:
1) supportive tech that helps lawyers in their practice such as AI, Blockchain (notably smart contracts), & cloud computing and storage, online dispute resolution, and “big data/analytics; and
2) legal tech that serves the public.
All aspects of legaltech are covered (AI, the Blockchain, Microtargeting Merketing, GDPR, etc).
A summary of key priority regulatory considerations & questions can be found on p.406, regulatory options for innovative legal services delivery methods (including direct-to-public legal tech) can be found on p.415, and regulatory options for facilitating tech innovation within the legal professions can be found on p.416.
Next Steps for the Technology Task Force
The Task Force will continue to meet regularly and work towards the objectives outlined in
this report. It intends to report periodically to ensure that the public and the legal professions are aware of and engaged with the issues and ideas it is considering. The Task Force welcomes input from all those interested in these issues.
If you would like to join FOLA by serving on an Technology Committee, please email Katie at katie.robinette@fola.ca
The World Legal Summit (#WLS2019) was a multi-party, two step initiative that brought jurisdictions together to learn and explore the development of legislative frameworks for dealing with emerging technologies, and related global systems.
#WLS2019 focus areas:
Toronto's Part Two was brought to us by Clio, practice management platform, and was hosted in their offices downtown.
This e-zine, created in partnership with Legal Business World, is a collection of insights from the WLS community and ecosystem experts. It showcases what the World Legal Summit is all about, surveys legal frameworks across all world regions, and shares perspectives on key areas of technology governance and important topics.
Check out the winner of the Global Impact Award, the Intenet Bar Organization (IBO) for their work on the ValiData solution.
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