In one of the more debated lines in English literature, Dick the Butcher, a character in Shakespeare’s “Henry VI, Part II,” said, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Some argue the line shows Shakespeare’s disdain for lawyers, others that, because Dick was engaged in a nefarious plot, the line is actually commentary about how necessary lawyers are. Fast-forward four centuries, and technology brings a new twist to the necessity for lawyers: The development of assisted review technologies, including predictive coding.
Predictive coding — the use of computer algorithms by lawyers and technologists to classify legal case documents in an iterative (repetitive) process — has triggered debates about the roles of technology in the law and of lawyers in society. Some lawyers see predictive coding as a modern Dick the Butcher — dangerous to the practice of law — as attorneys read headlines like: Will Computers Replace Your Lawyer? Others believe such assisted-review technologies are the only way to deal with the avalanche of digital evidence in an era of big data. Of course, that’s before one gets to the majority of lawyers who have never even heard of predictive coding.
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