Futurelawyer

Law Firm Cybersecurity - It's Job One.

Legal Fuel - Guide To Law Firm Cybersecurity. Legal Fuel is a great free resource for Florida lawyers, and lawyers everywhere. This free download is a great guide to keeping law firm data secure in the cloud environment where we all live these days. ALPS Insurance provides the guide, which includes just about every cybersecurity risk modern lawyers face. From Vishing to Phising to Password security, to Public WiFi, to Two Factor Authentication, to Ransomware, this is an essential guide to essential knowledge that every lawyer today needs to stay functioning. Print it, read it, and read it again. Forewarned is forearmed. 

Meet Lou - The LexBlog AI Blogging Assistant.

LexBlog Lou. Kevin O'Keefe has never been one to let grass grow under his feet. He was the grandfather of blogging platforms for lawyers in the early 2000s, and now has the world's largest legal blog publishing platform, LexBlog. Now, leveraging the new AI phenomenon known as ChatGPT, he has created an intelligent assistant that will save blogging lawyers hours of time in creating compelling blog posts that showcase the legal knowledge of the brightest lawyers on the planet. I am very interested to see how Kevin and his crew create an enhanced blogging platform, and plan to follow the progress closely. Congratulations, Kevin. First again.

Kevin O'Keefe Explains Generative AI.

Okay children, I have been talking about ChatGPT a lot lately, "generative AI" for the computer scientists among you. Okay, none of us are computer scientists; but this description of generative AI by my mentor, Kevin O'Keefe, is a clear and concise as you will find. You need to understand this stuff. This truly is the next great advance in computer technology, and its reverberations will be felt until every one of us is dead, and long after. We are on the cusp of an era of truly intelligent machines, which promises to change the way we work, the way we live our lives, and the way we describe our futures. Learn this stuff. Use it. Play with it. It is fundamental.

 

ChatGPT-4 Knows Who I Am.

I asked ChatGPT 4 who I am. This is the reply:

"Rick Georges is an attorney, legal technology expert, and writer based in Florida, USA. He has been practicing law for over 50 years and has extensive experience in civil litigation and appellate law. Georges is also known as the "FutureLawyer" and is a prolific legal blogger, writer, and speaker who focuses on the intersection of law and technology.

Georges has been recognized as one of the ABA Journal's "Web 100" and one of the "50 Most Influential Legal Bloggers" by LexBlog. He is a pioneer in legal technology, having been an early adopter of electronic case management systems and other digital tools for legal professionals.

Through his blog, FutureLawyer, Georges shares his insights and knowledge on legal technology, digital tools, and other emerging trends that are changing the legal profession. He is also a frequent speaker at legal conferences and events, where he shares his expertise on topics such as e-discovery, cybersecurity, and cloud computing in the legal industry."

Maybe legacy isn't a pipe dream after all? Not.

A New Blog By Kevin O'Keefe - AI In Publishing.

AIInPublishing. Kevin O'Keefe, the Godfather of blogging, has a new blog about the use of generative AI in blogging and other professions that deserves attention. Kevin introduced the FutureLawyer to blogging in 2005, and has been a leading light in technology for many years. He has recognized, along with the rest of us who have been around a long time, that ChatGPT from Open AI, and its competitors, including the heavyweights, such as Microsoft and Google and Amazon, that this will be a sea change in the way humans interact with computers and the Internet. In his words:

"AI is a tool, no different than a PC marking the advance from typewriters, which marked the advance from pen and a paper. Perhaps just a more uncomfortable advance."

But, oh, what a tool it is, and will become. The human like responses from a computer interface will change the way we interact with computers; and already is. I have added a step to my computer research in many areas. I am able to judge the responses; just as I would a very smart human colleague. I can amplify, direct, seek additional facts, make corrections, and otherwise act as an author/editor, before I put my final touches on a blog post, or article, or pleading, or list of questions or issues. Publishers of all kinds will find their work enhanced by these very intelligent computer assistants. In future decades, this advance will be looked upon as a natural successor to the beginnings of the creation of an alphabet. I plan to follow Kevin's blog. Will you?

It May Be Time To Revisit Microsoft Bing, With Open AI Added.

Make Microsoft Bing And Edge Your CoPilot For The Web. I have been enjoying playing with Open AI's chatbot, Chat GPT, and have already speculated about its possible replacement of many drafting tasks for professionals like lawyers. Now, Microsoft has done a very smart thing, and has integrated ChatGPT into its browser, Edge, and search engine, Bing. Google and Chrome have announced a similar project, Bard; but, they are late to the party. I am going to check out Edge and Bing, and see whether it is time to replace Chrome. Anyone else thinking of doing this? Whichever you choose, we are on the cusp of a new day for knowledge professionals. Lawyers, are you paying attention?

LexBlog Aggregates The Smartest Lawyers In The World, And Provides Their Content For Free.

LexBlog. My friend, Kevin O'Keefe, owns and operates the largest aggregator of online legal content in the world. He maintains and publishes blogs for the leading legal lights in just about every area of law you can name. But, more than that, he aggregates and highlights the blog content, and provides them free, via email, to anyone who chooses to subscribes. This link is what I got today in my email box, and covers current developments in the Corporate Transparency Act, current cases in facial recognition, antitrust, and ESG legal areas, and much more. These blog posts are a detailed and current discussion of cases and statutes by the legal experts in their field. It is a win win, because lawyers and consumers get the benefit of learning what is currently going on, and the lawyers who post get visibility for their firms and websites. LexBlog content is a great place to start in any legal research project, and, along with Google Scholar, Anylaw, and other free legal research sites, provides an amazing archive that has more value every single day. If you are a practicing lawyer, you need to go to LexBlog and subscribe to the email service. Thanks, Kevin, and thanks, LexBlog. You are the cutting edge of legal research on the Internet.

 

FutureLawyer Connects To The Internet Anytime, Anywhere.

T-Mobile Home Internet. Your intrepid legal technology researcher, the FutureLawyer, is always looking for new and better ways for today's tech savvy lawyer to connect to the Internet. Access to the Internet has become essential to the practicing lawyer, and I will be discussing the various ways to do it at next year's Florida Bar Convention. But, if you follow this blog, you will get periodic updates ahead of time. Currently, I pay $135 a month for a Starlink antenna on the RV, which gives me reliable Internet access on the road, anywhere in the continental U.S., at speeds between 35 Mbps and 200 Mbps. I pay $99 a month for a Spectrum cable home internet subscription that averages over 400 Mbps, and I have a cellular 5G modem from T-Mobile that averages around 100 Mbps. All of these speeds are fine for broadband Internet streaming and general Internet usage for many devices. Of course, I don't NEED all of these ways to get to the Internet; but, I am willing to spend a couple hundred dollars a month to let my readers know what to expect, and I like having options. Cable Internet can be spotty during storms. Starlink dishes need an unobstructed view of the Northern sky, and the RV version is deprioritized when there are a lot of home units competing for access. The 5G signal isn't as fast as cable, so it can be limited if there are too many devices on the network. All that said, I have signed up for a home Internet modem from T-Mobile, which promises whole home wireless access for $50 a month. This access is limited to a fixed location (your home or office), but the data is unlimited. My cellular modem works wherever I carry it; but, access is limited to 100 Gigabytes a month. I will, in the coming months, be using all of these methods, and comparing access speeds and reliability. The point of this exercise is to make you aware that we are approaching a world in which broadband Internet is available to all.

Stay Connected Anywhere With Starlink.

The Committee on Technology will be doing an all day seminar again at the Florida Bar Convention next year. I have convinced the Committee to allow me to do an update of last year's Traveling in an RV and remote lawyering. I will be focusing on the rapid advances in tech for keeping connected on the road. As an example, I am loving Elon Musk's Starlink system, which gets better every day. I mounted the dish on the top of the RV and, when I pulled in to my spot this afternoon, I connected power, and immediately had broad band Internet at 32 Mbps up, (normally 152 Mbps, which is enough for a full household of Internet, and TV streaming. We have two TVs, with Roku sticks, 2 computers, 2 Smartphones, and various other stuff going on. I won't be doing too much work this week, as we are going to have some fun; but, I brought scans of documents from a new probate matter, and I might work on the documents a little. The cool thing about Starlink is that, when it is fully deployed, users can literally have broadband Internet anywhere in the world.

Hurricane Knocks Out Power And Phones? Starlink Survives.

The power is back on at the office, and the Starlink dish on the RV came through fine. If I had had to use it when the power went out to the office and RV, I could have used a power bank, or the RV generator to get Internet access even if the cell phones were down. The winds weren't too bad at the office, topping out at 85 to 90 mph, and the dish was fine. I suspect that, as these things proliferate in the future, Starlink will become the preferred emergency Internet access system. Thanks, SpaceX.