Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

The Grand Jury in New York hearing testimony about Donald Trump’s role in paying hush money to a adult movie star is expected to reconvene today. Prosecutors could call additional witnesses or present formal charges, the final step before grand jurors would vote on whether to indict. On Saturday, the former President held a rally in Waco, Texas, in which he decried the “weaponization” of the justice system and alleged that the district attorney’s office was pursuing the hush-money case as a result of political pressure from Washington, D.C. The rally followed increasingly threatening rhetoric from Mr. Trump, who last week forecast “potential death & destruction” should he be indicted in Manhattan. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) stated on Sunday that the FBI had informed him about potential threats of violence due to an indictment. Also over the weekend, Republican chairmen of three House committees sent a letter to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in which they reiterated their request for information on the hush-money investigation. They said the House Judiciary Committee was considering whether to draft legislation that would insulate current and former presidents from improper state and local prosecutions.

 

ABC 7 News

CBC

Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a law that makes it a crime to encourage or induce illegal immigration. The case involves a woman who was convicted of violating the law after she gave her cousin money and a ride to the U.S. from Mexico. The woman's lawyers argue that the law is too broad and that it violates the First Amendment's protection of free speech. The government argues that the law is necessary to prevent people from profiting from illegal immigration. The case has implications for the rights of citizens to speak out on political issues and the government's ability to regulate immigration.

 

Reuters

Top tech companies, including Alphabet’s Google, Meta and Apple, want Congress to limit Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as they work to renew the law before it expires at the end of the year, according to reports. Under Section 702, the agencies can compel companies without a warrant to turn over communications, phone records and other data for national security investigations that target non-U.S. citizens living outside the country, even if the communications of American citizens are involved. There is a growing bipartisan consensus in Congress to not only renew the law but to make changes in response to a series of reports and internal audits documenting abuses. That has left the tech industry optimistic that broader reforms will get through Congress this time, according to two lobbyists who asked not to be identified relaying internal discussions.  

 

Bloomberg

According to John Villasenor, non-resident senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, AI is poised to fundamentally reshape the practice of law. The recent introduction of large language model-based systems such as GPT-3 and GPT-4 marks the first time that widely-available technology can perform sophisticated writing and research tasks. Law firms that effectively leverage emerging AI technologies will be able to offer services at lower cost, higher efficiency, and with higher odds of favorable outcomes in litigation. Mr. Villasenor argues that law firms will need to institute new training so that practicing attorneys can adapt to this new environment. Law schools should update their curricula to ensure that they provide law students with instruction in how to use AI writing and research tools, as these skills will be in high demand among recruiters.  

 

Brookings Institute

Bloomberg’s Parmy Olson writes that Twitter, TikTok and Facebook will struggle to keep up with a deluge of AI-generated images that are spearheading a new misinformation crisis and which puts the platforms in unprecedented territory. Last October, WhatsApp users in Brazil were flooded with misinformation about the integrity of their presidential election, leading many to riot in support of defeated ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. When Olson asked Twitter why it hadn’t properly labelled recent fake Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron images as they went viral, the company responded with a poop emoji, its new auto reply for media requests.

 

Bloomberg

eDiscovery vendor DISCO has unveiled a chatbot that it says will help lawyers take advantage of the recent advances in large language models and generative AI. The chatbot, called Cecilia, is expected to be commercially available in 2023 following a planned phased introduction to DISCO customers. Cecilia is designed to allow lawyers to ask natural language questions and receive answers with specific citations to supporting evidence in large-scale, private DISCO eDiscovery databases. 

 

Legal IT Insider

Australian legal tech startup Josef has unveiled a new no-code digital knowledge management tool designed to help legal professionals streamline their processes. The tool utilizes artificial intelligence to automate the organization and retrieval of legal knowledge and documents. The tool is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to legal professionals with limited technical expertise. The founder of Josef notes that the tool is part of a broader effort to make legal services more accessible and affordable for clients. The launch of Josef's innovative legal tech solution could represent a major step forward in the legal industry's utilization of AI and automation.

 

Business News Australia

David Wakeling, a partner at Allen & Overy, and head of the law firm's markets innovation group, says the company is using artificial intelligence on a "massive scale" as part of efforts to improve productivity. A&O has introduced an AI chatbot named Harvey to help its lawyers find efficiencies and Mr. Wakeling said there were 3,500 people using it in "so many languages across so many jurisdictions". He said Harvey was being used to help create a first piece of legal research or a draft of "weird provision which there isn't existing knowhow for". When asked at The Times Tech Summit whether Allen & Overy's adoption of the technology and its more efficient lawyers could mean a reduction in fees for clients, Mr. Wakeling said to "ask me again in a year". 

 

The Times

Utah has become the first U.S. state to require social media companies to get parental consent for children to use their apps and verify users are at least 18. Two bills will give parents full access to their children's online accounts, including posts and private messages. Under the measures, a parent or guardian's explicit consent will be needed before children can create accounts on apps such Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. The bills, which will take effect on March 1 next year, also impose a social media curfew that blocks children's access between 22:30 and 06:30, unless adjusted by their parents. Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, said: "We're no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth . . . As leaders, and parents, we have a responsibility to protect our young people."

 

BBC News

NBC News

NPR

New York Times

Attorneys representing a company in an antitrust case have been sanctioned by a federal judge in California for making an "unreasonable and meritless" request for attorneys' fees. The case involved a company that accused its rival of antitrust violations. After the case was dismissed, the company's lawyers requested fees for their time spent on the case. However, the judge ruled that the lawyers had not provided enough evidence to support their claim and that the request was frivolous. The judge also criticized the lawyers for submitting bills that were "excessive" and "redundant." Bloomberg suggests that the judge's decision to sanction the lawyers sends a message that attorneys cannot make baseless claims and waste the court's time.

 

Bloomberg Law

A group of pension and investment funds is suing Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives over their failure to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. The complaint argues that Meta's leadership and board failed to protect the company's and shareholders' interests by turning a blind eye to "systemic evidence" of criminal activity. Given the board's failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, "the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta's platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking," the complaint said. Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware.

 

Reuters