Kristin Hodgins

No Canadian public institution should post on a site whose owner says that Canada is not a real country, and serves/co-governs with a man who says he wants to coerce Canada into being the 51st state.

lawyers: your bat signal has been activated

Interesting. That surprises me (but also doesn’t). Everyone is so focused on LLMs right now, which is great in many ways, but there are also many efficiencies to be gained from (relatively) simple workflow automations. We’re firmly entrenched in the M365 ecosystem so it just makes sense for us.

He was always kind to me, always real and would call me on my bullsh*t, which I sincerely respected.

He’s been at the forefront of legal innovation in Canada (and beyond) long before “legal tech” even became a thing.

It feels like we lost a giant this week.

💔

I’m curious if any law firms or legal departments are using the Microsoft Power Platform?

ILTA Influential Women in Legal Tech

Nominations open for ILTA's Influential Women in Legal Tech www.iltanet.org/get-involved...

What could go wrong

It’s probably healthier than writing nothing at all.

Yes, exactly! The feds are already doing exactly that in limited contexts, and it addresses many privacy risks.

To me, most use cases are more like the contemporary equivalent of end users using Word macros and VB commands in Excel. Nothing earth-shattering; just small time-savers that add up.

And strangely, weirdly, I’m not sure this could’ve happened without Covid. Governments learned that they could be nimble and pivot in days when needed. Staff were thrown into a state of constant change and stress. Workarounds abound.

Adapting to new tech? We’ve done much harder things.
/end (maybe)

And now, somehow, we’re doing it. Methodically, carefully, but it’s happening.

I’m less interested in AI output specifically than I am with the culture shift. We’ve spent years trying to nudge culture, and then this unstoppable force comes along and bodychecks government into modern times.

While I was away in startup land, something changed. Somehow, somewhere, decision-makers started to take AI seriously. The skepticism & fear of tech-enabled change was replaced with a sense of urgency. Even the policy-making process to implement AI had to modernize & adapt in record time.

/2

Last time I was in government, AI was a buzzword in the periphery, without much context for most people. It seemed impossible to conceive how risk-averse governments would embrace it, w/all its inherent risks.

The privacy issues alone felt insurmountable, never mind general distrust of tech.

/1

The Case for Neutral Citations in the Law Free Law Project is the leading nonprofit using technology and data to make the legal ecosystem more equitable and competitive. Creators of CourtListener, RECAP, and Bots.law.

Neutral citations have been such a beneficial development for Canadian legal research and publishing. I hope that they will be adopted more widely. @free.law is advocating for their adoption in the US: free.law/advocacy/neu....

Block whoever you like but @kristinraworth.bsky.social is good people. Google her if you like.

Hello, old friends, enemies and everyone in between. I’ve missed you all dearly; I really have.

I don’t know when we last connected. It feels like a very long time.

How’s life? What’s new? What brings you joy?

An Elite Law School Promised Reforms, Then Made Inclusion Impossible | The Walrus Racialized professors say they were underpaid, bullied, and ignored at UBC

Thank you to the brave people who spoke to me about the dysfunction at UBC Allard Law. Institutions can’t take credit for DEI work while excluding racialized people #lawsky #lawschool

thewalrus.ca/an-elite-law...

Me too!

*and lego

Yes!!! It’s a delightful feature. I found that out when I was copying some markdown documentation in GitHub into a Google doc and it just transferred perfectly.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one.

🍁📣 Canada is updating COPYRIGHT LAW to deal with AI!

They want to hear from us about it! The survey is four open-ended questions and one general "feedback" question. All the questions are optional! So if you want it can be REAL QUICK

tiny.cc/ai-ca

🚨 Very cool job alert! 🚨

Come work with me and my awesome colleague Mark Williams at Vanderbilt Law: we're hiring a Law Librarian, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives who will collaborate with us in VAILL (Vanderbilt AI Law Lab).

Details: bit.ly/4aIVFtI

I think everyone mostly just moved over to LinkedIn 😭

It’s not the same though.

Also zooming in on hans in recent photos for signs of wedding rings (if married).

And then seeing the slow deleting/archiving of their spouse’s photos on Instagram.

🔥🔥🔥

🔥🔥🔥

Once a librarian always a librarian.

Or maybe one day a librarian again?

I just keep looking at the following lists of legal tech people who have been here longer and start following all the names I recognize.

But yes hashtags would be helpful.