The Top 20 Artificial Lawyer Articles of 2021

2021 has been another action-packed year for all those interested in legal tech, innovation and market change. The Top 20 most read Artificial Lawyer articles reflect this. First the rankings, then some thoughts on what they show.

  1. Icertis Sued Over Alleged Failings of CMS Implementation
  2. The New Legal AI Map
  3. Luminance Attacks Kira/Litera Deal In PR Battle
  4. Google Tells Artificial Lawyer About Its Contract DocAI Strategy
  5. Gartner Legal Tech Hype Cycle 2021 – Some Thoughts
  6. Deloitte + Thomson Reuters Form Inhouse Alliance
  7. Litera Buys Kira, Noah Waisberg Creates New Company Zuva
  8. What do corporate clients want from legal tech?
  9. How do you calculate ROI?
  10. Can LUPL become the legal world’s universal platform? (In-depth Interview with Duncan Weston)
  11. Clifford Chance Applied Solutions CEO, Jeroen Plink, Leaves – In-depth Interview
  12. EY Launches Core Law, A Flexible LMS For SMEs + More
  13. DocuSign/Clause Deal – A New Era For Smart Contracts
  14. OneNDA Backed by A&O, Linklaters, CocaCola, American Express + More
  15. How do you define legal tech?
  16. Legal teams need a single digital gateway
  17. PwC to Roll Out oneNDA for UK Clients
  18. CLOC Endorses SALI Standards In Important Step
  19. Kira’s Strategic Restructure Sees 20-Plus Staff Depart
  20. UK law commission gives smart contracts the green light

Some Key Themes

Platforms and Gateways – Two of the most read stories are about the need for connectivity in the world of legal tech and the desire to make life easier for lawyers working with multiple applications. Here we saw a piece by KPMG about the need for a single digital gateway, plus an in-depth interview with CMS partner, Duncan Weston, about Lupl.

Standards – oneNDA appeared twice in the Top 20, which shows that people are genuinely interested in this project to standardise simple contracts. The legal taxonomy project, SALI, also was in there, with its relationship with CLOC, the legal operations organisation.

The Big Four – These giants of the professional services world appeared several times, both on their own, e.g. EY Core Law, and in relation to working with others, e.g. Deloitte’s alliance with Thomson Reuters.

The Kira Deal – Kira Systems’ ‘interesting year‘ has gained a lot of attention. First there was the restructure, then the sale to Litera, swiftly followed by Luminance jumping in feet first and causing a stir. In fact, Kira got three stories in the Top 20 – which must be a record. But then, it’s probably one of the most well-known names that has come out of the ‘New Wave’ of legal tech and a lot happened for them in 2021!

Smart Contracts – The real world use of complex smart contracts at scale is still something that may happen in the future rather than a present fact, but readers are still fascinated by the subject. Smart contracts were in the Top 20 twice, first when DocuSign bought Clause, and then when the UK’s Law Commission decided there is no legal reason why lawyers and their clients cannot go ahead and use this approach.

The Reality of Legal Tech – There were also several think pieces and analyses that covered what can best be described as the ‘reality of legal tech’. These covered big questions such as: What is legal tech? And: How do you measure ROI? There was also a lot of interest in this site’s development of ‘The New Legal AI Map’, which is a taxonomy of NLP-driven tools used in the legal sector.

Taking Legal Tech to Court – And finally, Icertis and its CMS debacle. Even though this only happened a few weeks ago it has quickly become the most read story on the site this year. Why? Mainly because this kind of court case is very rare in legal tech land. It was also a glimpse inside the complexities of CMS/CLM implementation. Fascinating indeed, but let’s hope this is one thing that doesn’t become a trend.

Overall, what the Top 20 shows us is that the readers of Artificial Lawyer want impactful news, but they also want analysis, they want think pieces, and they want new ideas and insights into their sector and the challenges they face everyday. Hopefully this site manages to provide both the news you find interesting and gets into the thought-provoking interviews and explorations of the big topics that matter to you.

Thank you all for reading Artificial Lawyer and for being part of the global community that engages with this site in multiple ways and makes it what it is, I couldn’t do this without you.

P.S. Tomorrow is the last day ‘in office’. I’ll be taking a break over the Christmas and New Year holidays and will be back to normal publishing from Monday, January 10, 2022.

Thanks again for reading.

Richard Tromans, Founder, Artificial Lawyer

1 Comment

  1. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Richard, always thanks for this website. See you in 2022!

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