Lawyers like you need it, so I created it.

Issue 1

Welcome to Good Journey Consulting’s newsletter, which will arrive in your inbox most Fridays. I’m Jennifer, founder of Good Journey Consulting. I’m a former lawyer, and now I help other lawyers make the most of their time.

In the short term the content of this newsletter will be heavily focused on AI and the legal industry. Over time I also plan to write about how to start a law firm and other topics related to how lawyers can make the best use of their time.

Today I’m going to tell you why I created A Lawyer’s Practical Guide to AI.

I practiced law for over 12 years before founding Good Journey Consulting. I understand the many competing demands on your time as a lawyer, including your clients and cases, leadership responsibilities within your organization, marketing and networking, continuing education, pro bono, and mentoring. And you balance all those responsibilities and more with your personal life.

Now all lawyers (whether they’ve realized it yet or not) have a critical new demand on their time. Lawyers need to develop AI competency. And what that means is you need to learn enough about AI that you can continue to meet your professional responsibility obligations. Lawyers are making headlines for embarrassing AI-related misconduct allegations because they lack adequate awareness of the many issues and pitfalls involving AI and the legal industry.

Additionally, lawyers are facing mounting pressure to use AI. AI is infiltrating the technology lawyers already use, and a startling number of new AI tools developed specifically for lawyers have hit the marketplace. Some lawyers have already figured out how to leverage AI as a competitive advantage in their practices. But before you can responsibly use AI, you need to develop your AI competency. Once you understand the AI issues that matter to lawyers, you can make an informed decision about whether it currently makes sense to use AI in your practice.

I decided to create A Lawyer’s Practical Guide to AI when I realized that all lawyers needed to develop competency in AI, and most lawyers simply did not have enough time to devote to figuring it out for themselves. As hard as you try to do it all and be excellent at everything you do, there are only so many hours in the day. If you are a lawyer who cares about getting things right and doesn’t know how you will find the time to do the necessary AI research to get up to speed, this guide is for you.

What the Guide Can Do for You

A Lawyer’s Practical Guide to AI can help you get up to speed on AI more quickly and reduce your risk of becoming an AI cautionary tale. You’ll still need to apply the information in the guide to your specific jurisdiction and practice, but the guide can save you countless hours of research and help you focus on the AI issues most likely to matter to lawyers.

If you are ready to explore using AI in your practice, or you've started using AI and don't know if you're getting the most out of it, the guide can help you too. The guide includes an actionable step-by-step process you can use to evaluate and implement AI tools. The guide also includes a directory of over 150 AI tools developed specifically for the legal industry, and organizes the tools by capability, practice type, and integrations with other tools, so that you can quickly focus on the tools most likely to be useful in your practice.

Thanks for being here.

Jennifer Ballard
Good Journey Consulting

P.S. You may be wondering if the guide is available as a CLE. We are exploring whether we can make that possible. Even without CLE credit, the guide offers jam-packed value, and you get to work through the guide on your own schedule. When you purchase the guide, you get access to:

• An overview chapter that introduces you to generative AI and the AI-related issues and risks lawyers are grappling with, 
• A glossary of the AI terms you need to know,
• AI-related professional responsibility considerations and AI-related alleged lawyer misconduct cases,
• Resources for identifying and tracking government actions on AI,
• Summaries of over 50 newsworthy AI court cases,
• An actionable step-by-step process to evaluate whether there are any AI tools that meet your needs, and if so, how to implement them,
• A directory of 150+ AI tools developed specifically for lawyers, organized by capability, practice type, and integrations with other tools, so that you can quickly focus on the tools most likely to be useful in your practice, and
• Periodic updates to the guide to incorporate AI developments and new AI tools for lawyers.

You can purchase the guide here.