Random summer musings

A lot has been going on, most of which I am trying to ignore

It has been a while since I have written a substantive article. I have enjoyed a bit of a social media and Substack vacation this summer but do feel that I owe the paid subscribers who support my work some content. In this article, I write about various topics that I typically would have posted on LinkedIn as separate posts, if not for my extended LinkedIn vacation.

Thank you to everyone who makes this publication possible. This article is split roughly in half, with paid content in the second half.

Maintaining Wellness

When I wrote my book in late 2021, I was largely hoping that it would be the end of a difficult chapter and that life would be much smoother going forward. That has turned out not to be the case and, as a result, I am in the process of updating the book to provide a more accurate representation of the arch of recovery. The updates should be finished by the end of this year.

It has taken me quite a while to get a handle on my diagnoses, find the right medication(s), get comfortable with key treatment providers and craft a legal practice that works in my current circumstances. Fortunately, running my own law firm has given me the flexibility I need to make adjustments to my practice and I have found that focusing on fewer, larger mandates is much easier for me than juggling a high, commodity type file load. I always knew I did well working on trials, appeals and large investigations. I had not recognized why that was until recent diagnoses were identified and explored.

One of the significant changes that I have made, in addition to adjusting the type of work that I am doing, is to limit my focus and to cut out various distractions. It has also involved carefully considering my ideal client base, the side-projects I pursue and volunteer work. This Substack was on the potential chopping block as it does not really make me any money and is not really a core marketing tool for my business. However, I have decided to retain it as it scratches my itch for writing, sharing ideas and gives me an outlet to advocate about issues I care about. I also do not wish to completely disappear from public discourse, given some of the trends I discuss below.

One of the most positive influences on my health has been implementing a morning routine. I used to think the morning routine stuff that I saw on social media and read about in articles was a bunch of nonsense. That has proven to be far from the case. I used to start the day by sleeping in as much as humanly possible, rushing out the door and immediately getting to work. When my mental health is poor, mornings tend to be the most difficult and it can be very challenging to even get started. To deal with this challenge, I have intentionally slowed down my mornings. I now get up and do something enjoyable and productive - often spending time in our garden, stocking up our little road-side stand and/or doing some birding or photography. I also spend some time planning my day before going in to work. These little changes have had a significant impact on my mood and the sense of control that I have over my life. I do not check my work email until I get in to the office and have had a couple of relaxing hours in the morning.

If you are going through a challenging time, you may want to take a look at how you spend your mornings. This article from Psychology Today has some tips on getting started. I might dive deeper into this issue in my next blog for CLIA.

AI Adaptation and Use in Law Firms

Over the past few months it has been fascinating to me as a small firm owner to see the impact that AI is already having in the legal profession and for other white collar workers. We have explored a few tools internally at our firm and have had discussions about successful use cases and, importantly, poor use cases.

At present, the available tools are good at saving time, although often at the cost of quality. For a lot of tasks, we are incorporating AI but cautiously. There have been enough horror stories about it’s ability to hallucinate case law that it definitely cannot be relied upon currently for important legal research, factum drafting and opinion writing. However, it can be very useful as part of the initial information gathering phase of a complicated project. It can also be very useful to quickly reorganize information, deal with monotonous tasks and as a brainstorming tool. It does not, however, have the answers. Lawyers still need to use their brains and check the sources, read the cases, and consult trusted secondary sources of information.

Our firm has a wide mix of clients ranging from unsophisticated individuals to large institutions. We have found these clients are interacting with AI very differently. More than once, a less sophisticated client has run our opinion and advice through Chat GPT or similar tools to get a second opinion. One such tool advised our client that they would have a higher chance of success on their motion if we had argued Y. Unfortunately for the client, Y was not a possibility due to the facts of their case. At times, AI has caused a bit of friction between us and our clients and have led clients to trust our advice less.

I have found that AI tools like to agree with or satisfy the wants and needs of the individual inserting the information. Others have written about this more extensively. Part of giving legal advice to an individual is to let them know when they are wrong, when they face real risks, and how to reduce those risks. Going forward, it may become increasingly challenging to convince clients of the risks when the world’s best AI’s are telling them that their lawyer is rubbish.

As a litigation lawyer, I am very interested in seeing how AI conversations get dealt with through the discovery process. As Sam Altman of OpenAI has acknowledged, there is no currently recognized privilege that would protect inquiries sent to an AI from being discoverable in the litigation process. If the proper foundation is laid, I could imagine circumstances where a court would order production of information fed to an AI. I have not seen any cases yet in Canada, but am sure they are coming. Our cases do not often get to a size where extensive discovery motions are economical, but I am sure there must be some Big Law cases considering these issues as I write this.