Jon Whittle

AI systems are solving real-world challenges and transforming industries, but there are serious concerns about how responsibly they operate on behalf of the humans that rely on them. Many ethical principles and guidelines have been proposed for AI systems, but they're often too 'high-level' to be translated into practice. Conversely, AI/ML researchers often focus on algorithmic solutions that are too 'low-level' to adequately address ethics and responsibility. In this timely, practical guide, pioneering AI practitioners bridge these gaps. The authors illuminate issues of AI responsibility across the entire system lifecycle and all system components, offer concrete and actionable guidance for addressing them, and demonstrate these approaches in three detailed case studies. Writing for technologists, decision-makers, students, users, and other stake-holders, the topics cover: Governance mechanisms at industry, organisation, and team levelsDevelopment process perspectives, including software engineering best practices for AISystem perspectives, including quality attributes, architecture styles, and patternsTechniques for connecting code with data and models, including key tradeoffsPrinciple-specific techniques for fairness, privacy, and explainabilityA preview of the future of responsible AI

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had a seismic and lasting impact on how the business of law is conducted. Whilst 2020 certainly expedited changes that were already trending – flexible work schedules, fully-remote offices, revised resource allocations, new client expectations – it also forced firms to adopt practices, methodologies, and strategies that pre-COVID they insisted they could not. These changes are not only here to stay but have become the expectation. Law firm attorneys, staff, and indeed clients are no longer interested in a traditional office, nor the practices that typically occurred within them. The modern law firm needs to evolve with both employee and consumer expectations in order to stay abreast with the post-pandemic world. The Post-Pandemic Law Firm looks at how law firms can make a paradigm shift, adopting an entirely new business model that focuses on providing outcomes, outputs, and results to their clients and internally places the wellbeing of their team as a cornerstone to the future long-term success and sustainability of the legal profession. Chapters include changes to business models, virtual and remote working, how the pandemic has affected women in the profession, the future of dispute resolution, M&A activity and changes to pricing models – all authored by highly respected practitioners in the modern legal system. For those law firms leaders and lawyers that realize a ‘return to normal’ is exactly the wrong approach, there is an opportunity to create a brighter future where work–life balance, market innovation, and smart use of technology will define the law firm of the future.