Look over this list of my blog posts that were most popular this year, and there is no doubt about the topic that most captivated the legal industry. Of my 40 most-read posts of 2023, 30 directly involved generative AI and others implicated it.
Of course, there is a chicken-or-egg aspect to this. Were so many of my most-read stories about AI because that was what most interested my readers, or was it simply because I wrote so much this year about the topic?
Seven of the most popular stories related to Casetext’s launch of its generative AI product CoCounsel last March, its subsequent acquisition by Thomson Reuters in June, and Thomson Reuters’ subsequent roll-out of generative AI in Westlaw.
Similarly, five of the top stories involved LexisNexis’s launch of its generative AI product, Lexis+ AI, starting with its initial release in May to its release for general availability in October.
Four stories about the generative AI legal startup Harvey made my top-stories list, starting from its initial fundraise last November to its firmwide deployment within Allen & Overy in February to its Series A raise in April to a quirky story about a second legal AI startup also called Harvey.
Two popular stories were about GPT taking the bar exam: one in March when GPT passed the bar exam, and the second in November when it passed the legal ethics exam.
My most popular story of all this year, by a long measure, was about the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal’s proposed rule on appellants’ use of AI to create filings. I do not know why that was so popular, but its views far exceeded any other of my posts this year. A related story on the most popular list was about the sanctions imposed on lawyers in New York who cited “bogus” cases in their brief.
Representative of the interest in generative AI this year were the two stories that made my list about the law firm Gunderson Dettmer’s development of its own “homegrown” generative AI, ChatGD. The original story I wrote in August about ChatGD’s launch was my 12th most-read story, while a followup I published just last week quickly rose to be the 13th most read.
Among other popular stories on my blog this year:
- The sad and untimely death of Monica Bay, the longtime editor of Law Technology News.
- The merger of legal research companies vLex and Fastcase, which, arguably, is an AI-adjacent story, in that the combination of their databases creates a huge learning model for training legal AI.
- Two stories related to DoNotPay — one when the American Bar Association canceled an op-ed that used DoNotPay as an example to argue for regulatory reform, and another when a court dismissed an unauthorized practice lawsuit against DoNotPay.
- The departure of DISCO cofounder Kiwi Camara.
- Thomson Reuters spin-off of Elite.
- E-discovery company Reveal’s acquisition of both Logikcull and IPRO.
- Clio’s series of product announcements in October that included a personal injury add-on, e-filing, and (you guessed it) generative AI.
- Bessemer Venture’s acquisition of Litify.
But I go back to where I started. The dominant story in legal technology this year was generative AI — not so much for what it is already doing in legal, but more for what it might do down the road.
The 40 Most-Read Posts
Here’s the list of my 40 most-read posts.
1. In First for A U.S. Appeals Court, 5th U.S. Circuit Court Considers Rule Requiring Lawyers to Certify they Did Not Rely on AI to Create Filings (Nov. 29, 2023).
2. Harvey AI Raises $21M In A Series A Round Led By Sequoia (April 26, 2023).
3. New GPT-Based Chat App from LawDroid Is A Lawyer’s ‘Copilot’ for Research, Drafting, Brainstorming and More (Jan. 25, 2023).
4. LexisNexis Enters the Generative AI Fray with Limited Release of New Lexis+ AI, Using GPT and other LLMs (May 4, 2023).
5. Law Students Are Reluctant To Use ChatGPT, Survey Finds. The Question Is, Why? (June 7, 2023).
6. As Allen & Overy Deploys GPT-based Legal App Harvey Firmwide, Founders Say Other Firms Will Soon Follow (Feb. 17, 2023).
7. I Am Deeply Saddened To Report The Death Of Monica Bay: Friend, Mentor and Role Model to So Many in Legal Tech (Oct. 29, 2023).
8. Thomson Reuters Previews Its Plans for Generative AI, Announces Integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot (May 23, 2023).
9. In Major Legal Tech Deal, vLex and Fastcase Merge, Creating A Global Legal Research Company, Backed By Oakley Capital and Bain Capital (April 4, 2023).
10. Casetext Launches Co-Counsel, Its OpenAI-Based ‘Legal Assistant’ To Help Lawyers Search Data, Review Documents, Draft Memos, Analyze Contracts and More (March 1, 2023).
11. Ironclad’s AI Contract Redlining Tool ‘AI Assist’ Comes Out Of Beta, New Using GPT-4 (April 11, 2023).
12. Gunderson Dettmer Launches ChatGD; First U.S.-Based Firm To Develop Proprietary Internal Generative AI App (Aug. 9, 2023).
13. Four Months After Launching Its ‘Homegrown’ GenAI Tool, Law Firm Gunderson Dettmer Reports On Results So Far, New Features, And A Surprise on Cost (Dec. 20, 2023).
14. In Case of ‘Real Lawyers Against A Robot Lawyer,’ Federal Court Dismisses Law Firm’s Suit Against DoNotPay for Unauthorized Law Practice (Nov. 21, 2023).
15. As Thomson Reuters Explains Its Acquisition of Casetext, Some Investors Seem Uncertain (June 27, 2023).
16. LexisNexis Rolls Out Lexis+ AI for General Availability, Promising Hallucination-Free Answers to Legal Questions (Oct. 25, 2023).
17. The Rumors Were True: Thomson Reuters Acquires Casetext for $650M Cash (June 26, 2023).
18. An Interview with Casetext CEO Jake Heller on His Company’s Acquisition By Thomson Reuters (June 28, 2023).
19. GPT Takes the Bar Exam Again; This Time It Scores Among Top 10% of Test Takers (March 14, 2023).
20. Survey Released Today Finds That 40% Of Legal Professionals Use Or Plan To Use Generative AI (Aug. 21, 2023).
21. Contracts Company Ironclad Taps Into GPT-3 For Instant Document Redlining Based On A Company’s Playbook (Feb. 1, 2023).
22. Major Thomson Reuters News: Westlaw Gets Generative AI Research Plus Integration with Casetext CoCounsel; Gen AI Coming Soon to Practical Law (Nov. 15, 2023).
23. Thomson Reuters Spins Off Elite As Independent Company Now Owned By Asset Manager TPG (April 4, 2023).
24. In A $1B E-Discovery Acquisition Double-Play, Reveal Acquires Both Logikcull and IPRO (Aug. 29, 2023).
25. DISCO Cofounder Kiwi Camara Steps Down As CEO; Board Member Scott Hill Is Named Interim Leader (Sept. 11, 2023).
26. Breaking: LexisNexis Announces Preview Launch of Lexis Connect, AI-Powered Matter Management within Microsoft Teams (May 11, 2023).
27. 12 Thoughts on Promises and Challenges of AI in Legal after Yesterday’s AI Summit at Harvard Law School (Sept. 20, 2023).
28. The Strange Case of the Two Legal AI Companies Named Harvey, and their Coincidental Connection to Winston (March 28, 2023).
29. Court Imposes Sanctions On Lawyers Who Filed Bogus Cases After Relying On ChatGPT For Legal Research (June 22, 2023).
30. Bessemer Venture Partners Acquires Majority Stake in Legal Practice Management Company Litify (Feb. 9, 2023).
31. Generative AI, Having Already Passed the Bar Exam, Now Passes the Legal Ethics Exam (Nov. 16, 2023).
32. There’s A New Top-Level Domain for Lawyers: ‘.esq’ (May 9, 2023).
33. Clio Goes All Out with Major Product Announcements, Including A Personal Injury Add-On, E-Filing, and (Of Course) Generative AI (Oct. 9, 2023).
34. Stealth Legal AI Startup Harvey Raises $5M in Round Led By OpenAI (Nov. 23, 2022).
35. Citing ‘Political Challenges,’ ABA Innovation Center Cancels Op-Ed Advocating Regulatory Reform; In An Exclusive, We Have the Piece They Wouldn’t Publish (Aug. 3, 2023).
36. LexisNexis Lays Out More Details On Its Collaboration with Microsoft to Roll Out Generative AI Products (Aug. 2, 2023).
37. LexisNexis Unveils Two New Generative AI Products (Nov. 14, 2023).
38. The Good and the Bad of Solo Practice, Per Clio’s Latest Legal Trends Report for Solos (April 18, 2023).
39. Thomson Reuters Teases Generative AI Updates to Westlaw Precision Coming Nov. 15 (Nov. 1, 2023).
40. Zuva Launches Free AI-Powered Contracts Review Tool (March 9, 2023).
