Scribd
Upload
6K views1 page

Legal Tech Evolution 1970-2020

Over the past 50 years, legal technology has advanced significantly from basic word processing and case law research to today's sophisticated artificial intelligence, cloud computing, mobile applications, and social media integration. Some key developments include the introduction of Lexis and Westlaw in the 1970s, the launch of the first personal computers and laptops in the 1980s, the rise of the Internet and web browsers in the 1990s, smartphones and social media in the 2000s, and most recently a focus on cybersecurity, alternative legal service providers, and the use of technologies like blockchain, predictive coding, and chatbots.

Uploaded by

Martha Sperry
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
6K views1 page

Legal Tech Evolution 1970-2020

Over the past 50 years, legal technology has advanced significantly from basic word processing and case law research to today's sophisticated artificial intelligence, cloud computing, mobile applications, and social media integration. Some key developments include the introduction of Lexis and Westlaw in the 1970s, the launch of the first personal computers and laptops in the 1980s, the rise of the Internet and web browsers in the 1990s, smartphones and social media in the 2000s, and most recently a focus on cybersecurity, alternative legal service providers, and the use of technologies like blockchain, predictive coding, and chatbots.

Uploaded by

Martha Sperry
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

FIFTY YEARS OF LEGAL

TECHNOLOGY We’ve Come A Long Way

1971 Fed Ex introduced 1 Overnight


1973 Lexis dedicated UBIQ
terminal for caselaw search 9 Delivery, Dial
Up Research &
1975 West version, Word
headnotes only, using dialup 7 Processing
1975 Electric Pencil, first
WP software

1978 WordStar software


0
introduced

1979 Wang’s first dedicated


WP unit

1979 Fax machine


introduced
1981 IBM’s first PC & Osborne’s first laptop
Metadata, first included in
docs in the 60s, first Records begin being consolidated electronically
referenced in FRCP in the 70s
1984 Apple’s first Mac
Spreadsheet software & Lawyer-specific software
(depo searching, doc assembly, outline creators,
contacts & calendars, DBs for doc indexing)
PCs, Cell Howherald
would you
1985 LANs (local area networks) network
Phones & respond
drives & intraoffice sharing. Also toofthis
the advent the
Pagers 1 firm helpdesk particular question?
1988 Pagers and cellphones
9
1992 Windows 3.1 & LAN
YES
use proliferated

1992 IBM’s first


8
smartphone - Simon
MS Office suite of 0
applications developed
Scanning & OCR & paper to
digital conversion &
production commenced
Windows, Ask Jeeves instructed users to ask questions, introduced
1995 Mosaic browser natural language search
released for the World Wide
MS Office
Are you 100%
Web, surfing the Internet & Internet 1996 Palm’s Palm Pilot PDA
sure about this?
began
1997 SixDegrees, the first social media site
Bulletin boards & listservs Are you 100%
AOL Instant Messenger launched
connected strangers over sure about this?
common topics 1 Term “weblog” coined
Lawyers created online 1998 First blogging platform Open Diary launched
communities
9 Blackberry’s glorified pager & ubiquitous mobile email device
Ecommerce picked up, law firms slow to adapt
9 Screen scraping, workflow automation & AI development
paved way for robotic process automation
Is this a regular Was it a licensed
part of your diet? 0 Term “Internet of Things” coined
horse dealer?

Blackberries
& Blogging
2001 Info governance focus
Social In 1995, less than 1% of
in wake of Enron scandal
people had internet
2002 Social Media site Media,
Friendster Podcasting
2003 Social Media site & ESI
Myspace

2003 Type Pad &


2 2007 iPhone introduced & mobile computing was born
2008 Android operating system released
WordPress blogging

2004 Facebook
0 Portals & extranets developed
West KM for knowledge management
2004 Term “podcasting”
coined
0 Hackers, viruses & SPAM increased
IoT was born - more objects connected to Internet than
2005 YouTube
2005 TAR computer-assisted
0 people

2009 Blockchain & Bitcoin digital currency


review & predictive coding
2010 IBM Watson, first NLP system, launched &
2006 Twitter fascination with AI ensued
iPhone,
2006 ESI in the FRCP Android & Robotic process automation emerged

Artificial In 2011, 35% of US adults have


Mobile, Intelligence
Smartphones
83% of US adults have Cellphones
Voice
Assistants
& Cloud

2010 iPad Legal Chatbots appeared

2011 Siri smart voice


2 Legal startup market grew & conferences
assistant started featuring or focusing on tech

Cloud computing took off 0 2016 Microsoft, LSC & Pro Bono Net piloted
state legal access portal - A2J became a focus
2012 Microsoft buys
Skype 1 Smart contracts, first proposed in 1994, gained
interest
2012 Duty of tech
2016 Legal hackathons a thing
competence in Ethical rules

2014 Alexa
0 2018 EU strengthened data protection with
GDPR, US followed on state level
2015 Mandatory Tech CLE
2018 LegalTech investment & acquisitions A2J,
Legal analytics tools boomed Hackathons,
developed (Edge, Advance,
Context, ROSS, Premonition, 2018 Legal tech podcasts increased Blockchain
KIRA, LexMachina, RAVN) Alternative Legal Service providers on rise & Data
Security

You might also like