AI and the Tribunal Secretary
by Andrew Flake
In Kashuo Ishiguru's novel "Klara and the Sun," the eponymous character is an AF, or artificial friend, a sophisticated, artificially-intelligent robot designed to be a companion for human children. Klara is kind, surprisingly observant and intuitive, and even heroic in the ways she communicates...
Claude is Not Your Lawyer: Southern District of New York Issues Opinion on Attorney-Client Privilege and Client-Generated AI Outputs
By Andrew Flake
Under what circumstances will a party's case-related communications with an AI platform be attorney-client privileged or protected as work product? In United States v. Heppner, issued February 17, 2026, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York considered this question – so...
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in Arbitration: Technology and First Principles
by Andrew Flake
Last week I attended an excellent conference, a gathering of AAA-IDCR arbitrators from across the country, and much of our discussion was AI-focused. And for good reason: the integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into arbitration, by both arbitrators and advocates, represents more...
Generative AI in Mediation: Ethical Considerations
by Andrew Flake
The pace of development of GenAI, powered by vast amounts of energy and chips specially configured to support the huge amounts of data they analyze, has been astounding. These technologies are already reshaping the way dispute resolution professionals approach dispute resolution, offering new potential...
Generative AI and the Promise of Wider Online Dispute Resolution
by Andrew Flake
Since I took a first look ChatGPT in November 2022, the world of generative AI, in the area of litigation and ADR as elsewhere, has been on a remarkable journey. Recognizing the transformative nature of...
When Tech Meets Tact: Envisioning the Mediation of the Future
by Andrew Flake
It was New Year's Day last year when I first wrote about ChatGPT and the advent of widely-available AI. Since then, even for a time when intertwined technology and new advances are a commonplace, things have...
The View from Overhead: Garage Doors, Trademark, and Crafting Our Settlements, Part I
by Andrew Flake
What's in a name? In the world of garage doors, apparently quite a bit. For this week's blog, we examine a protracted piece of litigation between two national garage-door companies that itself spawned further litigation. The case is interesting...
Chat GPT and Litigation Technology, Reprised
by Andrew Flake
When I considered ChatGPT in last week's post, musing about how disruptive this next generation of AI might be for the world of litigation and dispute resolution, I may have understated the...
2023: The Arrival of Hands-On AI
by Andrew Flake
You may have read that, at the close of the year, artificial intelligence (AI) hit the mainstream. Open AI released a tool, ChatGPT, with some remarkable capabilities. Among other things, it can generate poetry, essays,...
Early Dispute Resolution (EDR): A Recipe for Success in Commercial Mediation
by Andrew Flake
When it comes to our favorite dishes, while we may not ourselves be chefs, most of us can at least name the key ingredients. A great sirloin is cut just so, perhaps seasoned with salt and pepper...