????電子取證律師和律師助理

????在一些大型訴訟中，取證環(huán)節(jié)可能要涉及幾百萬頁的材料卷宗。審核這些材料歷來是律師或律師助理們必須從事的低端工作之一，但現(xiàn)在，已經(jīng)有新型的軟件系統(tǒng)可以從事這項工作了。

????這些系統(tǒng)使用了語法分析和關(guān)鍵詞識別技術(shù)，在電子郵件、短信、數(shù)據(jù)庫和掃描文件中篩選那些在法庭舉證過程中必須提交的證據(jù)資料。可以相象，在不久的未來，一臺經(jīng)過法學(xué)訓(xùn)練的Watson計算機將有可能構(gòu)建一套儲存了大量案例和判例的系統(tǒng)，它甚至可能會寫案情摘要——這種搜索和寫作工作一般是由法律事務(wù)所的助理等工作人員完成的。

????馬丁?福特表示，法律定量分析則是計算機自動化的另一個熱點。如今很多律師之所以身價很高，就是因為他們知道采取哪種辯論策略更容易打贏官司，他們也更擅長預(yù)測法庭裁決，甚至是一名法官的獨特風(fēng)格。不過密歇根州立大學(xué)和南德克薩斯州法學(xué)院的研究人員建立的一個統(tǒng)計模型已經(jīng)能夠成功預(yù)測美國最高法院71%的判決結(jié)果。馬丁表示：“這種預(yù)測法律后果的能力，可能就是律師最有價值的能力了。”

????E-Discovery Lawyers and Law Firm Associates

????In large lawsuits, the discovery process can involve literally millions of documents. Reviewing such materials was traditionally one of the lower-level tasks lawyers or paralegals could face. But now, new software systems can do the job.

????These systems use syntactic analysis and keyword recognition to comb through emails, texts, databases, and scanned documents to find those that one party in a lawsuit would be obliged to turn over to the other through the legal discovery process. It's also conceivable in the near future that a legally-trained Watson might be able to construct a system with a vast store of cases and precedent and create drafts of briefs -- the sort of research and writing work generally handled by associates in law firms.

????Quantitative legal prediction is another hot point, according to Ford. Lawyers now are highly paid for knowing which arguments are most likely to win a case, assessing past court rulings and even the idiosyncracies of a judge. But researchers at Michigan State University and South Texas College of Law constructed a statistical model that was able to predict the outcome of almost 71 percent of U.S. Supreme Court cases. "That ability to make those predictions [of legal outcomes] is probably the most valuable ones lawyers can do," Martin said.