The Accidental Data Scientist by Amy Affelt

Author:Amy Affelt [AFFELT, AMY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781573877084
Publisher: Information Today, Inc.

Legal

The Wall Street Journal ran a front page article on October 22, 2012, about the pushback law firms are increasingly facing from clients who balk at billable hour arrangements.47 Clients are seeking out alternative billing, and the Valorem Law Group in Chicago is accommodating those clients with a flat-fee model. Law firms may be keen to offer these alternative arrangements, but they face the daunting task of determining how much to charge.48

Tymetrix from Wolters Kluwer49 uses rate analysis coupled with a forecasting algorithm to predict legal rates for law firms. Its formula extracts five to ten key variables found in case material and compares these datapoints with previous cases of a similar nature. Through this algorithm, Tymetrix purports to be able to predict the entire case cost, from initial client retention through verdict or settlement. It also offers tools for the client including a free mobile app that lists the average hourly rates at law firms nationwide in order to enable the client to comparison shop.50

SeyfarthLean, the consulting arm of Chicago-based law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLC, is implementing a Big Data initiative to develop software that analyzes contracts in order to predict lawsuits.51 The conventional wisdom is that disputes seldom arise from agreements written in standard, boilerplate language, whereas contracts with a lot of changes and modifications invite loopholes which can result in litigation. Law librarians could run contracts through this software, flag the contracts that contain deviation, and offer analysis of the changes.

When law librarians introduce senior partners to products such as Tymetrix or the contract analysis software, they are positioning themselves to be seen as a resource in data analytics for the firm. Almost every law firm is concerned with cost, so if law librarians are able to offer information regarding case cost analysis products, along with offers to try to obtain a free trial of the product, they demonstrate that they are not only interested in saving the firm time and money, but also that they are interested in and capable of working with Big Data tools.

The Sunlight Foundation’s Docket Wrench52 is a tool that tracks postings by people who have weighed in on federal rules and proposed regulations.53 It contains comments from over 300 federal agencies and has multiple search fields including agency, organization, and phrase. It also has the ability to search for comments by particular individuals. Docket Wrench uses a computer algorithm to identify common language represented in all comments in order to link commonalities together. For example, email outreach efforts often include sample letters for interested parties to sign and send. In these instances, the text of multiple comments by different posters will be nearly identical, and Docket Wrench tags them accordingly. Over 10,000 lobbyists, organizations, and campaign donors comprise the majority of the comments that are included in the database. Researchers can monitor these postings to “track influence and uncover trends” in the federal rulemaking process.

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