Alan Larkin writes for Solicitors Journal (August 2019 issue). Advising a roomful of senior lawyers from disparate firms that they needed a god in their heads to succeed with innovation is unorthodox but it grabs attention. Besides, I think it’s true. Metaphorically, of course. My workshop opener was enthousiasmus – the Greek root of our
Alan Larkin writes for Solicitors Journal (February 2019 issue). Stockholm, October 2018. I’m at the IBM University Analytics conference, sitting in on an analytics session, surrounded by data scientists. What possible relevance could data analytics have for English family law? The journey that took me to Stockholm began two years earlier when I obtained a
Alan Larkin writes for Solicitors Journal (January 2019 issue). It struck me, at the end of a recent strategy team day, that the word ‘honesty’ had inserted itself on flip charts and peppered our discussions, alongside the usual suspects of ‘trust’ and ‘vision’. Honesty towards clients, colleagues, legal peers in other firms and with oneself.
There appears to be an increasingly cold wind blowing for lawyers who fail to embrace new ways of working and promote more constructive dialogues between divorcing couples, as demonstrated by two very different court reports that were released in the last few weeks. ABX v SBX This was an English decision in matrimonial finance proceedings.
In my experience, there was been a reluctance to employ new technology to improve how legal firms do business. The President of the Law Society (in England and Wales), Christina Blacklaws, has made it her business to change all that. “I want solicitors to take a positive approach and see the evolution of technology not
Alan Larkin, Head of Innovation and Technology at Family Law Partners, has been invited to speak at the Alternative Legal Management Summit 2018 and the Alternative Legal IT Conference 2018. Two of the leading events in the legal technology sector, the events are organised by Alternative Events and are this year taking place in Birmingham on
On 11th October 2017, a submission of evidence I made to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) was published. Sitting alongside a number of other evidence-backed papers considering the economic, ethical and social implications of advances in AI, I wanted to be clear about the impact and opportunity on my field,
Global tech powerhouse IBM has published a case-study detailing Family Law Partners’ use of its data-analytics platform IBM Watson. Published online, the case study showcases the innovative approach to data analytics that Family Law Partners has taken to help clients decide which resolution method best suits their unique circumstances. The firm see innovation in technology
I attended the workshop on AI and Legal Practice that took place at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL) 2017 last week together with my colleagues Sam Paul and Alan Larkin and Dr John Kingston of the University of Brighton. The conference attendees for the workshop comprised a roughly equal mix of
I have previously written about the desire of Family Law Partners to push the boundaries of innovation and legal practice. I described it in terms akin to “desire” and “obsession” that suggest a clinical condition rather than a business development objective. There is much hype, even within the quiet corridors of lawyers’ practices about innovation