In part 1 of this article, we warned about the looming deadline of 25 May 2018, the date by which the GDPR becomes enforceable. Part 1 of the article dealt with the scope of the GDPR. It also discussed how the GDPR introduces one single set of rules that applies in the whole of the EU, what the lawful bases of processing private data are, and about parties’ responsibility and accountability.

In part 2 of this article, we will first have a closer look at the most important ‘Digital Rights’ the GDPR introduces: The Right of Access (art. 15), the Right of Correction / Rectification (art. 16), and the Right to Erasure (art. 17), and the Right of Data Portability (art. 20). We will next have a closer look at what changes in CICERO LawPack have been made because of the GDPR.

Right of access by the data subject (Article 15): As the name says, the Right of Access is a data subject right. It gives EU inhabitants the right to get access to their personal data and to information about how these personal data are being processed. Upon request by the data subject, a Data Controller must provide an overview of the categories of data that are being processed (Article 15 (1) (b)), as well as a copy of the actual data (Article 15 (3)). The Data Controller must also inform the data subject on the details about the processing such as: what the purposes are of the processing (Article 15 (1) (a)), with whom the data is shared (Article 15 (1) (c)), and how it acquired the data (Article 15 (1) (g)).

Right to rectification (Article 16) and the Right to Erasure (Article 17): As was the case under the old Data Protection Directive, the data subjects also have the right to obtain from the Data Controller the correction of inaccurate data, and the completion of incomplete data, without undue delay (Article 16). In a famous case, the EU Court of Justice had ruled in 2014 that EU inhabitants also had a right to be forgotten. In the GDPR, this right to be forgotten was replaced by a more limited right to erasure. Article 17 provides that the data subject has the right to request erasure of personal data related to them on any one of a number of grounds including non-compliance with article 6.1 (lawfulness) that includes a case (f) where the legitimate interests of the controller is overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data.

Right of Data Portability (Article 20): The British Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) summarizes the right to data portability as follows: [it] “allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without hindrance to usability. It enables consumers to take advantage of applications and services which can use this data to find them a better deal, or help them understand their spending habits.” The right applies both to data that has been ‘provided’ by the data subject, as well as data that has been ‘observed,’ such as information about their behaviour. The Data Controller must comply with the data subjects request, and must provide the data in a structured and commonly used Open standard electronic format.

The GDPR contains far more regulations, e.g., on data breaches (art 33-34), on the Data Protection Officer (art. 37-39), on sanctions and pseudonymisation, but those are beyond the scope of this article.

The GDPR and CICERO LawPack

To be compliant with the GDPR, parts of the core of CICERO LawPack had to be modified, e.g., in terms of encryption of the data. CICERO LawPack will also offer its users some additional functionalities.

The WebView portal will be enhanced so all registered parties in CICERO LawPack can log in and access the data that are stored or processed by the program. It will subsequently be possible to submit a request for rectification or erasure of this data, provided this is possible: there may be legal implications for pending cases.

CICERO LawPack users will have also additional options to delete user-specific data and will have the option to set up a policy that will determine which categories of data of which type of persons can be recorded in CICERO LawPack. This is done to ensure that only the data that are necessary for keeping a case file are recorded. It will be possible to generate a report that provides an overview of how the data are being used as a result of those policies.

As far as our cloud provider is concerned, a draft processing agreement has been prepared that is currently being tested. For hosting providers, it is possible that further adjustments may still be necessary to comply with the regulation, because in its current form, there are areas within the GDPR where it is inadequate or leads to unworkable situations.

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You may have heard of ‘agile’ law firms, or that law firms are being urged to become more ‘agile.’ What does it mean? And why would it be important for a law firm to be ‘agile’?

What is Agility?

The concept of ‘agility’ finds its origins in IT project management. In 2001, leading experts from the IT industry published the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This Manifesto contained 12 core principles, and a methodology and terminology for software development that were built upon these principles.

The Wikipedia defines it as follows: Agile software development describes an approach to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing cross-functional teams and their customer/end users. It advocates adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continuous improvement, and it encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

Agile Project Management uses its own terminology, which needs some getting used to, if one is not familiar with it. It uses terms, e.g., like sprint for a series of jobs, a user story for a group of tasks within a sprint, or a retrospective, which is an evaluation meeting with the purpose of diagnosing the achievements, failures, and missed opportunities of the sprint.

While these principles and methodology were originally conceived for software development, it immediately became clear that they could benefit project management in general. By now, about half of project managers are using the principles and methodology of agile project management.

Agile Law Firms

The Agile principles can easily be adapted and adopted for law firms and Legal Project Management. According to Ivan Rasic, “Agile refers to legal project management that encourages continuous improvement, collaboration, adaptation, team efforts and rapid delivery of valuable legal services.” Roya Behnia was one of the people who contributed to the Agile Manifesto for lawyers. She says an agile law firm focuses on:

  • continual collaboration with clients;
  • commitment to flexibility and rapidity;
  • direct communication rather than complex documentation;
  • continual focus on client goals;
  • realistically weighing risk; and
  • a strong bias toward simplicity.

Why is Agility important for lawyers?

Jim Hassett made the blunt observation that, like software developments, lawyers have clients who often change their mind. And you have to be prepared for that. Add to that that clients are also requiring their legal service vendors to prove they know how to manage projects, before they even decide to engage them. As ‘The Clever Project Manager’ points out, “Agility is the Way of the Present.” These days, customers expect instant gratification. And they expect that things will be on a path of constant improvement and zero issues, or they’ll look for alternatives. The only way to be successful in this world is to be responsive to your users needs and to be flexible enough to change your priorities when the market demands it.

In this context, agility means flexibility, “the freedom to make the right decisions at the right time, based on the right amount of information.(….) It means taking a ‘just-in-time’ approach to decision-making, based on data and reasoning. Flexibility allows adaptation which allows success; unnecessary rigor causes stagnation and failure in the long run.”

As such, agility is merely a reflection of reality. Accepting uncertainty, re-evaluating, adapting and reprioritizing ones efforts, based on changing conditions is essential, because that is how the world works: things change constantly. In essence, Agility asks us to take long-term changes in direction into account.

The purpose of agile legal project management is to add value for your clients by anticipating that your strategies will probably have to adapt to changing circumstances. By doing so, agile project management increases productivity, efficiency and profitability. It also improves communication in your team, and it improves delivery time, all of which result in happy clients.

Software like CICERO LawPack to manage your law firm is a necessary tool for agile law firm management, and contributes to flexibility, efficiency and productivity.

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The beginning of a new calendar year traditionally is a time where the experts publish reviews of the year that has been, and make predictions for the year that is starting. Let us have a look at what 2017 brought to the field of legal technology, and at some predictions for 2018.

Review of 2017

Legal Tech News published a slide show on the three technologies that redefined legal technology in 2017. They are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

2017 saw an increase of AI in the legal workplace. It is being used already in contract management, eDiscovery, cybersecurity, and in legal research. And some major law firms started using AI legal assistants. Robot lawyers and legal chatbots, too, frequently made headlines. And when it comes to the legal aspects of using AI, a court ordered that there should be more transparency in to how AI systems reach their conclusions, and that the algorithms they use must be published.

Bitcoin often was in the news, too. Its underlying technology, Blockchain, however is not just important for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but is already being used, e.g., for smart contracts that are made and executed automatically.

2017 also saw a growth of the Internet of Things, as more and more devices are being connected to the Internet. Not surprisingly, we also saw more lawyers embracing cloud technologies, with more than half of the US based lawyers making use of them.

When it comes to cybersecurity, the Internet has become a more dangerous place in 2017. There has been an increase in systems being hacked, in denial of services attacks, in malware and, notably, in occurrences of ransomware. What we’ve witnessed in 2017 was that IoT devices like webcams, printers, routers, etc. that are connected to the Internet, were being used in cyberattacks. As a rule, large law firms are targeted more often than smaller ones, and those law firms that operate in the cloud are typically the least affected by cybercrime.

In 2017, legal tech solution providers all focused on using technology to streamline law firm processes, be it eDiscovery or Law Firm Management, etc.

Finally, we also saw several courts going online.

Predictions for 2018

Virtually all authors agree that most of the trends of 2017 will continue in 2018.

One evolution we are already witnessing is in increase in the integration between the 3 technologies that dominated 2017. Cloud-based AI is being built into IoT devices, e.g. in the user interfaces, security, and data mining to make predictive suggestions. Smart and intelligent contracts are just one example of AI teaming up with Blockchain technology. We can expect to see a lot of progress on that front.

Many experts made predictions with regard to AI. They expect AI to become more practical and less visible. They also expect AI to become more ubiquitous. Better Natural Language Processing will lead to better and more intelligent user interfaces. We will also witness the integration of AI in web and mobile apps. The rise of machine learning and data mining solutions will continue. In 2018, we will also encounter far more legal and other chatbots. Overall, AI will have a pivotal role in communication and collaboration.

Experts also expect a shift in the way lawyers approach marketing. As they slowly become more familiar with cloud technologies and social media, lawyers are expected to start trying newer ways of marketing, to replace the more traditional approach. Client-centred communication becomes more important. And more lawyers will start using marketing automation software.

When it comes to software for law firms, authors predict a further automation of practice and workflow processes. The efficiencies in the delivery of legal services brought about by innovation and technology will only increase. In 2018, the implementation of “smart automation” will deliver the most immediate results to organizations.

As far as cybercrime and cybersecurity are concerned, the experts expect more of the same. We will see that the IoT will be used more often for criminal purposes, which will make the challenge to remain safe online tougher. The experts also predict that cybercriminals will start using more AI to be able to stage more sophisticated attacks. One alarming evolution is the increase in fake professional social media profiles that are being used by cybercriminals. Because of this increase in cyberthreats, more lawyers are expected to increase their cybersecurity budget in 2018. They are looking into securing their physical network, as well as their information. More lawyers will start using encryption in 2018.

Many experts also predict that more lawyers will start using more cloud-based solutions in 2018.

And we can expect more courts to go online.

 

Sources:

According to the College of Representatives of the NOvA, the intention to digitally prosecute in the spring of 2018 is not achievable. There needs to be a wider planning that gives more time for the evaluation of the pilot.

The pilot for civil commercial matters in the arrondissements of Gelderland and Central Netherlands started on September 1st and would be evaluated after 3 months to roll out throughout the Netherlands. However, the NOvA believes this is too short to complete all procedures. In addition, not only digital issues should be handled, but also hearings, substantive assessments and judgments must be tested. So far all cases are still in the initial phase. As soon as this pilot is rolled out nationally, KEI will be extended to other jurisdictions.

In spite of the above message, the KEI developments in CICERO will continue. We are currently in the test phase.

The new Onedrive functionality in CICERO’s DMS application is ready. And what does this mean for you? What are the benefits of Office 365 in combination with OneDrive?

– Microsoft now gives Office 365 users “unlimited” OneDrive storage.
– Files are automatically saved in Onedrive.
– Access to OneDrive on all devices, so your data is within reach, always and everywhere.
– Securely share files with colleagues, partners and customers; you decide who can see and edit.

As you may know, since April 1st, 2017, the payment of advances for VAT quarterly declarations has been abolished. This to simplify the administration of VAT legislation. However, you will have to pay a December advance (if any), as is usual for VAT monthly declarations.

The December advance is:
1. Either equal to the VAT due in the period from October 1st to December 20th,
– If payable VAT > deductible VAT: You fill in the difference in grid 91 (to be paid before December 24th).
– If payable VAT ≤ deductible VAT: You fill in 0,00 in grid 91, you do not have to pay an advance.
2. Either the VAT you had to pay for the third quarter VAT declaration.
– If this declaration is a payable balance (grid 71): You must pay this amount before December 24th and don’t fill in an amount in grid 91 of the fourth quarter declaration.
– If the third quarter declaration results in grid 71 = 0,00 euro or grid 72 (credit): You do not have to pay an advance and don’t fill in 0,00 in lane 91 of the fourth quarter declaration.

You can choose which system you apply.

Source: https://financien.belgium.be/nl/ondernemingen/btw/aangifte/periodieke_aangifte/verplichte_voorschotten

2017 has marked yet another milestone in legal history: in the last months, we have seen the arrival of the first online courts. Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and China all have projects with online courts that are either already operational or in the process being developed.

The first online court ever was established in British Columbia, Canada. Since 1 June 2017, a few hundred small claims disputes have been heard and resolved entirely online. Any civil small claim dispute with a value of up to $5,000 can be handled by British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal via the internet.

“It is the world’s first online dispute tribunal, that is tied with the public justice system,” says British Columbia’s Justice Minister Suzanne Anton. “If you can take these minor matters out of a court room, you free up the court room for important criminal matters and more difficult matters that courts are suited for handling.”

Another advantage is that an online court makes the justice system more accessible. “I think people are intimidated to go to court,” says Professor Kenneth Thornicroft. “Most people have access to an online system, you can go to most public library and get access and deal with the dispute on your own time, you’re not locked into the times of the courts.”

Soon afterwards, the UK also launched its first pilot project for “new digital procedure for money claims under £10,000”. The project started on 31 July 2017 and will last 28 months, i.e. until 30 November 2019.

At present the project is in a “private beta” phase, and is only available to eligible users by invitation only. From January 2018 on, the project will go to “public beta”, meaning it will be opened up to all court users with an appropriate claim. It is expected that HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) will be providing face-to-face assistance to the half of people signed up to it who are expected to need help with filling in forms.

In a lecture, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton said that the “online solutions court should be seen as a template for securing now and over time in the future the critical object of greater access to justice.” He added that the court would operate in a problem-solving way. “It will be problem-solving in the sense that the Online Court through stage 1 and 2 of the process will help the parties find the appropriate solution to their dispute.”

In September 2017, Ireland’s Supreme Court also started moving a significant portion of its work online, as part of a push to bring more of the courts system onto the internet. The plan is that all applications for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, including the filing of documents and the delivery of decisions, will take place online. It is hoped this will be the first step in bringing huge amounts of the appeal process, at all levels, out of the courtrooms and onto the internet. Chief Justice Frank Clarke said it will take about a year before the first online case is considered.

Another online court that is already operational can be found in Hangzhou, China. It handled its first case on 18 August 2017. The court operates with a judge and a jury. It hears cases regarding online shopping, microfinance loans, copyright infringement, product liability and related issues. Cases can be filed entirely electronically in a matter of minutes. When the case is handled, it is live streamed, and parties can present their arguments via video conferencing. The court uses technologies like face recognition, Speech Recognition Systems, and artificial intelligence to draft judgments.

Most experts agree that the arrival of online courts can be good thing in as far as it 1) can simplify access to Justice, and 2) can speed up procedures. As mentioned above, the organizers of the UK pilot project anticipate that half of the people using the system will still need assistance while filling out the online forms. This, however, is an area where intelligent bots have already proven that they can play a useful role, too. So, we can expect even more of the procedure to be automated.

Sources:
• blog.rossintelligence.com/online-courts-are-open-for-business-f67a7666e018
• blog.rossintelligence.com/are-you-a-master-of-moving-forward-e2344bc07463
• www.theverge.com/tech/2017/8/18/16167836/china-cyber-court-hangzhou-internet-disputes
• www.cheknews.ca/small-claims-disputes-b-c-resolved-online-291317/
• www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/plan-28-month-online-court-pilot-emerges-mr-foresees-live-streaming-court-appeal
• www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/significant-portion-of-supreme-court-s-work-to-move-online-1.3234984

Mark Cohen recently published an interesting article in Forbes Magazine on The New Legal Career. He observed how legal careers have evolved in three significant ways: 1. legal practice is now the delivery of legal services; 2. technology brings lawyers back to basics; and 3. legal delivery presents great opportunities. It’s worthwhile exploring these evolutions further.

Legal practice is now the delivery of legal (and other) services

For centuries, consulting a lawyer was equal to consulting an expert, who could give advice, and perform specific tasks, including legal representation, in his or her field of expertise. In the last few decennia, all of that has changed. Law practices are more and more being run like businesses, and as a result focus more on the delivery of legal services. And their activities are no longer limited to just legal services. As Mark Cohen points out: “legal delivery has been transformed into a three-legged stool supported by legal, technological, and process expertise. “We are dealing with” a structural and process change that involves the interaction of professional expertise, technology and process to leverage and scale the delivery of professional services.”

A while ago Deloitte published the results of its survey on “Future Trends for Legal Services.” One of its key findings was that the market for legal services is moving and growing. Another one was that the expectations that customers had of their legal services providers were evolving and expanding, too. The report concluded that there was a need for a new type of legal service provider.

The same sentiment was echoed in an article, published in May 2017, in Law.com, on “The 12 Core Competencies that Define the Future of Legal Operations”. The author concluded that, these days, the consumers of legal services expect law firms to also be proficient at:

  • Strategic planning;
  • Financial management;
  • Vendor management;
  • Data analytics;
  • Technology support;
  • Alternative support models;
  • Knowledge management;
  • Growth and development;
  • Communications;
  • Global data governance/records management;
  • Litigation support; and
  • Cross-functional alignment.

This implies that the traditional advice that lawyers should develop a singular deep expertise (i.e. an I-shaped profile) is outdated. Instead, lawyers should look to combine a legal expertise with a broader skill set (i.e. a T-shaped profile), which includes effective interpersonal and negotiation skills, business understanding and judgment, and empathizing with and understanding client’s psychological needs.

The Role of Technology

Lawyers have an unprecedented access to new technologies, like law firm management software, eDiscovery, Artificial Intelligence, and others, which are available to assist them in their profession. These technologies enable, i.a., lower cost delivery, budgeting, fee analysis, rapid communication, and understanding companies and industries.

In the last year, there has also been a dramatic proliferation in intelligent legal chatbots, and robot lawyers, which are offering legal services. While these may seem to be competing with law firms, it is worth pointing out that this type of automation takes over certain tasks, not jobs. With the currently available technology, only 23 percent of a lawyer’s tasks can be automated.

The result of these technological evolutions is that they allow lawyers to focus on more essential tasks, like engaging with clients, exercising professional judgment, providing counsel (not just in legal matters but more holistically), engaging in client representation before tribunals, or negotiating key commercial transactions.

The advanced use of technology has another beneficial effect: by increasing efficiency and productivity, Legal Tech helps make the law more affordable, and therefore more accessible.

Legal delivery presents great opportunities

Several of the articles mentioned above showed how law firms are confronted with a new demand for both legal and non-legal services.

Mark Cohen: “The new legal career presents a wealth of opportunity for those that combine practice excellence, ‘contemporarily relevant’ skills (process and project management, marketing, business basics, etc.), and people skills. (…) A proliferation of delivery models, products, markets, and opportunities will result in the creation of new jobs, new collaborative opportunities, and a global marketplace.”

The changing market offers other opportunities, as well. In the last 5 years, e.g., there has been a 484% rise in Legal Tech patents. Worldwide, 579 patents relating to new legal services technology were filed worldwide in 2016, up from just 99 patents in 2012. Many of these were filed by lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs. An interesting article in Entrepeneur magazine, on 14 June 2017, mentions 10 such examples of lawyers who are creating a revolution in Legal Tech:

  1. Haley Altman created Doxly, an automated document and transaction management platform
  2. Noory Bechor founded LawGeex, which specializes in AI contract review
  3. Ned Gannon created eBrevia, which provides contract due diligence and lease abstraction
  4. Michael Mills started Neota Logic Inc, an AI-driven, no-code platform for intelligent automation of expertise, documents and processes
  5. Chrissie Lightfoot founded Robot Lawyer LISA, a Legal Intelligence Support Assistant (AI)
  6. Nehal Madhani started Alt Lega to manage global IP filings
  7. Joseph R. Tiano created Legal Decoder, which provides analytic tools and data to manage costs of outside counsel
  8. Michael Sander founded Docket Alarm, which provides legal search, analytics and litigations alerts for the United States court system
  9. Andrew Arruda co-founded, Ross Intelligence, an AI legal assistant and research tool, leveraging IBM Watson
  10. Noah Waisberg started Kira Systems, which helps enterprises identify, extract and analyze business information from unstructured contracts

So, where does CICERO LawPack fit in this picture? The latest version of CICERO LawPack was designed for law firms as legal service providers. The technological solution we provide boosts your efficiency and productivity, which allows you to focus on what matters. It also offers you additional flexibility to allow you to pursue new opportunities. In short, we’ve got you covered!

 

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The combination of cloud technologies and mobile devices have profoundly changed the way lawyers work. Over the years, lawyers have started using their mobile devices more and more for professional purposes, while they’re not at the office. Law firms can now be accessible to lawyers and their clients from anywhere, 24/7. While this has led to the emergence of virtual offices, those are still a minority. Instead, what we have witnessed is the rise of the mobile law firms. Unlike virtual offices, mobile law firms still have physical offices but you don’t have to physically be in them to be able to work. Using cloud technologies, they offer the convenience and flexibility to work securely from anywhere and at any time. In 2017, the vast majority of lawyers are telecommuting, or mobile lawyers.

Let us have a look at some statistics from the latest survey published by the American Bar Association:

  • 94% of lawyers reported “regularly or occasionally using a mobile device for law- related tasks at home,” while 91% reported they also regularly use their mobile devices while in transit.
  • 33% of lawyers telecommute at least once a week. Solo and small firm lawyers were the most likely to do so, at 39% and 35% respectively.
  • Surprisingly, mobile devices are the most popular devices used at the office: 70% reported using smartphones, 66% use desktop computers, 51% use laptop computers, and 25% use tablets. (61% of solo lawyers mainly use laptops at work).
  • 40% of lawyers are using specifically legal apps on their smartphones, with legal research apps being the most popular. (Note that these apps exclude the apps that are part of their legal practice management software).
  • 40% also have downloaded general business apps to their smartphones, with document storage apps being the most popular.

A survey by Legaltech News revealed that lawyers mainly use mobile devices for increased productivity and increased flexibility.

The main tasks they perform online are practice management tasks. In 2017, most providers of law firm management software offer solutions that use cloud technologies, allowing lawyers to work from anywhere, 24/7. They use these mobile tools mainly to access their mail, their calendars, their contacts, and their case files. Other popular practice management functions include time tracking, billing, and expense tracking.

Mobile lawyers also use mobile apps for legal research, to store and share documents in the cloud, to work with PDFs, to scan documents and handwritten notes, to dictate and take notes, and to organize and present evidence. Many lawyers also have a legal dictionary on their smartphones.

The latest version of CICERO LawPack was rewritten from scratch with the mobile law firm in mind. Using cloud technologies, you and your clients can have access to relevant information from anywhere, at any time. You have the option to use your own server, or to use our hosting services.

All our apps can be used with a browser, so they work flawlessly on desktop computers and tablets. Based on feedback from our users, we also created web versions of our apps that are further optimized for smart phones (which typically use smaller displays):

  • The Webmail links mails to the case files, and allows you to instantly log the task or the time spent.
  • The Joblogger lets you quickly log the tasks you’ve performed in case files.
  • The Relations app lets you retrieve and add contact information.
  • The Tasks app gives you an overview of items on your calendar / agenda.

All documents created in CICERO LawPack’s DMS of are at your disposal. The CICERO Webmail and CICERO Webdoc apps, both of which are part of a standard CICERO LawPack installation, also allow iPad users without Microsoft Office to still read and edit all documents.

If you haven’t tried it yet, why don’t you ask for a demonstration?

Sources:

…if you place a structured statement on your sales invoice +++ / ++++ / +++++, CODA automatically submits the incoming payment completely correctly?

…you can instantly apply a payment difference when you are refining in Financial? It saves you time afterwards and the balance on debtors is correct right away.

…you can also use CREMBL for registered shipments? Upload your document online and click ‘Submit’. Your shipment will be printed and (registered) delivered on time to the recipient.