A COVID Lit Funding Boom?, Predicting Client Needs, CA Bar Exam Misses Diversity Mark: The Morning Minute
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October 20, 2020 at 06:00 AM
4 minute read
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
LIT FUNDING FRENZY – The COVID-19 pandemic looks to be good for business…if you're a litigation funder. A new survey by Burford Capital found a 100% increase over the past three years in the number of in-house and private lawyers who reported that their companies and firms were using litigation funding, Phillip Bantz reports. Not only that, but a majority of the surveyed lawyers said litigation funding will be "increasingly critical" as legal departments look to reduce their costs amid the pandemic. Meanwhile, on Monday, Burford became the first litigation funder to be publicly traded in the United States, making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Dan Packel reports.
A CLIENT CRYSTAL BALL - Can artificial intelligence help law firms anticipate their clients' needs long before problems arise? Baker McKenzie is betting on it. The global firm has partnered with software developer SparkBeyond as part of an initiative dubbed Reinvent, Victoria Hudgins reports. Leveraging firm and third-party data, Baker McKenzie will use SparkBeyond's technology to predict what services clients will need, and what is driving that demand. The software will generate predictions of future risks for a client, then rank those risks based on their likelihood. While lawyers generally remain skeptical about the accuracy of artificial intelligence, observers say this type of program has a strong shot at widespread adoption.
CUT SO DEEP – A modest reduction in California's bar exam cut score won't do much to solve the Golden State's attorney diversity woes. A new study over 11 years' worth of bar exam data finds that the California Supreme Court would need to drop the cut score to at least 1350 to produce significant gains in minorities entering the state's lawyer ranks, Karen Sloan reports. California had the second-highest bar exam cut score in the nation until July, when the high court lowered it from 1450 to 1390. The study's authors conclude that a further reduction in the cut score would open the door to licensure for hundreds of lawyers of color without compromising public protections.
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