Month: February 2025

Technology

• The FTC has finalized the order with DoNotPay, requiring the company to pay $193,000 in monetary relief and notify consumers about the settlement. [2/11]
• Sateesh Nori at Justi-Tech and Adjunct Professor at NYU has announced the launch of Roxanne AI, an AI-powered chatbot designed to provide tenants with actionable legal information on repairs and housing conditions, Law360 reports. [2/7]
• Another law firm, Morgan & Morgan, is in hot water for submitting genAI hallucinated case law. [2/7]
• The Ada Lovelace Institute released a policy briefing on Advanced AI Assistants titled Delegation Nation that mentions legal applications. [2/4]
• Dr. Megan Ma, Associate Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology at CodeX has a new article out, Opportunities and Challenges in Legal AI. [1/6]

Regulatory Innovation

• Professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth at Vanderbilt University has published a new book on AI and regulatory reform: “The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong.” Marketplace Tech podcast has an episode on it. [2/11]
• Texas professional ethics opinion 704 prohibits Texas lawyers from joining law firms with nonlawyer owners, even if the law firm is based in a jurisdiction that allows for nonlawyer ownership. [Feb.]
• A bill introduced in the WA Senate (SJM 8006) seeks to revive the LLLT program. The bill would also expand LLLT authorization to provide eviction and debt assistance. [1/20]
• The Wall Street Journal reports on KPMG’s application for an Arizona ABS license. [1/20]
• Fordham University Professor Bruce Green published a new article, with co-author Professor Ellen Murphy at Wake Forest University, on certifications for nonlawyer legal services providers that borrows from standards set by federal administrative agencies. [1/13]
• The NCSC State of the State Courts 2024 poll (administered in late Dec. 2024) found that 60% of respondents support a proposal to expand who can provide legal services (i.e., nonlawyer providers). The public also supports the use of AI in courts if it increases efficiency/access. [Jan.]

Courts & Rules

• Paul Prettitore, Senior Specialist at The World Bank, has a new piece via Brookings about the distribution of legal problems across income groups. [2/7]
• NCSC has launched the Fines, Fees, and Pretrial Practices 2.0 Resource Center. Among the new additions are case studies, bench cards, and an interactive map of state court reforms. [1/22]
• Wesleyan University Professor Alyx Mark has published a new book: Courts Unmasked: Civil Legal System Reform and COVID-19. [Jan.]

The Profession

• The FTC is pulling support for the ABA given the organization’s purported alignment with the Democrat Party and Big Tech. [2/14]
• The ABA Journal reports on the House of Delegates vote to adopt a new model rule on conditional admission to the practice of law that focuses on conduct instead of mental health-related diagnoses. [2/3]
•  A recently released ABA report (reporting on 2022 data) finds that most lawyers are failing to meet the ABA’s 50-hour pro bono goal. [1/20]