Reviewing the most popular blog posts for the year reveals an undeniable truth: generative artificial intelligence (AI) was the overwhelming topic of interest within the legal industry. Of the 40 most-read articles published by Human&Legal this year, 30 directly concerned generative AI, and several others bore direct implications for the technology.
This strong focus naturally presents a classic causality dilemma: Did reader interest propel the volume of AI content, or did the extensive coverage simply meet an existing hunger for information? Regardless, the data confirms generative AI’s central role in legal technology discussions.
Key Generative AI Developments
The popularity of several articles tracked the rapid evolution and market shifts surrounding generative AI offerings.
- Casetext and Thomson Reuters: Seven of the most popular stories chronicled Casetext’s generative AI product launch, CoCounsel, in March, its subsequent acquisition by Thomson Reuters in June, and Thomson Reuters’ swift integration and roll-out of generative AI features within Westlaw.
- LexisNexis: Similarly, five of the top posts detailed the debut of LexisNexis’s generative AI tool, Lexis+ AI, starting with its initial limited release in May and concluding with its general availability release in October.
- Harvey: Four stories about the legal generative AI startup Harvey were highly read. These ranged from its initial fundraising in November of the previous year to its firmwide deployment at Allen & Overy in February, its Series A funding in April, and a unique article discussing a separate legal AI startup sharing the same name.
- The Bar Exam: Interest was piqued by generative AI’s ability to handle legal assessments, with two popular articles detailing GPT’s performance: one in March when it successfully passed the bar examination and a second in November when it passed the legal ethics examination.
- In-House Development: The two articles about the law firm Gunderson Dettmer’s internal development of its proprietary generative AI tool, ChatGD, indicated significant interest in custom solutions. The initial story on ChatGD’s August launch was the 12th most-read, and a follow-up detailing the results and features quickly became the 13th most-read.
Regulatory and Ethical Focus
The most popular single article of the year, by a considerable margin, focused on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ proposed rule concerning appellants’ use of AI to create filings. This demonstrates a peak interest in the ethical and regulatory aspects of the technology. A related popular article reported on the sanctions imposed on attorneys in New York who relied on generative AI and subsequently cited fabricated cases in their court brief.
Significant Industry News
While generative AI dominated, several other major legal technology and industry stories also captured readers’ attention:
- Tragedy and Tributes: The untimely passing of Monica Bay, a highly respected former editor of Law Technology News, garnered significant readership.
- Mergers and Acquisitions: The merger of legal research companies vLex and Fastcase was popular, a story that is arguably AI-adjacent, given that the consolidated databases create a substantial learning model for training legal AI systems. Other major transactions included e-discovery company Reveal’s dual acquisition of Logikcull and IPRO, and Bessemer Venture’s acquisition of Litify.
- Business Shifts: Posts concerning the departure of DISCO cofounder Kiwi Camara and the spin-off of Elite by Thomson Reuters were also highly read.
- Access to Justice: Two articles related to DoNotPay drew attention: one concerning the American Bar Association’s cancellation of an op-ed advocating for regulatory reform using DoNotPay as an example, and the other detailing the dismissal of an unauthorized practice lawsuit against DoNotPay.
- Product Releases: Among numerous product announcements, a series of feature introductions from a prominent practice management platform, including a personal injury add-on and e-filing, was popular.
Ultimately, the traffic data confirms that the central narrative in legal technology this year was generative AI. This interest stems not solely from its current applications, but more significantly from its anticipated transformative potential in the industry.
The 40 Most-Read Posts
- 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).
- Harvey AI Raises $21M In A Series A Round Led By Sequoia (April 26, 2023).
- New GPT-Based Chat App from LawDroid Is A Lawyer’s ‘Copilot’ for Research, Drafting, Brainstorming and More (Jan. 25, 2023).
- LexisNexis Enters the Generative AI Fray with Limited Release of New Lexis+ AI, Using GPT and other LLMs (May 4, 2023).
- Law Students Are Reluctant To Use ChatGPT, Survey Finds. The Question Is, Why? (June 7, 2023).
- As Allen & Overy Deploys GPT-based Legal App Harvey Firmwide, Founders Say Other Firms Will Soon Follow (Feb. 17, 2023).
- 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).
- Thomson Reuters Previews Its Plans for Generative AI, Announces Integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot (May 23, 2023).
- 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).
- 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).
- Ironclad’s AI Contract Redlining Tool ‘AI Assist’ Comes Out Of Beta, New Using GPT-4 (April 11, 2023).
- Gunderson Dettmer Launches ChatGD; First U.S.-Based Firm To Develop Proprietary Internal Generative AI App (Aug. 9, 2023).
- 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).
- 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).
- As Thomson Reuters Explains Its Acquisition of Casetext, Some Investors Seem Uncertain (June 27, 2023).
- LexisNexis Rolls Out Lexis+ AI for General Availability, Promising Hallucination-Free Answers to Legal Questions (Oct. 25, 2023).
- The Rumors Were True: Thomson Reuters Acquires Casetext for $650M Cash (June 26, 2023).
- An Interview with Casetext CEO Jake Heller on His Company’s Acquisition By Thomson Reuters (June 28, 2023).
- GPT Takes the Bar Exam Again; This Time It Scores Among Top 10% of Test Takers (March 14, 2023).
- Survey Released Today Finds That 40% Of Legal Professionals Use Or Plan To Use Generative AI (Aug. 21, 2023).
- Contracts Company Ironclad Taps Into GPT-3 For Instant Document Redlining Based On A Company’s Playbook (Feb. 1, 2023).
- Major Thomson Reuters News: Westlaw Gets Generative AI Research Plus Integration with Casetext CoCounsel; Gen AI Coming Soon to Practical Law (Nov. 15, 2023).
- Thomson Reuters Spins Off Elite As Independent Company Now Owned By Asset Manager TPG (April 4, 2023).
- In A $1B E-Discovery Acquisition Double-Play, Reveal Acquires Both Logikcull and IPRO (Aug. 29, 2023).
- DISCO Cofounder Kiwi Camara Steps Down As CEO; Board Member Scott Hill Is Named Interim Leader (Sept. 11, 2023).
- Breaking: LexisNexis Announces Preview Launch of Lexis Connect, AI-Powered Matter Management within Microsoft Teams (May 11, 2023).
- 12 Thoughts on Promises and Challenges of AI in Legal after Yesterday’s AI Summit at Harvard Law School (Sept. 20, 2023).
- The Strange Case of the Two Legal AI Companies Named Harvey, and their Coincidental Connection to Winston (March 28, 2023).
- Court Imposes Sanctions On Lawyers Who Filed Bogus Cases After Relying On ChatGPT For Legal Research (June 22, 2023).
- Bessemer Venture Partners Acquires Majority Stake in Legal Practice Management Company Litify (Feb. 9, 2023).
- Generative AI, Having Already Passed the Bar Exam, Now Passes the Legal Ethics Exam (Nov. 16, 2023).
- There’s A New Top-Level Domain for Lawyers: ‘.esq’ (May 9, 2023).
- A prominent practice management company Goes All Out with Major Product Announcements, Including A Personal Injury Add-On, E-Filing, and (Of Course) Generative AI (Oct. 9, 2023).
- Stealth Legal AI Startup Harvey Raises $5M in Round Led By OpenAI (Nov. 23, 2022).
- 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).
- LexisNexis Lays Out More Details On Its Collaboration with Microsoft to Roll Out Generative AI Products (Aug. 2, 2023).
- LexisNexis Unveils Two New Generative AI Products (Nov. 14, 2023).
- The Good and the Bad of Solo Practice, Per A prominent practice management company’s Latest Legal Trends Report for Solos (April 18, 2023).
- Thomson Reuters Teases Generative AI Updates to Westlaw Precision Coming Nov. 15 (Nov. 1, 2023).
- Zuva Launches Free AI-Powered Contracts Review Tool (March 9, 2023).
