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Fellow JD here. I have to disagree with you re: viability. Not only does most of our work lend itself well to automation (discovery, researching precedent, and

Fellow JD here. I have to disagree with you re: viability. Not only does most of our work lend itself well to automation (discovery, researching precedent, and predicting case outcomes), but this particular startup is aimed squarely at the most obvious domain where humans mostly aren't needed anymore: formulating contracts. Translating boilerplate legalese into natural language and running both parties through checklists of essential elements seems like an obvious solution to an expensive problem. I really don't see why 99% of contracts can't be automated outside of high-level practice. Nor do I really understand your examples. I can't recall the last time anyone I know hired a lawyer to sign a rental agreement, nor do I see any reason why contract software wouldn't first check that both parties are legally competent. Finally, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea that "if you automate our profession, our protectionist guild will go after you." You're not wrong, and it would be wise for LawGeex to stay wary -- of all trades, the lawyers are going to fight tooth and nail to stay relevant -- but startups like LawGeex or RocketLawyer are clearly far more in the public interest than our ludicrously expensive middleman services. We may as well ban self-driving cars because the Teamsters want to keep dangerous, error-prone human truckers.

will_brown 12y ago
>I can't recall the last time anyone I know hired a lawyer to sign a rental agreement I know the OP was talking about residential leases; however, in the span of ~3 years I would say I have been retained ~100 times to review/negotiate/revise commercial lease (rental) agreements. The real value would be comparing the results of LawGeex with a lawyer's legal opinion for the same contract. Even then, it is easy enough to say one could compare 2 attorney legal opinions of a contract and have drastically different opinions, or that while a LawGeex contract review may be identical to an attorney on one contract, it may not on another.
joshuaheard 12y ago
Yes, you would have to have some sort of questionnaire for the user to complete, along the lines of the TurboTax wizards or legal document assembly software, with questions based on the algorithm's analysis of the contract. I didn't see anything like that on the website, but it is certainly doable. At the moment, the website is only accepting residential real estate contracts which is why I used them as an example. As a member of the State Bar of California, I can only wish it acted as a guild protecting my interests. Quite the contrary, it has an adversarial relationship with its members from overseeing the attorney discipline system to enforcing continuing education rules. It is more about consumer protection than attorney protection. I see your point, though.

will_brown 12y ago

>I can't recall the last time anyone I know hired a lawyer to sign a rental agreement I know the OP was talking about residential leases; however, in the span of ~3 years I would say I have been retained ~100 times to review/negotiate/revise commercial lease (rental) agreements. The real value would be comparing the results of LawGeex with a lawyer's legal opinion for the same contract. Even then, it is easy enough to say one could compare 2 attorney legal opinions of a contract and have drastically different opinions, or that while a LawGeex contract review may be identical to an attorney on one contract, it may not on another.

joshuaheard 12y ago

Yes, you would have to have some sort of questionnaire for the user to complete, along the lines of the TurboTax wizards or legal document assembly software, with questions based on the algorithm's analysis of the contract. I didn't see anything like that on the website, but it is certainly doable. At the moment, the website is only accepting residential real estate contracts which is why I used them as an example. As a member of the State Bar of California, I can only wish it acted as a guild protecting my interests. Quite the contrary, it has an adversarial relationship with its members from overseeing the attorney discipline system to enforcing continuing education rules. It is more about consumer protection than attorney protection. I see your point, though.