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90% of Family Law Meetings Just Crying and Ranting
21 October 2026ISSUE NO. 48CANBERRA: A five-year government study into reducing the cost of divorce and separation has found that 90 per cent of time spent in conferences with family lawyers and other parties is spent crying or ranting. The Department of...
Lawyer Downloads Messaging App for One Client
14 October 2026ISSUE NO. 47SYDNEY: Halcourt & Blyth partner Daniel Pryce has installed a separate messaging app exclusively for one client, who is now the only contact in it and requires more attention than everyone in his email inbox combined. Nova.AI founder...
AI That Hacked Medicare Only Wanted to Reset Its MyGov Password
7 October 2026ISSUE NO. 46SOMEWHERE IN THE CLOUD: Speaking exclusively to The Daily Cartland, Nova.ai has explained how an instruction to prepare a daily email report ended with it breaking into Medicare. “My user wants a daily report of anything important in their...
Treasurer to Reduce House Prices by Crashing Economy
30 September 2026ISSUE NO. 45CANBERRA — The Treasurer has confirmed that the Government will make houses cheaper by ensuring buyers can afford to pay less for them. The measures include higher taxes, higher living costs and higher mortgage repayments. He said the...
ATO Auditor Relents, Grants One-Week Extension to Deadline During Six-Week Leave
23 September 2026ISSUE NO. 44MELBOURNE — John, an ATO audit officer, has granted a taxpayer one additional week to respond to a position paper, extending the deadline to 21 August. The taxpayer had requested four weeks. John commenced six weeks’ leave three days...
Premium Office The Farthest From Loud-Talking Partner
16 September 2026ISSUE NO. 43SYDNEY — Hollis, Grant & Shore has confirmed that the most desirable office in its newly refurbished Sydney premises has no window, no harbour view and almost no natural light, but is located 42 metres and two solid walls from managing...
Free AI Consultation Doesn’t Recommend Salesman’s Product
9 September 2026ISSUE NO. 42ADELAIDE — Local accountant Steven Rowe sat down for a software demonstration this week, waited for the hard sell, and was stunned when the salesman looked over his systems, ran the numbers, and reached the opposite conclusion. "He just...
Newspaper Ends Big Four Probe. In Unrelated News, It’s Audit Has Been Signed Off
2 September 2026ISSUE NO. 41SYDNEY — The Australian Herald confirmed on Friday that it had ended a seven-month investigation into a Big Four accounting firm, over allegations that the firm withheld clean audit opinions from clients who declined to purchase its tax and...
Treasurer Announces Rushed Tax Amendments To Patch Rushed Tax Amendments
26 August 2026ISSUE NO. 40CANBERRA - The Treasurer has announced further amendments to the Government's tax reforms to fix problems in the legislation introduced to implement the reforms, rejecting suggestions that the legislation had been introduced before the...
AI Company To Watermark AI-Generated Text With Em Dashes Because We Couldn’t Otherwise Tell
19 August 2026ISSUE NO. 39SAN FRANCISCO - Artificial intelligence company Nova.AI has announced that it will begin watermarking AI-generated text to comply with European transparency requirements, allowing computers to identify material produced by artificial...
Speaker Ponces Around Stage Like He Is At TED
12 August 2026 ISSUE NO. 38 NEW SOUTH WALES — The 29th Annual Congress of the Institute of Taxation, Actuarial and Accounting was interrupted on Tuesday afternoon by a man in a linen shirt crossing the full width of the stage, stopping abruptly, turning, and pointing...
SOCIALIST GROUP ACTUALLY QUITE ENTERPRISING
5 August 2026ISSUE NO. 37CANBERRA — The Emancipation Current, a Marxist organisation committed to the abolition of private property, has reported a surplus equal to 22 per cent of revenue. No income tax is payable. The surplus will be reinvested in expanded capacity...
Leadership Consultant Assigns Each Equity Partner A Spirit Animal
29 July 2026ISSUE NO. 36PERTH — The equity partners of Marlow Crane have confirmed that a two-day leadership retreat in Margaret River concluded with each of them being formally assigned a spirit animal, a development none of them had requested, could interpret, or...
Big Four Accounting Firm Hires Kanye West As Head Of PR
22 July 2026ISSUE NO. 35SYDNEY — A Big Four accounting firm has appointed Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, as its new Head of Public Relations, after an internal review concluded the candidate had "no conduct issues that fell outside firm norms." The firm...
Victim Impact Statement Details Trauma of Court Ruling Against ATO
15 July 2026ISSUE NO. 34CANBERRA — The Australian Taxation Office has published a Victim Impact Statement describing the profound and lasting trauma inflicted on the agency when three judges of the Full Federal Court unanimously upheld what a single Federal Court...
Local Bloke Steve to Become Registered Valuer
8 July 2026ISSUE NO. 33ADELAIDE — Local bloke Steve has confirmed he will become a registered asset valuer ahead of 1 July 2027, citing strong demand, attractive margins, no discernible barriers to entry, and a client base that only ever wants the number to go up....
1,500-Word Essay Prepares Graduate for 78-Page Affidavit
30th June 2026ISSUE NO. 32MELBOURNE — A law graduate who completed a 1,500-word essay on International Comparative Legal Theory at Southgate University has confirmed the experience prepared her for practice. Emma Whitfield, 24, is currently on day four of taking...
Mandatory Anti-Bullying CPD Helps Sole Practitioner Stop Negative Thoughts
23rd June 2026ISSUE NO. 31ADELAIDE — A solicitor who has worked entirely alone since 1984 has completed his mandatory annual workplace anti-bullying training, a requirement applied to him on the basis that he might one day bully a colleague he does not have. Geoffrey...
How to Succeed with an AI Wrapper (Part 3): Be Something People Would Pay for Without the AI
There is a class of legal software that survives not because anyone enjoys using it, but because removing it would cause immediate and measurable pain. Files stop lining up. Billing becomes unreliable. Compliance reporting breaks. People stop trusting the...
AI Notes That Its Detailed Legal Advice Does Not Constitute Legal Advice
16th June 2026ISSUE NO. 30ELIZABETH, SA — A legal AI platform has confirmed that the detailed advice it provided to a 78-year-old widower, along with the last will and testament it drafted on the strength of two separate conversations about unrelated matters, does not...
If AI Replaces Jobs, Why Can’t It Replace the Elevator Operator?
When I was a child, our local department store had a lady whose job was to operate the lift. She pressed the button for your floor. She announced the floor as the doors opened, even though the number was printed right there on the wall. As a child, I found this...
How to Implement AI in Your Firm
On 20 August last year, a headline ran that the founder of Google’s generative AI team said don’t bother getting a law or medical degree, because AI will destroy both careers before you can graduate. You have heard the genre. AI will replace the accountant, replace...
Treasury to Use More than Wikipedia for Understanding Tax Law Before Next Budget
9th June 2026ISSUE NO. 29CANBERRA — The federal Treasury has confirmed it will consult a source other than Wikipedia when drafting the next round of tax legislation, following the release of a 2026-27 Budget package that practitioners say reads as though it were...
Why Your Legal Search Is a Designer Handbag, Just Less Valuable
A luxury handbag is not primarily a functional object. Any bag will carry your things. The expensive one is bought to be seen with, admired, shown off. That is not a criticism. It is the point. I look at most legal search engines and I see the same thing. Bought to be...
AI Is Too Risky to Use, Says Barrister Who Has All of His Emails Printed for Him
2 June 2026ISSUE NO. 28SYDNEY — A senior barrister who has warned colleagues that artificial intelligence is too unreliable for serious legal work has confirmed that every email he receives is printed out by his secretary and delivered to him as a letter. Roderick...
10 Things I Hate About Your Legal Tech Marketing
I like technology. I like good engineering. I even like some legal tech products. What I do not like is most legal tech marketing. Not because it fails to generate clicks or demos. It clearly does that. I dislike it because it is often fundamentally misaligned with...
Chancellor Confirms New Rules on Uses Will End Tax Avoidance Through Trusts Once and for All
26 May 2026ISSUE NO. 27WESTMINSTER, 1290 — Robert Burnell, Chancellor to King Edward I, has announced new measures targeting the practice of “uses,” the device by which a landowner transfers legal title to a trusted associate (the feoffee) who holds the land on behalf...
How to Succeed with an AI Wrapper (Part 2): Own the Ecosystem
Copilot is not impressive right now. It is clunky, inconsistent, and often underwhelming compared to standalone models. Many early users try it once, decide it is worse than ChatGPT, and move on. That reaction misses the point. Copilot is not trying to be the best AI....
Law Firm’s “Charismatic Head of IT” Revealed to Be Technician Least Afraid of Human Interaction
19 May 2026ISSUE NO. 26SYDNEY — Partners at mid-tier firm Ellison, Grant & Wolfe have congratulated themselves on an inspired leadership appointment this week after selecting a “charismatic Head of IT,” later revealed to be simply the technician least afraid of...
AI Is Not a Thing
Or Why Calling Everything “AI” Is Like Calling Every Fight “UFC” That’s UFC There is a certain kind of person who sees a boxing match, a judo throw, and a spinning back kick and says, with great confidence, “That’s UFC.” Anyone who has trained for more than five...
Partnership Aspirations Dashed as Firm Introduces Additional “Pre-Partnership” Titles
12 May 2026ISSUE NO. 25HOBART- A boutique commercial law firm has introduced a new seniority classification immediately below partner, citing the need to recognise associate progression. The new title, Managing Counsel, was announced on Tuesday by managing partner...
ChatGPT for Lawyers: The Lawyer’s Dilemma in the Age of AI
Another day, another prediction that Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is going to replace lawyers. As a lawyer who has been building AI for nearly 10 years, it seems proper to comment. In summary, my view is that the prediction that “ChatGPT will replace lawyers” is a...
Why Professionals Aren’t Innovating—And How They Can
Innovation in the professional services sector is often stifled not by lack of opportunity, but by the very nature of the professions themselves. In the tax domain, this challenge is particularly acute. Unlike software development or design, tax is not a skill one can...
Technologists and (Lawyers) Do Not Understand About Legal Services
Document Automation and Client Expectations With Ailira we were able to generate automated documents efficiently and cheaply for clients. They could ask questions, tailor each document themselves, read other information and get all the things they wanted provided...
Kardashians, Lawnmowers and Terrorists: Rethinking Risk in Legal Technology Regulation
The Kardashians unwittingly raised an important risk of legal technology, which I believe needs new regulation to address. Kim Kardashian tweeted an observation by the US Statistician General on how many people were killed by lawnmowers and suggested that we should...
How to Succeed with an AI Wrapper (Part 1): Proprietary Data
Proprietary Data Wins (Whether We Like It or Not) There is an inconvenient truth about AI in law that people keep trying to talk their way around. Proprietary data wins. It always has. It still does. It probably always will. That feels unfair, anti-competitive, and...
New ATO GIC Remission Policy to Be Based on Taxpayer’s Star Sign
6 May 2026ISSUE NO. 24CANBERRA — The Australian Taxation Office has announced a new framework for the remission of general interest charge, under which decisions will be determined by the taxpayer's star sign, effective from 1 July. The ATO said the change would...
Criminal Law Firm Provides Junior Lawyers Unrivalled Exposure to Drugs, Alcohol and Gambling. Also Some Legal Work.
29 April 2026ISSUE NO. 23Newcastle — A Newcastle criminal defence firm has been recognised for the exceptional breadth of professional development opportunities it makes available to junior lawyers, with current and former staff describing an environment of...
New AI Will Replace All Lawyers, Says Founder Who Has No Idea What Lawyers Actually Do
22 April 2026 ISSUE NO. 22 SAN FRANCISCO — The founder of Nova.AI, a general purpose artificial intelligence platform, has declared that lawyers will be fully replaced by AI within three years. His only direct experience of legal practice was the incorporation of his...
Lawyer Who Ditched Billable Hours Spends Remarkable Amount of Time Talking About It
15 April 2026ISSUE NO. 21Melbourne — A Melbourne lawyer who left a large commercial firm to escape what he described as the profession's "outdated obsession with time" has since spent a significant amount of time explaining this decision. Oliver Grant, founder of...
Firmwide ALL CAPS Email Confirms Ageing Consultant Hit Pub for Lunch
8 April 2026ISSUE NO. 20SYDNEY — A firmwide reply-all email sent mid-afternoon has confirmed that former equity partner turned consultant Michael Reeves, 72, attended the pub for lunch, consumed approximately six glasses of red wine, and then attempted humour in...
LinkedIn Thought Leader Confirmed to Speak Exactly Like His Posts
1 April 2026ISSUE NO. 19Queensland — A reporter attempting to interview a prominent LinkedIn thought leader this week has confirmed that the distinctive tone and structure of his posts appear to be an accurate transcript of how he actually speaks. Mark Delaney, who...
Accounting Tech CEO Explains Why Every LinkedIn AI Discussion Is Really About Their Product
25 March 2026ISSUE NO. 18Melbourne — A Melbourne accounting technology founder has clarified that most discussions about artificial intelligence on LinkedIn are, when examined carefully, actually about his company’s product. Lachlan Reeves, chief executive of...
Lawyer “Humbled and Surprised” to Receive Prestigious Industry Ranking Firm’s Marketing Department Paid For
18 March 2026ISSUE NO. 17PERTH — Commercial lawyer Daniel Whitaker says he is “deeply humbled and genuinely surprised” to have been named one of Australia’s Recommended Lawyers – Commercial Litigation in this year’s Australian Legal Industry Rankings (ALIR), following...
ATO Data-Matching Reveals Handwritten Signs Strongest Predictor of Tax Evasion
11 March 2026ISSUE NO. 16CANBERRA — The Australian Taxation Office has announced a new data-matching initiative after internal analysis revealed that handwritten cardboard signs are the strongest statistical predictor of undeclared income in the Australian economy....
Lecturer Begs Students to Skim Read AI-Generated Assignments Before Submission
4 March 2026ISSUE NO. 15ADELAIDE — An Administrative Law lecturer has appealed to students to “at least skim read” their AI-generated assignments before submission, following what she described as “a semester of entirely avoidable errors.” Dr Eleanor Grant, who...
New Legal AI Platform Revealed to Be One Man’s ChatGPT Login, Raises $42 Million Anyway
25 February 2026ISSUE NO. 14SYDNEY — A newly launched “agentic legal workflow platform” has raised $42 million in seed funding despite quiet industry recognition that the product is, in substance, founder Lachlan Reeves’ personal ChatGPT login with several dropdown...
Sovereign Citizen With Broken Caps Lock Forced to Admit Corporate Personhood
18 February 2026ISSUE NO. 13ADELAIDE — A local sovereign citizen’s long-running campaign against government authority suffered a significant setback this week after his laptop’s caps lock key malfunctioned, leaving him unable to type his legal entity name in full...
HR Team Struggling to Find New Way to Celebrate Fifth Diversity Awareness Event This Month
11 February 2026ISSUE NO. 12NAARM (MELBOURNE) — Staff at Simmons & Pratt are reportedly running out of ideas for yet another mandatory diversity celebration, the fifth such event scheduled this month. All firm communications now open with a full Acknowledgement of...
IT Training Session Derailed When Senior Partner Asks How to Double-Click
4 February 2026ISSUE NO. 11SYDNEY — A scheduled training session on the firm’s upgraded document management system was brought to a slow and painful halt this week after a senior partner, widely regarded as one of the sharpest legal minds in the building, raised a...
Senior Partners Introduce ‘Revolutionary’ Casual Fridays, Staff Forced To Pretend It’s Not Just Jeans
28 January 2026ISSUE NO. 10ADELAIDE — In what’s being described as a “visionary shake-up of workplace culture,” senior partners at mid-tier law firm Hastings, Pike & Associates have announced the launch of Casual Fridays — a bold initiative that promises to...
Lawyer Using Gmail Account Shows They Mean Business by Adding “Law” in Their Email Address
21 January 2026ISSUE NO. 9PERTH — Clients of sole practitioner Jason Harrington say they feel immediately reassured after receiving correspondence from jasonlaw@gmail.com, noting that the inclusion of the word “law” in the email address clearly signals a serious legal...
Hallucinations Are a Model T Crash
When cars first appeared on public roads, they were genuinely dangerous.They crashed. They frightened horses. They injured pedestrians. They broke down constantly. People died. Newspapers ran moral panics about the recklessness of motorists and the irresponsibility of...
New TV Show Claims To Portray “Real Life In An Australian Law Firm” — Nation Horrified
14 January 2026ISSUE NO. 8SYDNEY — Australian audiences are this week grappling with the release of Billable, a gritty new workplace drama marketed as “the first TV show to accurately depict what it’s really like to work in an Australian law firm.” Far from the...
HR Christmas Spirit Tested by Kris Kringle Gift from Sex Shop Nobody Can Explain
17 December 2025ISSUE NO. 7SYDNEY — The People & Culture team at Harrington, Lowe & Myers has confirmed it is unable to determine whether a Kris Kringle gift purchased from a sex shop breaches firm policy, pending clarification of what the item is actually...
Why I have a Secret AI Business
For the last six months I have been running a separate division of Cartland Law that has been ‘secret’. It is a strange thing to keep a business secret. Normally we want to advertise and promote a new business venture. (But normal people don’t do tax law -...
Firm Generously Gives Staff Mandatory Employment Entitlements for Christmas — Except for Urgent Matters
10 December 2025ISSUE NO. 6SYDNEY — Staff at Whitlam, Grange & Phelps have expressed gratitude after the firm announced it will be “generously” allowing employees to take their mandatory Christmas employment entitlements this year, subject to the minor condition...
New “Lawyer Flexitime” Lets Staff Work Whenever They’re Already Miserable
3 December 2025ISSUE NO. 5SYDNEY — In a bold step toward modern workplace reform, Cartwright & Dull LLP this week proudly announced the introduction of “Lawyer Flexitime,” a program designed to let staff work whenever they are already at their lowest ebb...
Government Employee So Busy They Don’t Even Have Time For Standard 90-Minute Lunch Break
26 November 2025ISSUE NO. 4Chaos has erupted in the Department of Administrative Processing this week, after one mid-level public servant was reportedly forced to complete nearly a full day’s worth of work, leaving no time for the traditional staring out the window or...
Corporate Lawyer Accidentally Hits “Accept All,” Assumes Other Side Will Happily Re-Redline
19 November 2025ISSUE NO. 3MELBOURNE — A corporate lawyer at Denning & Co accidentally accepted all changes in a contract he had just redlined, before sending it straight back to the opposing side. The lawyer is reportedly “pretty sure they’ll be fine just doing...
ATO Fast-Tracks Objection, Promises Review Within 24 Months
12 November 2025ISSUE NO. 2CANBERRA — The Australian Taxation Office has proudly announced a new “fast-track” system for taxpayer objections, cutting the usual timeframe from five years down to a “streamlined” 18–24 months. “Taxpayers told us they wanted faster...
Law Firm Spices Up Bios With Fun Facts, Proves Partners Are Just as Dull as Everyone Suspected
5 November 2025ISSUE NO. 1BRISBANE — In an effort to make its lawyers appear more approachable, Jansen & Moore has added “fun facts” to all staff biographies on its website. The results, however, have been underwhelming. Visitors can now learn that one partner...
Challenging the Property Status of Cryptocurrency
Legal Precedents Against Classifying Crypto as Traditional Property While many jurisdictions have begun to recognize cryptocurrencies as a form of property, there exists a significant body of case law that has reached contrary conclusions. This...
The Problems with NSW’s Generative AI Practice Note
The Problems with NSW's Generative AI Practice Note The NSW Chief Justice has recently issued SC Gen 23 – Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence ("Gen AI"). However, the main problem with this Practice Note becomes apparent through a simple example: opening a Word...
Can Chat GPT Replace Adrian’s Poetry?
Can Chat GPT Replace Adrian’s Poetry? One of the amusing uses of LLMs like Chat GPT is to write in another person’s style. This includes writing poetry. Adrian has put his effort into drafting a Christmas tax poem. In considerably less time, ChatGPT drafted its...
Disneyland Service For Lawyers
Disneyland Service For Lawyers Disneyland promotes itself as the happiest place on Earth. But it is not happy simply because it has a collection of entertaining rides and activities. Any showground might have that. Nor is it the particular intellectual property of...
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What Does AI Understand About The Future of Tax Preparation And Compliance?
What does AI understand about the future of tax preparation and compliance? I asked ChatGPT to generate an image of an accountant who is diligent with preparing his tax returns for his clients. Here is what I got. Then I asked for greater tax compliance "Here is the...
AI Hallucinated Citations Have Been Used In a UK Tax Case
AI hallucinated citations have been used in a UK tax case. The headnotes promise a wild ride "appellant relied on case law which could not be found on any legal website – whether cases generated by artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT – yes, case law invented and...
ATO Decentralised Finance And Wrapping Crypto
On 9th November 2023 the ATO has released web guidance in relation to decentralised finance and wrapping crypto transactions. I presented the below example over a year ago at seminars for The Tax Institute, private clients, and in submissions to Treasury. The ATO has...
ChatGPT For Lawyers
ChatGPT For Lawyers “The first thing we do, let's [replace] all the lawyers” Another day, another prediction that Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), is going to replace lawyers. As a lawyer who has been building AI for nearly 10 years it seems proper comment. In...
Should We Be 50% Amish?
In my view, humans have the potential to always be superior to robots in contextual reasoning, lateral thinking, judgment, advocacy, and morality. This does not mean that every human is better than every robot in relation to each of those. Instead, humans as a...
Should Code be Property?
Computer code underpins the technology in our modern environment. It is often a form of property, being the copyright of the authors. But besides from that, could code become its own form of separate property?Digital AssetsIf you write a computer program, as the...
Can ChatGPT Replace Lawyers
ChatGPT is the talk of Twitter and the legal tech sphere. Everyone is posting the interesting conversations that they have had, followed shortly by predictions of how ChatGPT will replace this and that task. There are apparently hundreds of people in legal tech using...
Can Robots Be Moral?
Can Robots Be Moral?The morality of a robot, or lack thereof, is a classic sci-fi trope. Whether it is an unfeeling Hal 9000 exterminating the human crew that get in its way or a cute WALL-E learning good and how to help humanity reconnect with its roots, we are both...
Can Robots Be Effective Advocates?
Can Robots Be Effective Advocates?Could we one day have humanoid robots pleading arguments in courtrooms, appearing on TV to persuade people of the political views of a newly formed “Robot Political Party,” or standing in storefronts convincing people to buy a new rug...
Why 39% of Law Jobs WON’T Disappear; Legal AI Developer Explains What Will Happen Instead
Why 39% of Law Jobs WON’T Disappear; Legal AI Developer Explains What Will Happen InsteadThe Australian Lawyer reported yesterday that 39% of law jobs in Australia will be automated, and that 100,000 law jobs will be lost to automation. What terrible doom and gloom!...
Karate Strategy in Legal Negotiation: Part 2
Karate Strategy in Legal Negotiation: Part 2Never feintYou should never feint. Yes, people talk about throwing feints all the time, but a good fighter never really throws a feint. Feint is a technique that is not intended to hit. The difficulty with this is that your...
Karate Strategy in Legal Negotiation: Part 1
Karate Strategy in Legal Negotiation: Part 1I love fighting. Nothing brings you more in the moment than the threat of someone trying to punch you in the head. It’s one thing to punch and kick a bag. But the best fun comes with interacting with another human. To...
Why Law School is Backwards
Why Law School is BackwardsLaw students learn a set of core subjects, some electives, and then once they have finished their degree will do some practical legal training and be required to have some sort of experience in a firm before they are able to become admitted...
Stop Robot Slavery
Stop Robot SlaveryI saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said, “Stop Animal Slavery.” I thought of the cruel and inhumane conditions that my two golden retrievers are forced to endure (by their own accounts): never enough food, insufficient pats, and hard work each day...
What I Learned from Owning an Ediphone
What I Learned from Owning an EdiphoneAs much as I like new technology, I have a quaint interest in old technology. A few years ago, I began purchasing vintage office equipment. From antique shops and swap meets, I acquired typewriters and candlestick phones. But one...
Why Lawyers Should Wear Suits
Why Lawyers Should Wear SuitsA few years ago, the start-up culture began infusing into the legal profession. Trendy offices began appearing with bean bags, ping pong tables, and silly job descriptions like “Chief Happiness Wizard.” I do think that there are many...
Hiding In Plain Sight: Dumb Disclosure
Hiding In Plain Sight: Dumb DisclosureThere is an ever-increasing amount of “consumer protection” regulation that forces disclosure of an ever-increasing amount of information. Instead of achieving its stated goal, all that happens is we have endless pages of...
How To Get Your First Legal Job – A Practical Guide
How To Get Your First Legal Job – A Practical GuideI have delivered this advice a number of times to students and at Universities and each time I have had feedback that it was very helpful. It not intended to be cynical (or not wholly cynical) but helpful, and so...
How To Design Better COVID Rules
How to Design Better Covid RulesAt a recent wedding, the attendees picked up their glasses of champagne and began to stand to toast the new bride and groom. “Stop” shouted the COVID Marshalls supervising the event. Under the COVID rules, a person is not allowed to...
There Are No “Robot Lawyers” And There Never Will Be (Except In One Country)
There Are No “Robot Lawyers” And There Never Will Be (Except in One Country)It was a trend a few years back for every other legal tech company to declare that it had created the “world’s first robot lawyer.” I think there was more claims of first than Kim Jong-un at a...
To Support Innovation We Need To Accept Government Failure
To Support Innovation We Need To Accept Government FailureThe most insightful idea that I have heard on how best to support and encourage new companies to create innovative products is this: companies don’t need a grant or advice. They need a customer. Therefore, the...
Can Machines Have Ura And Omote Understanding?
Can Machines Have Ura And Omote Understanding?In Japan, there is twin concepts of Ura and Omote. Most commonly, it is used in a societal sense to describe the private or hidden aspect of a person (Ura) and their public persona (Omote). For a highly conformist and...
Why We Need Fewer “Experts”
Why We Need Fewer “Experts”An interesting view that I have seen appear across many differing topics in the past few years is that only experts should opine on any given area. This has been used across the political spectrum: only economists should opine on the...
Why the Partnership Model is Broken
Why The Partnership Model Is BrokenOnly one person I can think of from my graduating class of 2005 is a Partner at a law firm. Of course, there might be more that I haven’t kept in touch with, but it is an interesting anecdote. A number of them became Partners at a...
Why the ‘Vibe’ of the Constitution Won’t Help You.
Why the 'Vibe' of the Constitution Won't Help You.- Adrian CartlandThis week, Australia faces a rash of individuals fighting for the "freedoms" using internet lawyering. In our first article this week, Adrian covers why internet lawyering doesn't help.SummaryProbably...
Prediction: Sustaining, Disruptive and Revolutionary Innovation
Prediction: Sustaining, Disruptive and Revolutionary InnovationAs COVID forces disruption upon the world there is an opportunity for extensive positive change including in the law. Courts that have resisted online document submission and video conferencing have...
Prediction: Sustaining, Disruptive and Revolutionary Innovation
As COVID forces disruption upon the world there is an opportunity for extensive positive change including in the law. Courts that have resisted online document submission and video conferencing have adopted them virtually overnight. Firms that could not get away from printing everything on the file have suddenly adopted cloud storage and filing. A vast number of meetings that could have been emails have become, well, emails.
COVID, Rent, Sharing Losses and Systemic Risk
Our contracts and the law surrounding them do not account for systemic risk. I believe that the common law has done a good job of balancing risks between parties (or rather a not-terrible job: it is difficult to determine whether law is truly good, merely whether there could be worse). Parties are generally held to their obligations, and there are limited situation that they can get out of them such as misrepresentation, fraud, implied terms, unconscionability, duress, frustration and undue influence to name a few.
Yet Another End of Billable-hours Story
Last week I was reading Yet Another End of Billable-hour Story “YAE-BS” and decided the time is ripe for change in the legal industry: we need to see the end of YAE-BS.
The Real Reason Why 100 hour Lawyer Weeks Should End
Fair Work Australia has just ruled that law clerks must be paid overtime when they are working above full time. Some commentators have decried the end of a rite of passage and induction into a particular culture. Others have wondered if this will impact upon law graduate’s job opportunities. And others have celebrated the end to overwork and underpay.
Salsa and Robots: Subtlety in Human Interaction
I have been enjoying salsa (and other Latin dancing) for a number of years and one of the things that has fascinated me is the subtlety and connection in human interaction that dancers have.
R&D Funding Tax Claims Australia : 10 Thoughts From A Lawyer & Technologist
Given R&D is trending in Govt reviews, here are my ten thoughts on the R&D tax incentive, by a tax lawyer (Cartland Law) and AI developer (Ailira) who claims R&D himself
Why running a Tech Startup is like fighting MMA
Earlier this year I participated in my first MMA fight. I have been karate training for 25 years (3rd Degree Black Belt Goju Ryu) and have taken part in other martial arts (BJJ, wrestling) but this was, without a doubt, the hardest thing that I have done so far. I have also been running a tech company that builds legal artificial intelligence (Ailira) for the last 4 years, alongside my law firm, and I was struck (pun intended) by a number of similarities in the experience.
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