<center><a href="http://www.unsw.edu.au/">University of New South Wales</a> - <a href="http://law.unsw.edu.au/">Faculty of Law - </a><a href="http://www2.austlii.edu.au/cal/">Computerisation of Law</a> <hr  WIDTH="100%"><b><tt><font color="#005900"></font></tt></b> <p><b><tt><font color="#590407"><font size=+2>Computerisation of Law</font></font></tt></b><b><tt><font color="#005900"></font></tt></b> <p> <hr  WIDTH="100%"></center> <tt><font color="#005900"></font></tt> </body> </html>
Reading Guide - Computerisation of Legal Practice
Graham Greenleaf 
Last updated 27 October 2000 
  = Required reading. All other links indicate optional reading.
1.	Objectives
The objectives of this topic are for you to understand the range of technologies that are affecting legal practice. Litigation support / court technologies are covered in a separate reading guide, as are legal research systems. This Reading Guide pulls together a range of technologies not considered elsewhere, and readings on their impact on the legal profession.
This version of the Reading Guide only provides a list of introductory readings for each sub-topic.
Some topics include:
•	Law firm applications of knowledge-based technologies (compliance systems etc)
•	Use of digital signatures and encryption by the legal profession.
•	Legal practice via Internet (extranets, email communication with clients etc)
2.	Impact of technology on the legal profession
•	Victor Perton MP Victoria's Proposals for a 21st Century Legal System   [1999] CompLRes 37; Paper presented at AustLII's "Law Via The Internet '99" conference; discusses the report (below) of the Victorian Law Reform Committee.
•	Victorian Law Reform Committee (VLRC)    Technology and the Law Report [1999] COL 2 
•	Australian Law Reform Commission Issues Paper 23 Technology - what it means for federal dispute resolution (1988)  Chapter 4. Technology in legal practice and legal publishing -  
•	Australian Law Reform Commission Issues Paper 23 Technology - what it means for federal dispute resolution (1988)   8. Future directions and possibilities - Discusses views of Susskind and others, and knowledge-based applications in legal practice. 
•	Peter van Dijk and Derek Hamill  'The Internet as a Strategic Business Tool for a Professional Society'  - PDF (706KB) - AustLII Law via Internet Conference, 1997 -   details how the Law Society of NSW adopted the Internet as a business strategy.
•	R Susskind The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology  Clarendon Press Oxford 1996; the  Introduction is available on the web;  reviewed in:
•	Widdison, R (1996), Future Perfect? A Review of Richard Susskind's The Future of Law, Book Review, 3 The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT).
•	Luke Nottage Cyberspace and the Future of Law, Legal Education and Practice in Japan' (First Published in Web Journal of Current Legal Issues) - among other things, discusses 'Susskind's Thesis as Seen from Japan'.
3.	Knowledge-based technologies in legal practice (compliance systems etc)
Knowledge-based systems can be developed by law firms either as internal tools used by lawyers to assist in the generation of advice to clients, or documents. Alternatively (as with Blake Dawson Waldron below) they can be developed to allows clients to do routine legal work themselves, without need for further reference to the law firm in most cases.
The following papers use the technology used by Blake Dawson Waldron as an example:
•	Christine  Burns  (When) Will we be replaced by "Virtual Lawyers"  (a version is published in the July 2000 Law Society Journal). - discusses electronic products and services offered by law firms, including BDW's us of the Jnana software to develop knowledge-based systems.
•	  Blake Dawson Waldron's Legal Technology pages  - Gives details of  specific products and their suggested advantages
•	Alan Cohen  ' Legal Advice Without the Lawyers' New York Law Journal, November 15, 1999 - discussing use of Jnana by both DBW and a US law firm.
4.	Digital signatures / PKI and the legal profession
Encryption and digital signatures, and the framework within which these can be used (Public Key Infrastructure - PKI) are of great importance to the legal profession and legal practice in many areas, including filing of legal documents of many types, privacy and security of email exchanges of documents, authentication and non-repudiation in transactions, and so on.
•	Peter van Dijk  'e-business and the legal profession'  - Download the full version if you can (over 5MB)
•	Peter van Dijk   - 'PKI and the Legal Sector' - Slides in  PDF (492K) - October 2000 -  use of digital signatures and encryption by lawyers.
5.	Legal practice via Internet
Some lawyers are attempting to carry on legal practice in a different sense of 'virtual': by providing legal services to clients with whom they do not have face-to-face contact, but instead deal with all aspects of a matter remotely via the Internet.
A modification of this is to provide some types of information and advice services only to clients. This is often carried out by use of 'extranets', where clients have privileged / controlled access to a law firm's website beyond that available to the general public.
•	Claire Barliant  Why Don't NY Firms Embrace Extranets?    New York Law Journal, Monday, March 20, 2000
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