I write this editorial the day after the UK and EU agreed the 'Windsor Framework' – amending the previous deal done to give effect to Brexit, in the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland. Whatever one's personal views on the pros and cons of Brexit, one must hope that this new deal allows peace and prosperity to prevail.
Meanwhile, the legal world, and our clients, have all been talking about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that might (or, depending on your view and experience, might not) change the world. I have played around with it, sometimes seriously, often less so, just to see what it generates. I have asked it to tell me about, er, me (which it got almost totally wrong!), to write a GDPR-compliant privacy notice for a made-up online retailer and to explain some complex point of English contract law. Will ChatGPT result in fewer lawyers doing less lawyering? Or, might it, like the introduction of the PC, and emails, and the web, somehow result in even more lawyers doing even more law? My view: it's clever, but not there yet. As a group, lawyers are pretty good at adapting to, and adopting, new technology – law firms and lawyers might not always sound like the engines of innovation, but we can be, and the legal tech boom in the last few years has certainly demonstrated our interest in meeting these new technologies head on.
And in the real world, I remain inspired and humbled by the lawyers I know from Ukraine, who, despite all the odds, are managing to carry on doing law, advising clients, sending out briefings – from all around the world.
I hope you take some inspiration from the short pieces we have selected here to share with you.