Clio, More Than Anyone, May Crack the Access to Legal Services Gap

If anyone is going to crack the access to legal services gap, it’ll be Clio and its growing following of lawyers and legal technology partners.

At least that’s the way I feel after spending two days in Nashville at the annual ClioCon gathering of 4,500 lawyers, legal tech companies and over two hundred of Clio’s 1,100 team members who believe they are changing the world for the better.

This country has an access to legal services gap that is only getting worse. More people faced with a legal problem go without the assistance of a lawyer than ever before.

Despite decades of the ABA, bar associations – local and state – and state suppreme courts talking of the problem and instituting programs to connect more lawyers with those in need, things are only getting worse, decade after decade.

Rather than solving the problem with consumers of legal services using technology, alone, Clio is arming caring and experienced lawyers who are looking for more work with the proper technology to connect lawyers with people looking for a lawyer.

The lawyers, through Clio and its technology, are then able to deliver legal services and run their law firms in an effective and efficient fashion. A fashion that attracts people to lawyers and allows lawyers to serve more people.

Now add AI, something Clio may better equipped to deploy for lawyers and people, than anyone, and you really have something.

Not to dismiss bar associations and other tech companies, but Clio has a power house of talent working on AI. Not just to deploy AI, but to do so with the right guardrails to provide for a safe environment for the client and an ethical environment for the lawyers.

Clio didn’t just bump into AI the last year. Clio CEO, Jack Newton, did a masters program in machine learning and was set to do a doctorate under the tutelage of the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, at the University of Toronto.

Jack took the route of the public sector instead, and over fifteen years later, we have the intersection of Jack’s passion for helping people faced with legal issues, lawyers who can help people and AI.

I heard enough through Jack’s talk and personal conversations with Jack and some of his team members to know that we have yet to fully comprehend the impact – in a positive way – AI will have on the legal services gap.

If anyone’s going to crack the legal services gap, discussed as recently as in this morning’s The Wall Street Journal, it’ll be Clio and the growing army of lawyers following Clio who believe we can do better.