Legal Learning

This Smokeball CLE webinar, presented by attorney Jordan Turk (Director of Education at Smokeball), tackled one of the most consequential shifts in legal technology: the move from generative AI to agentic AI, and what that means practically and ethically for solo and small firm attorneys.From passive tools to active agents. Jordan opened by distinguishing "OG" generative AI — a request-response model that answers a prompt and stops, requiring the lawyer to direct every step — from agentic AI, which plans, uses tools, executes multi-step workflows, and self-corrects toward an end result with minimal human intervention. The shift was illustrated with a family law example, as Jordan is a practicing family law attorney. Where generative AI might draft a parenting plan and then wait, an agentic system could retrieve the case file, draft discovery responses, check jurisdiction-specific rules, and hand back a complete package ready for careful attorney review and signature. Jordan framed this

Is there a report to list what fees have been paid using FeeWise only

As legal professionals, I know we all have the same determination to avoid disciplinary action. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s true of the Smokeball user base, since smart lawyers use Smokeball and all that. But with some folks, I guess you can’t be too sure.Disorderly Conduct is a series that I’ll be posting on alternating Wednesdays until some of my scandal-loving readers here decide they want to take it over. (It’s a post every other Wednesday about attorneys behaving badly! It might just be the most fun thing you write all week!) The purpose is not to make fun of attorneys. I don’t believe in kicking people when they’re down, nor do I believe in judgmental gossip for no purpose, no benefit. This series has very specific goals in mind, because we respect our lawyers and legal staff and, instead of wasting your time, we intend to provide something you find valuable, in addition to our product. I hope we can further refine and develop these goals in conversation, because we can defi

Over in the AI Sidebar Lounge, we are having a discussion that grew out of this post about the 4 lawyers that were disqualified from a MS case for not catching AI hallucinations in their briefs. ​@Monica K. broached including AI disclosure language in attorney-client agreements, and wanted to see some examples. I put together this post with a lengthy example of possible language for your agreements as well as a relatively plain language version for your website, and I’m interested in hearing how you address this issue and why, and what language you use, if any. Join the discussion! Do you prefer plain language? Mine obviously isn’t that, so contribute yours! AI is not leaving the legal landscape anytime soon, and as lawyers we find ourselves in the unique position of being able to shape AI rules for ethics and competence in real time. While state bars are putting out some reactive guidance, there is a real need for subject matter experts for practicing lawyers who are in the thick of i

This is INSANE. Has anyone seen this? Any Mississippi lawyers around to comment? I just read it this morning and was blown away.If you haven't heard of it, here’s the article. And here’s the opinion. Basically there is a case in MS federal court and both parties had hired out of state lawyers (I understand why MS wants that emphasized but I think it’s a silly distinction to make here given the actual story) and of course had local counsel. Out of state counsel apparently wrote the briefs, since it was likely “their” case, and the local counsel for both sides approved and signed the brief. Full disclosure, I have never had to do federal litigation in a federal court in a different state that I had to PHV into, since my practice is pretty local and I keep it that way. But I know that most federal districts require you to have local counsel, and they have to sign off on the briefs and many states require them to appear in person as well for at least some of the appearances. Here, out of s